The Wright Inspiration - A warm and cozy living room gallery inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright
- Brian Thiel
- Feb 7
- 3 min read
Inspiration is a wonderful, sometimes random, phenomenon. It is not a secret that my usual go to inspiration is found in the historical precedent of our built and decorated environment. In the early design phases of the Midcentury Wunderkammer, a warm and cozy living room designed as a gallery to display a rotating collection of interesting objects, I knew I wanted the room to blend a sense of the modern with the late 19th century bones of the room and the house it was a part of. I immediately went to the earlier work of Frank Lloyd Wright, an architect whose work was of strong interest to the homeowner and myself. Starting in the late 19th century and running into the mid 20th, his body of work temporally and stylistically bridged the divide I was looking at in this space, so it was an easy win for us to settle on Wright's work as a source of inspiration.
Always looking for an excuse to expand my design library I did some digging around and ordered myself a copy of Frank Lloyd Wright Interior Style & Design by Doreen Ehrlich. The book was exactly what I had hoped for in all the ways that mattered. The text was great and the images even more so. A few elements really caught my attention: the rectilinear nature of many of the early spaces (always a favourite of mine), the stained glass window designs, and the lighter but still warm color palettes of the spaces, often paired with copious amounts of warm wood millwork and furniture.
As a sufferer of horror vacui I knew I wouldn't be happy just painting the walls and ceiling and calling it a day. Many of the homes main rooms had decorative plaster molding where ceiling met wall, but up on the third floor in what was likely meant to be a nursery the ceilings were lower and decorative plaster non existent. Since the Midcentury Wunderkammer needed to feel cozy and special and chock full of imagination and wonder in everyday living I
knew I needed to find a way to bring in some "architectural detail" without adding too much weight to the space. I settled on an old favorite trick (inspired by ancient roman wall painting, of course) of painting a flat design that in other, larger spaces I would consider doing in actual millwork. Many of Wright's residential spaces were low and long, a design choice that fit perfectly with the space constraints I was working in. Rectilinear ceiling elements like the molding in the living / dining area of the Frederick C. Robie house and Wright's use of lit ceiling panels in place of chandeliers served as my jumping off point. I was also interested in layering in special corner elements to anchor my design and the vertical, angular elements of many of Wright's stained glass windows provided just the feel I was looking for.
The space I was working with had its trim and doors in tact, even as far as the wood corner molding on the edges of the duct chase and around the window recess. Flipping through the pages of Ehrlich's book I quickly came across an image of the North Bedroom in Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio in Oak Park. The color scheme paired with the recilinear wood elements on the ceiling were just the mix I was looking for.
With inspiration in hand I set on designing and exectuing the shell of the
Midcentury Wunderkammer with my trusy Benjamin Moore paint deck. To add subtle visual texture I varied the sheen on each design element. The Glazed Pear and Gunmetal elements used in the "crown" I kept flat while the Woven Jacquard walls and White Dove ceiling were done in an eggshell finish. I decided to do the Dove white elements within the "crown" in semi gloss. While subtle, the varied sheen levels each catch (or not) the light in different ways throughout the day and keep the design from feeling static. With the successful completion of the shell, the lifelong fun of curating what is on display is free to take center stage!
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