Welcome to our gallery focusing on living room furniture in the timeless Craftsman style.
Craftsman style is defined by a natural simplicity and crispness of shape, but it’s more than just a look.
Craftsman style arose from the Arts and Crafts movement that sprouted at the turn of the 20th century. It developed as a backlash against the ostentatious style of the Victorian era, rejecting the overly decorative, factory produced look that had dominated before. The name itself was coined by Gustav Stickley, who established the style with William Morris and others, often inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural work.
Also known as the Arts & Crafts movement, the aim is to create something as functionally utilitarian as it is beautiful, without the extravagance of extraneous styling. Let’s talk about exactly what the style looks like in practice.
The most important element is wood. It informs the emphasis on simple natural beauty that defines the style. Craftsman furniture is almost never painted, instead showcasing the rich grain of the wood, which is usually oak but can appear in other species.
The color palette extends from the materials, with a sense of muted beauty derived from the natural wood used in its construction. You’ll see color tones of stone, bark, leaves, even grass. Other natural colors are acceptable, so long as they mesh with the grittiness of the outdoor world.
The style embraces sturdy, unadorned furnishings that look as strong as they are. The style itself is about function as form, making up for a lack of ornamentation with an elegant sense of detail and balance.
Craftsman style emphasizes handmade detail above all. No matter the exact shape and size of a given piece of furniture, it will look like it could have been built 100 years ago as well as it could be built now.
One of the exceptions to the natural wood rule is the frequent appearance of metal accents. But instead of chrome and steel, which would look wildly out of place, the style incorporates bronze, brass, and copper with antique finishes. These touches complement the wood tones and emphasize the overall handcrafted, timeless nature of the style.
We gathered some of our favorite examples of Craftsman living room furniture to showcase exactly how this unique style can look in your home. From entertainment centers to bookshelves and beyond, there is a startling variety of common living room accoutrements that look great in this style.
We’ve broken down our selections by category, beginning with TV stands. Read on to see some of the best examples of Craftsman style living room ideas we’ve seen.
TV Stands
We love a solid TV stand and think that Craftsman style works exceptionally well with this piece of furniture. Whether a simple hutch or a large wall-size construction, the style keeps this elegant, sharp, and sturdy looking.
1. Riverside Craftsman Home Entertainment Center
For our first piece of craftsman styled furniture, we wanted to showcase something big and bold. This large entertainment center features a center console for the TV itself, flanked by a pair of tall glass-enclosed shelves, with a bridge over the top connecting the pieces. In addition to the sharply defined natural wood construction, it features slim accent pieces above and below the TV gap, plus built-in lighting in the cabinetry.
Learn more here.
2. Home Styles Modern Craftsman Console
This console style piece features our first instance of metal, pairing perfectly with the rich wood tones of the stand. This design sees a thick tabletop with large drawers framed with a pair of lower shelves by a thin black metal structure, plus matching drawer handles for an extra dose of contrast.
Learn more here.
3. Sauder Boone Mountain Anywhere Console
The unvarnished tone of the wood used in this gorgeously simple TV stand gives it an almost rustic look, but the sturdy framing, thick wood, and sharply creased drawers nail the Craftsman look. A stand like this would work perfectly in a similarly trimmed room, or stand out as an accent in a more modern styled space.
Learn more here.
4. Riverside Craftsman Home 60 inch TV Console
This handsome TV stand echoes the design of the first entry on our list, with a slim accent layer below the top surface and rich natural wood all around. The thick-framed, unfussy design features a pair of glass door cabinets for component access, plus an open shelf for speakers or media. It’s an elegant solution enhanced by its balanced Craftsman design.
Learn more here.
Coffee Tables
Coffee tables are one of the most important pieces of furniture you can choose for your home. These low and wide tables provide a focal point for the living room and offer an invaluable resource: surface space to keep drinks, dishes, and any decoration you’d like to have out in the open.
5. Craftsman Home Coffee with Lift Top by Riverside Furniture
Craftsman style works superbly when it comes to coffee tables. They’re often the literal centerpiece of a living room, surrounded by furniture and playing host to any drinks or dishes brought into the room. The great feature of this model, aside its sleek styling, is a smooth operating lift top mechanism, allowing you to bring the surface right to you. It’s perfect for dining or browsing the internet, and it hides away when not in use.
Learn more here.
6. Hearthstone II Occasional Coffee Table by Wildon Home
This rich natural wood coffee table is an exemplary form of Craftsman style, with thick clearly defined slats and solid legs forming a simple but elegant shape. The tabletop features a pair of natural slate accents for a bit of relatively extravagant style, plus a lower shelf for additional storage or display space.
Learn more here.
7. Coffee Table by Wildon Home
Here’s another elegant, rich wood coffee table with a subtle but gorgeous accent in the tabletop. Here we see slate tiles encompassing most of the surface area, framed in thick wood beams all around. The table features a bit of ornamentation around the edges, strung between the legs, but it’s unfussy and sleek, remaining true to the style.
Learn more here.
8. Sauder Boone Mountain Coffee Table
While Craftsman style often leans slightly toward rustic minimalism, this table is probably the furthest in that direction we’ve yet seen. Curved wood pieces make for a warmly natural look, as does the light unvarnished tone. The coffee table fits two drawers in for abundant storage, plus a lower level surface for additional display space.
Learn more here.
9. Rolfe Coffee Table by Andover Mills
This stylish coffee table is about as far as you could get from the prior model while still remaining a piece of Craftsman home furnishing. Constructed of richly stained wood panels in slimmer pieces, it’s a more open, modern looking table with a rather minimalist presence. A triangular design on the sides is all the embellishment it needs.
Learn more here.
10. Coffee Table by Andover Mills
While this coffee table appears, at first glance, not unlike the model above, there’s a key distinction. We chose a pair of tables with the same rough structure to highlight just how important the tone and grain of wood is in a piece of highly visible furniture. The lighter, aged look of this table brings an entirely different mood to the room.
Learn more here.
Chairs
Craftsman style, focused as it is on wood construction, doesn’t encompass a huge variety of seating options. What we do have, however, are spectacular examples of how a style can evolve to match a given piece of unconventional furniture.
11. Craftsman II Recliner by Barcalounger
Our first living room chair features a bold, rich wood frame flanking a thickly padded, plush leather upholstered chair. The simplistic, sharp wood panels create a warm complementary tone with the stressed and comfortable leather, conveying that back-to-basics Craftsman style in a big, comfortable living room seating staple.
Learn more here.
12. Caro High Leg Recliner by Signature Design by Ashley
You’ll notice that the dark wood framing of this chair features a similar design to the previous chair, arranging a series of vertical slats between thick layers of natural wood. Free of embellishments, the sleek styling complements the rich leather upholstery well. Here, the wood acts as a warm contrast to the dark leather tone.
Learn more here.
13. Copenhagen Genuine Leather Chair by Wayborn
Instead of oak, this chair utilizes the much brighter looking birchwood for its rich natural frame. The chair features that familiar vertical slat design, but slightly bowed out to make room for newspaper or magazine storage. Paired with a matching ottoman, it’s bound to be an elegantly comfortable presence in any Craftsman styled living room.
Learn more here.
Shelves
Shelving is a very personal thing. Some folks like a lot of it in the living room, and some like to hide it away in home offices or other private areas. We think that living room shelving should be as attractive as it is useful, and Craftsman style offers many fitting examples.
14. Home Styles Modern Craftsman Tower
This gorgeous, slim tower features rich oak shelving and a brown powder coated metal frame, perfectly illustrating the simplicity and sturdiness of Craftsman design. The only embellishments are a set of arches beneath the top layer, leaving the stark and strong tower to stand on its own.
Learn more here.
15. Craftsman Home Door Bookcase in Americana Oak by Riverside Furniture
Standing at the opposite end of functionality from or prior set of shelving, this model features the familiar touch of a slate accent, wrapping around the top of the structure above a pair of large glass doors that enclose the majority of the unit. This makes for a great protective space where your books and items can be proudly displayed in simple, elegant fashion.
Learn more here.
16. Adept Storage Credenza in Craftsman Oak
Here we return to that more rustic looking tone of rich oak, lighter and less fussy than your average piece of living room furniture. This takes Craftsman styling to its logical conclusion, with sharp edges, few embellishments, and a concise build. It’s handsome without drawing attention to itself, which is about as perfect as you can get in this style.
Learn more here.
17. Sauder Dakota Pass Anywhere Media TV Stand in Craftsman Oak
Similar to the above bookshelf, this svelte and squat piece of furniture is another grand example of Craftsman style in a compact, unassuming form. The light natural wood tone lends itself to rustic spaces, or as a counterpoint to more modern rooms. The Craftsman design allows for unique and useful features like the lift-and-hide panel that reveals a pull-out surface.
Learn more here.
Desks
Desks aren’t exactly a common living room furniture item, but we see them more and more tucked into the corners of large open-plan spaces. These desks are examples of how Craftsman style can result in a utilitarian but handsome piece of home office furniture that can appear unobtrusively in the living room.
18. Modern Craftsman Executive Desk in Deep Brown by Home Styles
Note the familiar dark powder coated metal framing and slim, but recognizable arches spanning between the legs of this sleek and slim desk, perfectly meshing with the rich oak table top. The wood portion of the desk features a set of discreet drawers, perfect for a little bit of storage when you need it most.
Learn more here.
19. Modern Craftsman Student Desk and Hutch by Home Styles
Here’s a living room desk that’s a little more elaborate, with a large desktop set of shelving and drawers that adds an additional layer of functionality and presence to the slim framed desk. A pull-out keyboard surface makes for an elegant solution, keeping the compact frame unobtrusive when not in use. The dark powder coated metal frame acts as the perfect contrast to the warm wood tone.
Learn more here.
20. Craftsman Home Corner Computer Desk in Oak by Riverside Furniture
Unlike the previous two Craftsman desks we’ve featured, this model is a little more elaborate, perhaps meant to dominate a smaller home office space than take up the corner of your large open living room. Still, given a properly sized room, this can make for the perfect addition, with its rich all-wood construction and relatively sleek design. The corner shaped desk features an accompanying dresser-like component on casters for easy access.
Learn more here.
Bonus Furniture
We wanted to cover a comprehensive selection of Craftsman living room ideas, but some products simply don’t fit a broader category. What follows are a pair of side tables, a wine rack, and even a piece of cat-centric furniture.
21. Sauder Boone Mountain Side Table
Matching one of our coffee table choices above, this rustic styled side table would make the perfect complement, uniting a living room with simple curved natural wood elegance and a light tone that works great in contrast to darker furniture. The thick legs and unadorned surfaces make for a sturdy, no-nonsense presence in any living room.
Learn more here.
22. Craftsman Side Table in Medium Brown Oak by Somerton
This elegant design features the familiar light arched shape between legs, plus a set of slim vertical slats for protecting your nicknacks and books. The chunky, thick wood design houses a discreet drawer on the lower level, a perfect little touch of utility for your living room.
Learn more here.
23. Modern Craftsman Wine Rack by Home Styles
While it looks at first glance very similar to a couple of our shelving units pictured above, this attractive little piece of furniture is in fact a Craftsman style wine rack designed to sit in your living room. It’s got layers of rich oak shelving for both glasses and bottles, and is adorned with the familiar slim arch and vertical slats in its powder coated metal framing.
Learn more here.
24. Mr. Herzhers Craftsman Series Early American Brown Single Seat Cat Perch
While we don’t normally feature pet furniture of any stripe on this site, we had to make an exception in this case. The sturdy rich wood frame of this cat perch is crafted in the classic Craftsman style, making for a uniquely handsome and cohesive piece of furniture. Whether it’s built for humans or otherwise, a piece of Craftsman furniture will always be a strong, attractive addition to your living room.
Learn more here.
Related Galleries You May Enjoy:
27 Attention Grabbing Living Room Wall Decorations | 21 Top Home Theater Recliners and Chairs | 19 Stylish and Inexpensive Bookcases Under $100 | 20 Top Wooden Oval Coffee Tables
(c) 2015
The post 24 Top Craftsman Living Room Ideas appeared first on Home Stratosphere.
via Home Stratosphere