Living rooms in the Baroque style: features, design tips, examples
Baroque is a style in interior design that originated in Italy in the 17th century. Even if you are not familiar with interior design, you probably already understand what this style is. After all, he is found in famous paintings, films, museums. Baroque exactly personifies the time in which it appeared. This era was characterized by a special chic, scope and solemnity, and sometimes even pretentiousness. Literally "baroque" - "vicious, bizarre."
Style features
Let's consider the main distinctive features of the Baroque style.
- Luxury. The rooms are distinguished by their high cost, smoothness and beauty of lines, and certainly high-quality finishing. Entering the beautiful rooms, you seem to find yourself in another dimension, on the verge of reality and fantasy. It's like becoming the hero of a fairy tale or a member of a family of dukes or kings.
- Unity of composition. Each element of the furnishings is ideally matched, everything is thought out to the smallest detail. This is extremely important, because if you do not follow this rule, there is a risk of turning an exquisite style into a gaudy set of expensive items. You need to be careful, take your time and think over every detail. All elements must complement each other. Then it will turn out to achieve a truly royal effect.
- Expensive natural materials. Everything should be luxurious - not only furniture, but also decoration. To decorate a room in a similar style, use natural wood, preferably rare species. And also natural stone, gilding, sparkling crystal of the highest quality.
- Refined colors. No pastels, faded and expressionless shades. Everything is bright and rich, but at the same time we are not talking about flashy raspberry or acid green.All colors are close to natural: deep emerald, dark blue, luxurious burgundy and its shades. Of the light tones, mainly white and yellow are present.
And one of the main colors, without which the baroque is simply unthinkable, are gold and silver.
Baroque living room design
Since to create such an original and rather complex interior, it is necessary to take into account many nuances, we will analyze in more detail the features of the decoration and furnishings.
Ceiling
If in typical modern interiors it is not customary to pay much attention to the ceiling, and it is preferable to leave it simply light and neat, then in the Baroque style this definitely cannot be allowed. Here, even the classic design of the ceiling will require a special approach. In the traditional version of the decoration, stucco molding is certainly present. It can be made of plaster, polyurethane or other modern materials.
The main thing is that the stucco molding looks like in the old days.
However, do not assume that the ceiling must be white. You can use different shades or even decorate the surface with frescoes by artists of the 17th or 18th century - the era of the birth and prosperity of the Baroque. This solution will look amazing.
It is best to place a large, spectacular chandelier in the middle of the ceiling. Ideal if it is made of sparkling crystal and complemented by many details. It is important to correctly select the size of the chandelier in accordance with the dimensions of the living room. Do not install too massive a chandelier in a small space - this will create an imbalance.
Remember that it is important to be especially careful with such interior elements and always monitor the overall harmony.
At the same time, there should not be a small chandelier in a very spacious room. It is better to use a large one, complementing her sconce in the same style to provide comfortable lighting.
But what you definitely can't do is use modern spotlights and LED strips. Forget about trendy inventions for truly beautiful and authentic designs.
Walls
Wall decoration, as well as ceiling decoration, does not have to be boring and simple. Most often, walls in the Baroque style are decorated with gilded stucco. This is due to the fact that in past centuries, homeowners in this way demonstrated their status, solvency and respectable position in society. If you want variety, you can add color. For example, shades of brown, pink, gray and white look great. Which can always be supplemented with silver or gilding.
If you wish to cover the walls with wallpaper, choose only high quality materials. It is best if the wallpaper is fabric - made of linen, cotton or even silk. You can use embossed expensive wallpaper. If fabric wallpaper is not on your budget, you can cover only part of the walls with it, thereby creating an interesting accent.
You can also decorate the walls with frescoes or borders.
Floor
A floor laid out with mosaics, stone or marble looks harmonious and beautiful. Ideally, all materials are natural. However, now there are many alternative options on the market that are in no way inferior to natural ones. If there is a drawing on the floor, great. If not, you can decorate it with luxurious Persian carpets. It will be not only beautiful, but also warm.
Furniture
Put the Ikea directories aside. The Baroque style presupposes massive, pretentious, obscenely expensive furniture, decorated with gilding and intricate delicate carvings. The furniture itself is heavy, the legs and handles are smooth. Most often, walnut, oak, chestnut and other expensive types of wood are used for Baroque furniture. The upholstery can be made of velvet, embossed leather, tapestry.
Often, interior items are decorated with semi-precious stones, ivory handles.
Decor
To make the interior truly complete, it is necessary to complement it with the appropriate decorative elements. It can be massive vases, large figurines and candlesticks, numerous mirrors in luxurious frames, original paintings and sculptures, antique dishes.
For the Baroque style, see the video.