Leslie Curtis Designs
Simplicity & Grace
Traveling the world for many decades, I have collected images from castles to cottages. A stately English manor, to the mosaics of an ancient mosque in Isfahan, Iran. I've lived in Rome at the Villa Medici and I've summered in a weathered four-room cottage near the dunes of Cape Cod. These experiences have influenced my design aesthetic.
The importance of a faded New England quilt equal to the rich tapestries of the Dolmabahçe palace of Istanbul. Whatever is dear to the heart of the occupants of their home, this is the starting point of our design.
-PROJECTS-
Henry Ford Estate, Sun Room renovation.
Historically accurate restoration with Leslie Curtis Designs custom wicker.
Since the early 1920's "stick wicker" has been popular right into the 21st century. Paul Frankl, noted German furniture designer brought to America a style of modernism that became "American" modernism. The simplicity of design is still easily integrated into contemporary interiors.
Joseph McHugh's Belknap introduced the popular "Bar Harbor" style wicker. Leading the style away from Victorian fanciful shapes to a new plain style. Bar Harbor is still an enduring look all over the United States.
Tightly woven clean designs ushered in man made woven fiber furniture. Marsall Lloyd invented the machine to make this fiber into sheets to be wrapped around chair frames, etc. Very fine reed was used to copy the fiber look but could only be made by hand, such as the chair pictured above.
The 1925 Paris "Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes" changed the American design aesthetic & Art Deco was moving into American Style.
Victorian wicker furniture graced grand estates and average homes all across this country as well as Europe. The Designs are remembered most for the intricate and elaborate weaving.
The late 1920's into the 1930's brought elements of Lloyd Loom, Art Deco, and Bar Harbor into interior design. Our interpretation of the "Moderne" look has also been influenced by the Mission/Arts & Crafts designs.
The Influence of Gustav Stickley and Joseph McHugh in the Arts & Crafts movement can still be seen today in woven furniture as well as upholstered pieces. The angular simplicity simplicity is appealing in most environments.
French Weave refers to a type of weave used in the early 20th century in France. We apply the two types of patterns, herringbone and checkerboard to many designs.
