The Modern style is a style of the late 19th — early 20th century that created fanciful, emphatically individualized interiors. The Modern style introduced fundamentally new decorative elements into interior design. Modern stood at the dawn of the new era of the twentieth century, and therefore simply had to be magnificent and unique. The founders of this interior style brought into it all the best achievements of the past. The Modern interior style collected the most exquisite and refined tendencies of its time.
The Modern style is called decadent and mannered. Forgetting that this interior style arose thanks to the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. In its time the Modern style was considered extremely progressive and radical. The Modern style reinterpreted and stylized the features of the art of different epochs; Modern worked out its own artistic devices based on the principles of asymmetry, ornamentality and decorativeness.
It was called Modern in Russia and Great Britain, while in Belgium and France this was the style "art nouveau", "liberty" — in Italy, "Jugendstil" — in Germany, and in the USA — the "Tiffany style". The main idea of Modern was the idea of creating beauty, of which there is so little in the surrounding world, and its goal was the transformation of life by aesthetic means, a kind of "healing of life with beauty".
The manifesto of the Modernists — to unite professional artistic creation and the production of household goods — caused a revolution in the applied arts and formed a new type of universal artist, acting as architect, decorator, painter and graphic artist alike.
A distinguishing feature of Eastern European Modern is plastic expressiveness, grace. Patterned ceramic cladding and wrought bent iron with plant-like interlacing are used in the decor of façades and interiors. Stained glass is widely used, most often with an abstract plastic pattern of complex colour tones and shades that do not contrast but complement each other. Stained glass is also used in interiors as interroom partitions, in door openings; lamp shades are also made in the stained-glass technique.
A house in the Modern style is a wondrous whirl: curved, plastic forms of patterns on the parquet, spiral staircases with wrought railings and a complex interlacing of "climbing plants" in metal. The walls are covered with fabric with a plant pattern, interroom partitions in the form of windows with stained glass, a stucco plafond in the centre of the ceiling, parquet of noble wood laid in patterns. Oval windows are draped with fabric matching the walls, a lambrequin of complex shape repeats the pattern on the fabric. Decorative details of carved oak adorn wall luminaires with matte shades; the carved doors, with the same motif, have inserts of glass and bronze. Mirrors in wooden frames of complex, curved shape hang on the walls. The furniture is solid and respectable, made of solid wood with noble dark-bronze decor. In the dining room there is a round table and comfortable armchairs with bent backs, and a special glass-processing technology gives the windows the effect of shimmering ice, which also matches the "mysterious" spirit of Modern. The walls are finished with wooden panels, the luminaires create a cosy diffused light. In the living room — a crystal chandelier with a multitude of "candles", armchairs with backs in the form of seashell halves, soft sofas upholstered in striped silk with wooden armrests and bent carved legs, sculptures of marble and bronze — Modern-style interiors resemble jewel boxes made with impeccable taste and a sense of measure by a remarkable master.
Unlike eclecticism, which formally borrowed individual details of national and historical styles, the Modern style organically absorbed the features of the art of various styles and epochs through stylization, drawing ideas of integrity and of the interconnectedness of all parts of the artistic image from examples of the architecture of the past, as well as from nature. The main expressive means in the art of the Modern style was the ornament of characteristic curvilinear outlines, often permeated with an expressive rhythm and subordinating the compositional structure of the work of art.
In interiors, elegant linear weavings and mobile plant patterns are scattered over the floor, walls, furniture, stairs and ceiling. The patterns concentrate at their junctions, unite the architectural planes and activate the interior space. The Modern style is characterized by the interpenetration of easel and decorative-applied forms. Paintings and sculptures lose their independent character, becoming part of the overall ensemble of the Modern-style interior. In painting, panels gain predominant importance, and in sculpture — reliefs.
The idea of the synthesis of the arts permeates the Modern style entirely. Architecture was seen as the basis of the synthesis, uniting all other kinds of art — from painting to models of clothing and interior decor. The Modern style displayed the organic fusion of constructive and decorative elements. The most integral examples of the unification of the arts are given by mansions and public buildings of the Modern era. As a rule, they are built as if from the inside out. The internal space determines the external appearance of the building and vice versa. The façades of Modern-style houses are asymmetrical and resembled formations akin to organisms, reminiscent at once of natural forms and of the result of a sculptor's free creativity. The interiors of these houses were exceptionally expressive, with flowing space, curved cornice outlines, rounding door and window openings, and rich decor of carved wood, metal and coloured glass.
The decorative decoration of Modern-style interiors can reach incredible sophistication. Great importance is attached to the expressiveness of flowing rhythms, the colour and textures of claddings, wrought iron, window and door stained glass. Modern stained glass is no less famous than the stained glass of Gothic cathedrals. The main theme of the Gothic stained glass was religion, the worship of God; in the era of Modern, inspiration was drawn from nature. Especially interesting can be the decoration of window openings with unique patterns of wooden muntins.
The Modern interior style is characterized by a holistic approach to the decoration of individual rooms in an apartment or house. Besides the rich ornamented decor and the ability to embody an idea in a free composition of space, the new combinations of volumes and the dynamics of the internal layout of premises are interesting. Thus, the wall is no longer a structural and static element but a plastic sculptural form that is in itself an art object.
Modern-style ceilings amaze with the peculiarity of their decoration and beauty. One can choose thin lines, beams of dark wood framing white smooth coffers, light stucco, a smooth painted ceiling with an exquisite chandelier in the centre of the room. For a Modern-style ceiling, stained glass with a picturesque pattern is also often used. A stained-glass window consists of pieces of glass of all kinds of shapes, textures and colours joined together, depending on the production technology. Stained glass can also be used to decorate windows in the Modern style. The most interesting thing happens when a ray of sunlight hits a stained-glass window made of the highest quality glass — the room fills with the most beautiful colours, and a play of light and all kinds of colour shades begins, which continues throughout the daylight hours. Every piece of glass in the stained glass mixes in its unique colour, after which the whole picture changes; one can enjoy this beauty from morning until evening, until the sun sets below the horizon.
The shape of Modern-style luminaires resembles plants, and their shades imitate opening buds or shoots. Luminaires, chandeliers and sconces in the Modern style harmoniously combine modern material and intricate form.
Fireplaces in the Modern style are winding lines and plant decor on the fireplace cladding; in interior design, fireplaces often occupy the entire premises from wall to wall.
The upper part of the walls can be covered with silk or painted, while a ceramic or oak socle is mounted on the lower part. The same plant ornament of the Modern style is applied to the walls. The walls seem to grow upward from the floor to the ceiling, but the main thing when creating a Modern-style interior is not to overload them with complex ornaments.
For the Modern-style floor, both classic techniques are used — for example, parquet laid in a herringbone or squares — and patterned parquet of inlaid design, whose pattern repeats the curve of a sea wave or the interlacing of flower stems.
When choosing ceramics or stone for the bathroom, a geometric ornament, including the Greek meander, is used as a border to single-colour tiles, but drawn in a manner characteristic only of the Modern style, in the form of a spiral round or square curl.
In the striving to create cosiness and to give individuality, originality and uniqueness, items of interior made by artistic forging will help you in the Modern style. These can be stair railings, furniture elements, fireplace grilles or grilles on the windows of the house. As in other interior elements, the Modern style dictates the presence of the plant theme in the pattern of forged products — that is, smooth, viscous lines, bends and breaks imitating the stems or leaves of plants. Daffodils and lilies bloom on the grilles and railings. The Modern style taught us to decorate interiors with living and not only flowers: now they are not only in vases but also on stained glass, stucco and forging. Metal in the interior gives a stunning result. It is precisely this material that makes it possible to create very strong structures with an outward weightlessness, transparency and intricacy inherent in Modern.
An important element in decorating an interior is its colour scheme. The Modern style has its own special colour palette. Pattern, material texture and colour are those decorative elements that play a decisive role in the decoration of a Modern-style interior. The light-green gamut is very popular, with colours separated into halftones. Colours such as dragonfly colour, grasshopper colour or the colour of the sea are used, as well as lilac shades. For example, the colour of the Parma violet or the colour of heliotrope is used. Pearl-grey tones and the colours of a faded rose are also used. Late Modern is characterized by autumn paints — gold, ochre or umber. The colours of Modern seem to be dusted with ash, which gives the interior an inimitable chic.
We have long ceased to be surprised by the various methods of processing wood for the production of furniture in the Modern style. Masters of their craft work great wonders from this natural material. Case furniture of Modern-style interiors of various purposes — wardrobes, chests of drawers, wall units — can be rectangular, but with obligatory aesthetic excesses. Matte glazing and exquisite hardware characterize the furniture of this interior style. In furniture design, the decorativeness of the Modern style is achieved by the fancifulness of the furniture lines rather than by ornamentation of carving and inlay. Wallpapers, draperies and upholstery fabrics with stylized images of flowers, reeds and swans make the interior sensual and emotionally rich.
For all its simplicity, the Modern style is almost the only interior design style that tolerates no competition and does not combine with other interior styles. Interior objects for Modern are very hard to find, which is why all interior and decor elements have to be custom-made. Contemporary Modern is not so extravagant, but still, if you decide to build a house in this style, it will be better if you subject the interiors of the house to the same idea as well.
