| IRISH COUNTRY DECORATING The flavor of Irish Country is warm, sturdy functional and simple. The traditional Irish rural dwelling was usually very small with a hearth-centered main area used for what we would call a family room today. The addition of a few chairs, the churn pushed back could serve as a meeting place for friends and neighbors. The furniture would be made locally to order to fit the whims or notions of the owner. Colors of whitewash and earth pigments were enriched by peat smoke and by use. Stark ironwork on the hearth vied with the colorful Delft in the hutch and the shapes of dairy crocks. Colors would be browns, blues, oxide red, and all the colors of the landsape around them. Tables placed along a wall for use in food preparation was pulled to the center of the room and laid with a cloth for use as a dining table. Natural materials were used in crafts such as sticks, straw, willow, ash, and hazel woods. Hand made wood chairs may have had hand made seats of woven straw. Willow baskets had any number of uses. Earthenware dishes set a charming and simple table. Josiah Wedgewood in England imported clay from Tipperary and flint from dublin to make his famous Queen's ware in the late eighteenth century. The last half of the 19th century saw factory made furniture joining the basic and handmade items made over the previous centuries. Victorian influences crept into the parlors of better off Irish country dwellings adding a formal accent to the earlier, easygoing style. The parlor was used for specific occasions like a visit from the local priest or doctor or entertaining people of elevated personage. Elaborately turned Victorian tables and sideboards were often seen in the parlor as well as upholstered settees, bits of crystal and brass and pictures. Irish dressers, or hutches were solid one piece affairs. They started off open and incorporated a large variety of design possibilities according to the particular household's needs. They held all manner of things, pottery, glassware, tin, and china. An array of industrial paints were introduced to the Irish market in the late nineteenth century. Very often two tone dressers were created with the paneling in contrasting colors or with the larger flat areas stippled or randomly brushed to contrast with the surrounding areas. Faux finishes were also used by laying a thin oily susrface of paint over a glossy underlay and combing textures or patterns into the top film. Until recently, most woodenware, handcarved or turned wooden containers, bowls, spoons, etc. was made locally by hand. Woodcarvers used whatever was at hand, ash and sycamore being more desirable than the softer pine. |