Empire in the interior of the apartment (20 photos): beautiful colors and design
Content
Empire style in the interior appeared in the era of Napoleon's reign, and military campaigns of that time had a strong influence on him. Empire, like baroque, is architecture, features and decorative elements of different countries, collected in one stylistic solution.
The basis of this style is neoclassicism, in other words, monumentality and massiveness. In addition, the design in the Empire style is often decorated with sphinxes, columns, reliefs and all kinds of ornaments.
Empire style key features
- all elements in the interior of the kitchen, living room, etc. are strictly combined with the steadfastness of imperial greatness;
- refined and rich design necessarily provides solemn ceremoniality (again, with a clear balance and symmetry);
- a huge number of Egyptian, ancient Roman and ancient Greek decor items;
- the presence of military and official attributes (but keep in mind that these items are not suitable everywhere: for the kitchen, for example, you should not use them);
- rich and vibrant colors in the decoration of the entire apartment: floor, walls and ceiling of rooms;
- the use of massive furniture with a unique decor of precious wood.
Important: Empire, Baroque and Gothic are considered “related” styles, so they are often intertwined in modern interiors. This is considered quite normal.
Features and nuances
Walls
As a rule, the empire style in the interior is walls with the presence of bright silk fabric that frames the entire wall surface. In this case, textile or wallpaper simulating this effect is used.
Another option inherent in the style of empire, baroque and even gothic is painting walls with paint. There should only be saturated colors or gloss.
As for the decor of an apartment or house, it is characteristic in this case to use all kinds of cornices, consoles, pilasters, friezes, candelabra and columns.
Note: when choosing a fresco for decorating the walls of the kitchen or bedroom, it is better to give preference to grisaille, and also try not to break the general symmetry of the compositions. It was such an architecture and its variations that were inherent in the era of Napoleon.
Ceiling
The Empire-style ceiling also has its own characteristics - these are shades of ivory, saturated white or pale cream colors. As a complement, a small amount of stucco molding is suitable (especially if there are baroque elements in the interior). The latter will look especially advantageous in the interior of the kitchen.
Floor
An empire in the interior provides for finishing the floor, for example, with an unusual parquet board, and the most advantageous solution is art parquet made of several and necessarily expensive wood species. If the floor is monophonic, then it should ideally complement the design and colors of the furniture upholstery.
For the design of a bedroom, living room or kitchen in the Empire style, you can use a natural carpet with a small pile. In addition, the effect of the marble floor does not look bad in this case.
Furniture
If we talk about furniture, Empire style in the interior is simply impossible without massive pieces of furniture with polished smooth surfaces, bronze reliefs and decorative elements in the form of columns, lion paws and unusual cornices.“Hard” furniture items such as, for example, bedside tables in the form of tripods, carved benches for the kitchen, etc. are best suited for decorating this interior. The upholstery should be with gold accents or made of silk.
Also mandatory, as for the Baroque style, is the presence of chairs with a back in the form of a lyre, and a factory shelf or sofa is not enough - only high-quality handmade work, without which a unique design is impossible!
Empire-style furniture is usually very numerous. These are various bar counters, marble countertops for the kitchen, round tables, slides, racks and bookcases in the living room.
Note: the female bedroom interior in the Empire style provides a dressing table with a large mirror and unique carvings.
Window
Window design can be decorated with velvet curtains with drapery, or fringed with fringes, or use light silk fabrics. The color of the curtains should be gold or purple, which again emphasizes the features of the imperial style and thematic belonging to the Baroque style. In addition, gilded patterns or military symbols are allowed on curtain fabric.
Decorative elements
The centerpiece of the Empire style interior is silver fruit baskets or candy vases, marble caskets, porcelain tableware sets, collectible figurines and crystal.
To emphasize the design in the Empire style (bedroom or living room), you can use paintings and candelabra styled in the nineteenth century (urban motifs, portraits of that time and other antique themes).
Useful tips and tricks
- The interior of an apartment or house in the Empire style, as mentioned earlier, is the ceremonial decoration of the living room, bedroom and other rooms, severity and symmetry. Through numerous symbols and attributes, the Empire-style design demonstrated imperial greatness and strength. That is why many designers believe that this design option is most suitable for country houses, as it creates a truly palace interior in them.
In apartments, you can also create an empire style, but provided that they have a sufficiently large area and ceiling height. Otherwise, to convey the "imperial scope" and recreate the "magnificent" design of that time will not work.
- Modern Empire style embodies classicism, that is, the correct form and a clear layout. The ray or centric composition looks very stylish here - objects flowing from one to another.
- You can enhance the effect of the imperial style by complementing the interior of the bedroom or kitchen with the warlike spirit of that era: torches, laurel wreaths and all kinds of weapons. Egyptian motifs such as sphinxes, pyramids and, of course, hieroglyphs will also look no less original.
Another stylish addition to the modern style of empire are Renaissance murals, grandiose murals, Greek or Roman bedroom decorations, Etruscan vases and consonant ornaments of bronze items, as well as empire furniture, stylized to decorate the decor in an ancient Roman dwelling.
- A successful addition to this design of the premises will be the fireplace. It can be completely marble or have only partial inlaid with natural stone. The main condition, as for any interior of the Barroco orientation, is a touch of antiquity and severity. You can decorate the fireplace with the image of eagles, sphinxes or lions. The choice is wide enough.
- And, of course, the main highlight of the Empire style is a large number of mirrors. They are hung everywhere: between the windows of the bedroom, over the bed, doors in the living room, fireplace and even in some cases on the floor between the legs of furniture.
- Particular attention when creating an interior empire must be given to the bed.At that time, even the simplest of them were strict and majestic. The bed, crowned with a magnificent canopy, towered on a huge pedestal of mahogany. We placed the bed along the wall of the bedroom, and not perpendicular to it, as is customary now. The bed was not usual for us. Instead, flattened cubes or balls were used.
Note: in the era of Napoleon, a whole baroque-style illusionary world could be made up of mirrors.
An empire bed is a kind of majestic pedestal that elevates its owner above the rest of the world!
All the above recommendations are suitable for the design of all rooms of the apartment: bedroom, living room, kitchen, and even an office.
