Shaker Furniture is Efficient and Elegant

The Shakers, a religious sect from Manchester, England, originated in the late eighteenth century. They were known for their celibacy, and energetic religious worship. They became known for the simplicity and austerity of their fine craftsmanship in furniture, a style highly prized and copied today.

The Shakers valued quality, viewing good work as an act of prayer. Since they appreciated simplicity, their furniture style from rocking chairs to Shaker cabinets is both practical, durable and functional. Modern design also trends toward minimalist in design, making Shaker designs a “fit’ for those who prefer a contemporary decor while bringing in an historical perspective in materials.

Shaker Kitchens

The design of Shaker kitchens differs from those of modern kitchen designers who prefer the gloss of metal and glass. The material used by modern designers is contemporary and the designs are sleek and deceptively simple. A Shaker kitchen design intersects at the concept of simple and functional. But Shakers worked with natural materials. They created their tables, chairs and cabinets from
birch,
butternut,
chestnut,
cherry,
honey pine,
maple

and other woods that were available during their era. Much of their furniture was light in both color and weight. They also used cotton and silk coverings and curtains, producing kitchens that were simple, practical and charming. Shaker designed furnishings are durable, in keeping with their value of quality workmanship.

The Shakers were not a people for ostentation. Bright colors were not part of their pallet for either clothing, homes or furnishings. The walls of the Shaker kitchen design were muted with the use of neutral colors. The tones used set a quiet, calm, reverent backdrop for the kitchen and other rooms of the home. Whatever the Shakers did contributed to their values of
cleanliness,
neatness and
functionality.

Shaker kitchen designers focused on form and proportion, making each kitchen cabinet and other item in the room a perfect “fit” for the space. While the Shakers were all about simple and functional, they added a touch of color to their cabinets, washstands, chairs and more. For color they used a thin coating of yellow ochre or Venetian red wash.

Shaker Organization
Like many designers today, Shakers created kitchens that were open and organized. Everything in a Shaker kitchen had to have a reason for being in the room from chairs and tables to cabinets. Shaker kitchens were clean and neat, encapsulating the idea that every item had its own location. Clutter was not tolerated in the Shaker kitchen. Most added a stretch of paneling with interspersed pegs for added storage of aprons, cloaks and scarves as well as other items.

Shaker Kitchen Cabinets
A Shaker style cabinet is functional and plain in design with unadorned handles and knobs on plain front panels. Shaker style cabinet doors are designed in five key elements in which recessed panels are framed by two vertical and two horizontal strips generally 2 1/2 inches in width. Shaker style uses wood dovetailed corner joints instead of either nails or glue.

Storage space was important in the organized Shaker kitchen. This meant that Shaker cabinets were built to help in the organization of the kitchen. Like other Shaker furniture, Shaker kitchen cabinets had clean lines and little ornamentation. They were made of wood and were built with durability and function in mind. Shaker style cabinets relies on these fundamental designs for the modern consumer.

Shaker style cabinets are designed with natural hardwood. Most have recessed panels with little or no ornamentation of the Victorian style that was so ostentatious during the time that Shakers were a viable religious group.

While Shaker style cabinets use a natural finish, they can also be painted in soft white, blues or even dark reds to match the decor of the kitchen. While the traditional Shaker type cabinets do not use the ornamentation of molding or beading, contemporary hardware in handles and knobs provide a contemporary look.

Customer Driven Changes
However, while the original Shaker furnishings were austere as well as simple and utilitarian in nature, Shakers were aware of what customers wanted. Then, as now, business interests seek to satisfy their customers. The Shakers community not only created and made furniture for their own religious groups, but also sold furniture. By the end of the nineteenth century, Shakers adopted selected Victorian features to use on their furniture designs. These included ornamental carvings that were neither practical or functional. The less austere design did add beauty to an already well-designed product.

While many consider Louis Sullivan and John Ruskin pioneers in the concepts of function and form, they actually followed in the tradition of the Shakers who believed that the form of everything they created should match the function it was to perform. They added these principles of combining function with form, balance and symmetry, to their high quality workmanship for products with clean, straight lines. These basic principles of craftsmanship did not change even when designing ladder back chairs and Shaker cabinets.

Furniture for the use of the Shakers, themselves, remained simple and unadorned. In fact, the principles by which the Shakers lived, called the Millennial Law, clarified the goal of simple living with the statement that for the “Believers”, otherwise known as Shakers, “odd or fanciful styles of architecture may not be used…”

Efficient and Elegant
Instead the Shakers focused on building rooms, such as kitchens, that were both efficient and easy to maintain. Their cabinets and other furniture followed this fundamental principle of maintenance and efficiency. They used their creativity, rather than for ostentation, to inspire a place of peace and serenity. But, not even the Shakers designed in a vacuum. They found inspiration in the revival of the graceful Greek and Federal styles of their era.

Spacious Shaker kitchen cabinets were created to organize everything in the kitchen from silverware and spice to plates and pots. Today as then, Shaker design style is of high quality and quietly elegant. The Shaker kitchen and cabinet designs are timeliness, which makes them a perfect addition to the decor of a home whether contemporary or traditional.