I Want That Biedermeier Look!
What you want: A design created out of a desire for an affordable and comfortable style that marries well with the middle-class family life and sensibilities.
Colors: Think bright and light! Create a base of tawny browns with wood furniture and floors next to walls and drapery in shades of light green, whites and grays. Complement these colors with carefully placed splashes of slate blue, pink, bright yellow, lilac, vibrant red, lapis blue and green.
The Biedermeier style allows you to pick from rainbow of color to accent your look.
Floor: Wood is the definitive Biedermeier flooring of choice, although upper class homes of the time also had marble or tile floors. Whatever your material, keep it fresh with geometric patterns like diamonds. Accent your flooring near chairs and tables with area rugs decorated with floral patterns.
Lighting: Like many traditional styles, candelabras were in vogue at Biedermeier's peak. If you want your lighting to translate along these lines, pick candelabra fixtures that exhibit fluted columns and which are finished in silver, bronze, iron or wood with veneer. White, pleated shades keep within Biedermeier's preferred color scheme and keep things light and blend well with a traditional scheme. No dark formality, here! For sconces, look for wooden bases with floral detail, and keep chandeliers similarly styled. Crystal chandeliers work too, especially if you're emulating the upper class spin on the Biedermeier look.
Furniture: Biedermeier furniture gave the overwrought Empire style the boot and exhibits a more practical, scaled-down approach to traditional furniture. Emphasis is on structure and craftsmanship rather than overly elaborate touches. Motifs like lions, flowers, swans, griffins and sphinxes are usually inlaid or stenciled onto furniture and keep the neoclassical basis of Biedermeier's look. Because Biedermeier developed around the ideology of the middle-class family, a lot of the furnishings reflect the pastimes and activities of a typical nuclear unit. Pianos are present for entertaining friends and family, secretary desks for writing letters and attending to business, and tables and chairs that breed an environment of interaction.
Accents: Unlike contemporary styles that emphasize minimal accessories, Biedermeier actually does well with a busier appearance, so designers who love little accents will enjoy decorating their rooms. Let's begin with your walls—leave walls white and bare or use striped or floral wallpaper with small designs against a pale, neutral background. Wall paneling like running a dado at chair-back level is common and usually left white. To finish decorating your wall, hang smaller family portraits or paintings of the sea, ships and town scenes.
An environmentally friendly fabric, cotton, is the textile of choice in Biedermeier décor. Curtains are tied against the wall and tassels add extra elegance along the top. If you feel like being bold, use contrasting solid colors in your fabrics and let them accentuate one another throughout the room.
Add polish to your room with German or Bohemian glass, and porcelain you have on hand. Don't shy away from clear colored glasses (blue, black and green are popular in Biedermeier homes), as they are versatile and can inject color in places lacking zip. And sure, you could just use your trusty digital clock, but go the distance and incorporate a wall clock or portal clock to your design.
Biedermeier wall clock.
