By Marilyn Casto

	This story illustration from a 1906 Harper's exudes the sense of cozy domesticity that Colonial Revival was supposed to create. Illustration Courtesy of the Collection of Marilyn Casto

Of the many decorative styles that have come and gone since the middle of the 19th century, none has been more enduring than Colonial Revival. A stroll through furniture stores or suburban residences or a glance at the magazine rack instantly reveals the continued appeal of colonial design. Popular though it is, the revival has seldom been noted as an accurate representation of colonial interiors.

The Colonial Revival style wove together threads of nostalgia, concern for good taste, patriotism, design reform, and some less noble or pure influences, such as a fear of new ideas and traditions brought by immigrants. Appealing to many social and economic classes, it appeared in both grand and modest houses. Colonial Revival sold—and still sells—well. Homeowners and designers sought to create a comfortable, well-furnished appearance representative of the way they wanted to believe their ancestors had lived. Although the Colonial Revival did not reach peak popuarity until much later, its origins date to the 1840s. In 1841 Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote Grandfather's Chair, a book in which a chair bears witness to events that happened around it. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1845 poem "The Old Clock on the Stairs" inspired an 1868 painting of the same name by Edward Lamson Henry, and together they perpetuated a furniture placement stereotype.

The 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia stimulated a passion for the past, called by some the "Colonial Craze." Sanitary Fairs and other 19th-century exhibitions featured New England kitchens in which their creators produced a distinct antiquarian air by gathering odds and ends that we still strongly associate with Colonial Revival. One was a huge fireplace, often surrounded by a miscellaneous assortment of kitchen utensils and herbs dangling from the ceiling. Guns and powder horns frequently adorned the area above the fireplace, despite the fact that any colonist hanging a powder horn above fire was courting trouble. Well into the 20th century, fireplaces retained their romantic Victorian association—"hearth" being practically synonymous with "home"—combining somewhat anachronistically with images of colonial ancestors huddled around the warmth of the flames.

Collectors went forth to seek antiques. Just as today, not everyone bought into the fad. L. M. Montgomery, popular author of Anne of Green Gables, wrote a story in which a character failed to see the charm of the old items others eagerly acquired. "But the rich folks have gone cracked over them. Yes, and pay more for them than would buy a real nice set with a marble-topped burey. You may well say there's lots of fools in the world."

Reacting against Victorian "eyesores," homeowners regarded practically anything made prior to 1830 as more tasteful and dubbed it "colonial," happily combining styles. Any furnishings from the 17th century (sometimes called Pilgrim furniture) through the early 19th-century Empire style found their way into Colonial Revival interiors. Reflecting the middle-class's new-found purchasing power, interiors filled with furnishings in quantities beyond the colonial period's wildest dreams. Among the most common furniture types were wingback chairs, gateleg and butterfly tables, tea trolleys, ladder-back chairs, Windsor chairs, pedestal tables, grandfather clocks, corner cupboards, sideboards, and fall-front desks.

Since no one thought it always necessary (or possible) to completely fill a house with truly old items, antiques frequently shared rooms with new "colonial" pieces. Newly produced Colonial Revival furniture ranged from fairly accurate reproductions to the distinctly odd, such as rockers with claw-and-ball feet. In the interests of comfort and convenience manufacturers simply invented new "old" pieces. Tea trolleys and radio cabinets were certainly not features of the colonial period, but the furniture industry supplied them in every style from Queen Anne to Empire. Pressed wood would have been unknown as well, but that inconvenient fact didn't stop manufacturers from using the inexpensive technique. The comfort of rocking chairs overrode their absence in actual colonial interiors.

Homeowners often accessorized interiors with work implements from the past. In an industrialized present, obsolete hand production suggested simpler, less demanding times. Spinning wheels became common adjuncts of living rooms and, indeed, continue to be popular features of the Early American style. They were often accompanied by iron cooking pots, bellows, and warming pans. Pewter plates gleamed from shelves, and the rush to acquire old china of all types made popular collectibles of objects that previous owners had condemned as merely old dishes.

Nineteenth-century Colonial Revival spaces, reflecting a lingering Victorian aesthetic, tended to appear somewhat cluttered. Early 20th-century decorators, following a trend toward simplicity in design, limited accessories but still found space for similar items—candlesticks, plates, and pots.

Lighting presented a problem. Homeowners wanted brighter illumination than existed during the colonial period and certainly preferred the safety and ease of electricity to the open flames and mess of candles and oil lamps. Manufacturers offered a variety of wall sconces and ceiling fixtures in pseudo-colonial patterns. Since such items had no real historical precedent, designers often copied a candle form, with the base as the candlestick and electric bulbs as the static "flames."

Colonial Revival floors also owed more to the era's nostalgic beliefs in a comfortable well-furnished past than to the reality of the colonial era, when most floors went bare. Multiple scatter rugs, often positioned diagonally and frequently hooked or braided, enlivened and softened Colonial Revival interiors. Oriental-style area rugs (rarely the genuine article) offered an alternative. In bathrooms and kitchens, practicality won out and homeowners favored tile and linoleum for their ease of care and cleanliness, regardless of the fact that their ancestors would have been amazed to see such materials or, indeed, such spaces.

Colonial Revival interiors featured many more fabrics than would have been common during the actual colonial era. Ruffles edged bed skirts, canopies, and upholstered pieces. Priscilla curtains foamed around many windows, especially in casual areas. More formal spaces featured draperies headed by valances. Chintz, floral prints, and checks were especially popular.

Colors leaned toward a subdued pastel palette. Today's more advanced color research technology has revealed that our colonial forbearers favored much brighter colors, but peering through the dim lens of historical nostalgia, Colonial Revivalists preferred to think that their ancestors lived in quietly tasteful surroundings devoid of anything at all garish.

The end result of filtering colonial design through later attitudes and perceptions was a revival that offered both literal and emotional comfort. Colonial Revival appeals to the modern world for the same reason that people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries liked it. The rooms evoke an era that seems (however erroneously) simpler and safer, full of quiet restful spaces and objects with which an imaginative person can summon the past.

Marilyn Casto is an associate professor of interior design at Virginia Tech.

Original Versus Revival
Ever wonder how the colonial era compared to the Colonial Revival? Colonial Revival interiors feature many furnishings that would have been luxuries before the Revolution
Original (1650-1776)	Colonial Revival (1840-1950)
Floors
Bare	Area rugs Scatter rugs Diagonal rugs Oriental carpets Braided rugs
Seating
Stools and benches Loose cushions Side chairs Upholstery (expensive) Wingbacks (expensive)	Wingbacks Sofas Side chairs
Ornament
Carving (expensive)	Carving common Pressed wood
Windows
Often bare	Curtains Draperies
Lighting
Candles Oil lamps	Electric lighting
Walls
Unfinished or whitewashed Paneling and wallpaper (expensive)	Wallpaper common Paneling
Fabric
Minimal	Used extensively