What is Shaker furniture style?
Shaker furniture is a distinctive style of furniture developed by the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, commonly known as Shakers, a religious sect that had guiding principles of simplicity, utility and honesty. Their beliefs were reflected in the well-made furniture of minimalist designs.
How do I know if my furniture is Shaker?
Shaker furniture can be identified by its round wooden knobs, tapered legs and subtle curves. These features give shaker furniture its traditional, gentle look. While maple wood also seemed to be the wood of choice for most shaker pieces, many modern versions include pine, maple, cherry or other American woods.
What is the difference between Shaker and craftsman?
Shaker is traditionally made of maple, and generally a maple door is identified as a Shaker style. Craftsman or Mission doors are traditionally of of quartersawn oak. But there are also pine, elm, fir, hickory and painted doors in both Shaker and Craftsman kitchens.
What is Shaker style decorating?
Authentic Shaker-style furniture is the definition of simplicity, streamlined to the point of austerity, devoid of flourish or decoration, and built to last. Shaker-style wood chairs were originally created to be lightweight enough to hang on pegs on the walls.
Is Shaker furniture out of style?
The aesthetic has had multiple revivals over the years, and Shaker staples such as ladder-back rocking chairs, oval wooden boxes and rustic kitchens have never gone entirely out of fashion. But recently there has been a particular frenzy of activity around the Shakers.
What is the difference between Shaker furniture and arts and crafts furniture?
Defining Characteristics The first fundamental difference between Shaker- and Mission-style furniture is the wood. Shakers used local American woods such as pine, maple and cherry to craft their furniture, but for most Shaker furniture, maple was the wood of choice.
Are Shakers and Amish the same?
The Shakers and the Amish are both part of the non-conformist Protestant tradition – whose ancestors fled Europe for the Americas the 17th and 18th centuries. Though the Shakers lived in mixed communities, where women had equal status to men, they also practiced universal life-long celibacy.
What does a Shaker style home look like?
Shaker residences, called “dwelling houses,” borrowed their rectangular box design from federalist and Greek Revival architecture, but removed all traces of ornamentation—no columns, no wraparound porches, and no fancy millwork. Every element of Shaker construction was functional.
Is Shaker furniture popular?
Shaker furniture is our top-selling style and customers are customizing it in their choice of cherry, walnut, maple and oak woods. Sometimes customers will choose two contrasting wood colors like cherry and walnut or maple and walnut to trick it out– if there could be such a thing for shaker style furniture.