Identifying Colonial-Style Furniture

• To identify colonial-style antiques when shopping, follow these guidelines. Colonial chairs have arms that usually curve outward. Chair seats are often cane, rush, woven or upholstered. Legs are either cabriole or cabriole with decorative carving, usually on the knee. They may have elaborate or simple turning, or straight legs. The chair backs are a defining characteristic. They are either fiddle-back, fiddle-shaped central splat, ladderback or slat-back, one solid piece of wood or panel, or spindle style with simple turned vertical slats. Joints are dovetail or mortise and tenon. The foot is often the drake style (simple carved animal paw) or pad (simple rounded carved foot).
  
  Colonial-style fabrics include chintz, crewel, damask, needlepoint and tapestry. Common motifs are oriental, shell, floral, seaweed and acanthus leaf.
  
  

Room-by-Room Colonial Furniture

• To incorporate colonial furniture into your home, begin with the bedroom. The classic colonial four-poster bed still holds the allure of yesteryear. It epitomizes romance and classic simple lines. The canopy tops are especially nice when covered in an authentic colonial style fabric, lace or netting.
  
  Colonial style benches are often rustic and simple. They look great in hallways, mud rooms or children's rooms.
  
  In the kitchen, you might incorporate the colonial jelly cupboard, pie safe, pie servers and chimney cupboards.
  
  In the dining room, ladderback chairs epitomize the colonial style, as do tapestry and needlepoint. See the accompanying photograph for typical colonial style dining room furniture. Round tables also were commonplace in the colonial era.
  
  In the living room, colonial style couches and chairs may be camel back, wingback or traditional. A settle or settle bench will establish your colonial style decisively. A settle is a small-scale sofa with a high back. These were usually placed near the fireplace or in a reading nook. Like a loveseat, it will seat two people comfortably. Wingback chairs covered in coordinating colonial fabrics are mainstays among those decorating in the colonial style.
  
  

Historically Accurate Colonial Colors

• To coordinate your interior colors with your beautiful colonial furniture, continue the theme with authentic colors of the 1700s. Based on natural pigments, the colors used were very soft and muted, even if it was a darker color. For walls and woodwork, the predominant color was cream. Other colors found in colonial homes include mustard yellow, deep green, barn red, brown, taupe, soft muted blue (as on Chinese porcelain) and soft blue-gray. To get an historically accurate match, ask at your local paint shop to see the National Historic guide for authentic colors of the colonial period.