An empire-style living room can be decorated both in a spacious room with high ceilings and in a small room designed for receiving guests. The style, which came from the imperial French court, requires an abundance of gilding and bronze, tapestries and silk. The Empire living room is designed to amaze visitors with the luxury and grandeur of the finishing elements. The room must contain arches, pilasters and bas-reliefs.
Empire style is created by details. If they are chosen correctly, then the living room will become a place where it will be pleasant to bring guests.
What furniture is right for this style
In a small room, it is important to observe the measure so as not to overload a cramped room.
Giving additional volume to the living room, the interior uses light colors in the decoration of the walls, ceiling and floor. Large mirrors in luxurious gold-plated frames help to expand the space.
The framing of mirrors and carved pieces of furniture should have the same motives so that nothing falls out of the general style.
Important! To create a style in a small room, attention is paid to wall decoration, decorating the room with a minimum amount of furniture, in which there are handmade elements.
The Empire style living room should be furnished with expensive furnishings. It may contain a set of upholstered furniture with legs in the form of antique pylons, a table, trellis and a sideboard.
In the guest room there is always comfortable upholstered furniture, semi-soft chairs, couches with graceful shapes. The backs of the sofa and armchairs should have smooth outlines. Soft seats are covered with durable fabric made from natural materials or their high-quality imitations. It can be leather or its substitute, tapestry fabric, velvet. For upholstery, shades of yellow, wine, brown, blue and green with a gold pattern are usually selected.
Armrests and legs of all furniture are often made as a single unit. They are carved by wood craftsmen in the form of an animal that holds a tabletop or a seat on its body. The armrests of the soft chair in this case imitate the head, and the legs are the back of the animal.
If the details are separated, then the armrest of the Empire-style furniture will bizarrely bend in the form of a cornucopia, and the gilded legs will resemble huge cat paws.
Wood craftsmen can use floral motifs in the manufacture of wooden furniture frames, painting them with gold paint.
Cabinet furniture looks massive and low. She has simple straight lines and sharp corners. Side surfaces are often decorated with semi-columns and pilasters.
A low wooden table is installed near the upholstered furniture, in which there are elements that repeat the decorative trim of the sofa and armchairs. A few items can create a style base in a small living room.
The spacious room is divided into several zones, using pedestals or gypsum columns for this, furnishing each site with special luxury. Such living rooms are designed in private houses, during the construction of which such a room was planned.
If the room has high ceilings and there is a lot of space, you can install high round tables on a leg resembling a tulip inflorescence, furnishing it with low semi-soft chairs of the original shape.
Important! For storing small details of the style, it is recommended to install open shelves, which are needed to create a complete style.
The interior is complemented by a bookcase and a wardrobe with a mirror.
Empire style furniture is varied, but it should be united by the same elements. Then everything will look expensive and aesthetically pleasing. When placing objects, you need to make sure that in one area they are ideally suited in color, shape and size.
Style details
For lighting, they purchase a luxurious crystal chandelier with many bulbs. Overhead lighting is complemented by side lamps in the form of a sconce. When receiving guests, artificial light should illuminate the entire room so that visitors can enjoy exquisite luxury.
In a room decorated in the Empire style, antiques such as grandfather clocks, military items, busts, sculptures, vases look good.
If there is a sideboard in the room, then it should contain dishes made of real porcelain. Antique sets with a beautiful pattern and gold edging create the right impression for guests.
On a note! Window and doorways should be decorated with high and wide arches.
Voluminous satin curtains with drapery are hung on the windows, decorating them with bronze hooks, voluminous bows, gilded tassels. Golden drawing, made on heavy expensive curtains of blue or green color, emphasizes the social status of the owner of the house. The color of the drunk cherry on the curtains will look great against the beige wall decoration. Light blue color harmoniously combines with golden decor elements. The color of the textiles must match the color scheme with the furniture upholstery.
Floor vases made in the form of antique amphoras with drawings telling about the life of the ancient Greeks and Romans can become a decoration of the room. Figures of mythological gods and heroes are placed on the shelves.
Pictures are hung on the walls. These must be either original works, or high-quality copies written by the artist to order.
Any detail in a room intended for receiving guests must be expensive, handmade and impeccably executed by a master.
Suitable materials for finishing
In Empire living rooms, they often create a contrasting combination of brown and white. You can use purple and white as the main color, which only an absolutely confident person can afford. This combination is used to decorate royal guest rooms.
For the decoration of the room, woodcarving, bronze onlays, stucco molding, inlays of mother of pearl and silver are used, which are placed on arches, walls and ceilings.
Making room decoration cheaper, often skillful imitations of these details are used.
The walls are embossed, decorating them with fake frames, panels made of natural wood, niches that are created using drywall. All methods are aimed at creating an original interior in the Empire style.
On a note! The walls are either painted in neutral tones or covered with silk-screened wallpaper.
You can use panels covered with expensive fabrics with noble patterns used in the royal houses of England and France. With their help, a recreation or entertainment area is distinguished. Zoning can be done using paint of the same tone, but applying a gilded pattern over it.
The ceilings are painted in light colors and decorated with carved rosettes. A golden border is glued around the perimeter. He must have a drawing that imitates stucco molding.
The floor is decorated with inlaid parquet. Marble tiles with a discreet symmetrical pattern are ideal for this style, but they create the feeling of a state place. To soften it, carpet is laid to create comfort in the recreation area. The choice of carpet will depend on what pattern the floor has. A short-haired rug with a geometric pattern works well for plain parquet. For floors tiled with patterned marble chips, you can choose a pastel color with a fluffy pile.
An empire-style living room always has a fireplace or an imitation of it. It is faced with marble, and columns or pilasters are used for decoration.
When equipping an Empire living room, you need to strive to create a symmetrical interior. Only then will the reception area become attractive and look like a perfect and fully completed work of art.
