Art Deco Bedroom
For the aspiring couple furnishing a home between the World Wars, the Bedroom was the third room that required a coherent and stylish suite of furniture – the ubiquitous Bedroom suite. Usually this comprised Bed with Headboard, Dressing table & two wardrobes – large for the ‘lady’, smaller and often with drawers for the ‘gentleman’. The design and finish, whether veneered or solid wood, was closely related to that of the dining suite offering an integrated look to the home never attempted before.
With today’s more eclectic approach and a focus on individual standout pieces, the market has adapted so that individual items can be offered to suit the client’s style and needs. An Art Deco Dressing Table, for instance, represents a perfect opportunity to select from some of the outstandingly innovative designs from the late 1920s and 1930s, some featuring column lights between the mirrors by firms like Gomme and retailed by Rowley Gallery in the West End. An asymmetrical form was popular and this can be found in very affordable pieces produced by makers such as Chippendale’s Workshops and retailed by firms like Bowmans of Camden Town, Bird Iles of Baker Street and Caplans of Commercial Road. Often the mirror was full length oval or rectangular with a suspended or cantilevered glass surface and an integral, or at least matching, dressing stool. Betty Joel’s sweeping curved design is rare and highly sought after. Epstein offered unique U-base Dressing Tables in exotic maple and other veneers.
Essential items such as bedside tables or cabinets, are now available singly or in pairs or integrated with an opulently veneered yet geometrically modern headboard. Storage requirements in the bedroom are taken care of by the imaginative variety of Wardrobes, Chest of Drawers – often with a versatile cupboard above (called a ‘Tallboy’), and Compactums which ingeniously combined in a single piece of furniture dressing mirror, drawers, cupboard, and hanging space, and sometimes a great deal more.