Characteristics of Arts and Crafts Furniture

A&C style can range from simplistic to ornate and is hard to clarify by appearance alone. Instead it is better defined by philosophy of form, materials and craftsmanship. Drawing from a great resource on the subject Arts and Crafts Furniture, from Classic to Contemporary by Rodel and Binzen I have created the following list of the styles key characteristics starting with form. To help those of us that might be building table I used tables for my examples shown in order of mention below:

The Forms of Arts and Crafts Furniture

• Straightforward form
• Functional with somewhat severe
• Typically: linear motif with flat planes but can range from chunky to rectilinear to It can ornate and highly refined

Examples:

• The heavy simplistic Workaday style of Morris & Company (image from SD Woodworking)

• The lighter rectilinear style of California’s Greene and Greene (image from Fine Woodworking.com)

• The more refined State style designed by George Washington Jack for Morris & Company (image from Arts and Crafts Furniture, from Classic to Contemporary by Rodel and Binzen)
  

• The very ornate style of William Price Rose Valley furniture which even includes Gothic like three-dimensional carvings (image from Arts and Crafts Furniture, from Classic to Contemporary by Rodel and Binzen)

Note:
Morris & Company had two lines, Workaday and State furniture. The workaday furniture was also called cottage style, as it was more simplistic and straightforward as shown in the "chunky" example above. State furniture was more elaborate and challenging in their design, but both held to Morris’ ideal of the craftsman as shown in the example designed by George Washington Jack above.