Tudor
Oak panelling, moulded plaster ceilings and leaded windows. Rooms built for warmth and status.
The Flare timeline
Through the ages.
Five centuries of rooms in one scroll: the styles, the designers and the moments that shaped them, and the stories behind each in the Journal.
- 541years
- 8eras
- 22styles
- 21designers
Pick a year
Who was working, and what was in fashion?
Drag the slider or press play. Dates for styles are approximate: tastes never change overnight.
The era
In fashion
At work
Around then
1485to1713
Tudor to Baroque
Oak, panelling and the first classical buildings in England.
Andrea Palladio
1508 to 1580
Venetian architect whose book carried temple fronts, symmetry and the pediment across Europe.
The Four Books of Architecture, 1570
Inigo Jones
1573 to 1652
Brought Palladio's classicism to England, with rooms of calm, measured proportion.
The Queen's House, Greenwich, begun 1616
The Great Fire of London
Much of the City burns. Rebuilding gives Christopher Wren the chance of a lifetime.
Sir Christopher Wren
1632 to 1723
Astronomer turned architect. St Paul's set English Baroque in stone and rich plasterwork.
St Paul's Cathedral, 1675 to 1710
1714to1810
The Georgians
Proportion, symmetry and the ceiling rose at the centre of the room.
Georgian
Sash windows, panelled doors, deep cornices and a rose at the centre of the ceiling.
Rococo
Shells, scrolls and C-curves: a lighter, playful French ornament for interiors.
Robert Adam
1728 to 1792
Scottish architect of delicate neoclassical rooms, with ceilings and carpets designed as one.
Rooms designed down to the ceilings and carpets
Sir John Soane
1753 to 1837
Architect of the Bank of England, and a master of top light, mirrors and shallow domes.
13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, now Sir John Soane's Museum
1811to1889
Regency and Victorian
Stripes and gilt, then gas light and ornament for everyone.
Regency
Named after the Prince Regent. Stripes, gilt, Grecian couches and a taste for the exotic.
John Nash
1752 to 1835
Designer of Regent's Park terraces and the Royal Pavilion's onion domes.
The Royal Pavilion, Brighton, remodelled from 1815
A.W.N. Pugin
1812 to 1852
Champion of the Gothic Revival, who designed much of the interior of the Houses of Parliament.
Interiors of the Palace of Westminster
Victorian
Gas light, mass-made plaster and a ceiling rose in every parlour.
Moorish Revival
Horseshoe arches, tiles and lattice, from smoking rooms to Turkish baths.
The Great Exhibition
Six million visits to the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. Industry and ornament on show together.
Arts and Crafts
Handmade over machine-made: oak, tiles, embroidery and the cottage garden brought indoors.
William Morris
1834 to 1896
Leader of Arts and Crafts: honest making and patterns drawn from the English hedgerow.
Founded his decorating firm in 1861
1890to1918
A new century
Curving lines, electric light and a break from copying the past.
Art Nouveau
Whiplash curves, lilies and stained glass. A deliberate break from copying the past.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
1868 to 1928
Tall chairs, roses and white rooms: the Glasgow Style, in architecture and every detail.
Glasgow School of Art, 1897 to 1909
The 1900s home
Edwardian light, Art Nouveau curves and Arts and Crafts making.
Edwardian
Lighter, airier rooms after Victorian clutter, with pale walls and electric light.
Frank Lloyd Wright
1867 to 1959
Prairie houses with long low roofs, art-glass windows and light built into the walls.
Robie House, Chicago, completed 1910
The 1910s home
Arts and Crafts calm, early electric light and the First World War.
1919to1944
Between the wars
Art Deco glamour and the modern movement, side by side.
Bauhaus
Walter Gropius's school joins art to industry. Simple forms, made to be made in numbers.
Art Deco
Sunbursts, chevrons, stepped forms and chrome, from cinemas to the suburban front door.
The 1920s home
Jazz Age glamour, the Paris exhibition and the birth of Art Deco.
Tutankhamun's tomb is opened
Egyptian motifs flood jewellery, fashion and cinema fronts.
Paris 1925
The great exhibition of decorative arts that later gave Art Deco its name.
Poul Henningsen
1894 to 1967
Danish designer who shaped shades to hide the bulb and spread soft, glare-free light.
The first PH lamp, shown in Paris in 1925
Eileen Gray
1878 to 1976
Irish designer and architect who made modern rooms comfortable as well as clean.
E-1027, her house by the sea, 1926 to 1929
Marianne Brandt
1893 to 1983
Led the Bauhaus metal workshop and put modern lamps into mass production.
Kandem bedside lamp, 1928, with Hin Bredendieck
Charlotte Perriand
1903 to 1999
From steel furniture in Paris to timber and bamboo after Japan, and the ski resort of Les Arcs.
LC4 chaise longue, 1928, with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret
Le Corbusier
1887 to 1965
Set out five points for a new architecture, and a careful system of colour for walls.
Villa Savoye, 1928 to 1931
Mies van der Rohe
1886 to 1969
Glass, onyx and floating planes. The architect of less is more.
Barcelona Pavilion, 1929
Streamline Moderne
Speed lines, rounded corners and portholes borrowed from ocean liners.
Hollywood Regency
Black and white floors, lacquer, mirror and bold colour: glamour at full volume.
The first Odeon
Oscar Deutsch opens his first Odeon at Perry Barr, Birmingham. The picture palace goes Deco.
The 1930s home
Suburban semis, sunburst gates and Streamline curves.
Alvar Aalto
1898 to 1976
Finnish architect of warm modernism: bent birch, rounded forms and soft daylight.
Paimio Sanatorium, completed 1933
The 1940s home
Make do and mend, Utility furniture and wartime colour.
1945to1969
Mid-century
Plywood, teak and good design made for ordinary homes.
Mid-century modern
Teak, plywood, organic curves and open plans: good design for ordinary homes.
Dorothy Draper
1889 to 1969
American decorator of cabbage-rose chintz, huge checks and fearless colour.
The Greenbrier, West Virginia, reopened 1948
Charles and Ray Eames
Charles 1907 to 1978, Ray 1912 to 1988
Moulded plywood, fibreglass chairs and a house full of collected things.
The Eames House, Case Study House No. 8, 1949
Scandinavian modern
Pale wood, white walls, good light and well-made everyday things.
Brutalism
Raw concrete and heavy, honest forms. Today it returns softened.
The 1950s home
Festival of Britain patterns, contemporary furniture and new colour.
The Festival of Britain
A national tonic on London's South Bank, and a new look for British homes.
Isamu Noguchi
1904 to 1988
Sculptor who turned washi paper and bamboo into glowing, weightless light.
The first Akari light sculptures, made in Gifu, 1951
The PH 5 pendant
Henningsen's best-known lamp appears in 1958 and is still made today.
The 1960s home
Pop colour, teak and the space age.
1970to1999
Late century
Earth tones, postmodern colour, then the calm of minimalism.
The 1970s home
Earth tones, shag pile and pine.
Postmodern
Colour, pattern and classical jokes return after decades of plain modernism.
The 1980s home
Postmodern colour, chintz and the return of period style.
Minimalism
White walls, pale wood and nothing on show that does not earn its place.
The 1990s home
Minimalism, pale wood and the loft.
Zaha Hadid
1950 to 2016
Curves, flow and movement: architecture that seems to be in motion.
Vitra Fire Station, 1993, her first building
2000tonow
Now
Warm minimalism, natural texture and curves that soften a room.
Industrial
Exposed brick, metal and bare bulbs from converted lofts and warehouses.
The 2000s home
Open-plan living, grey walls and industrial touches.
Hadid wins the Pritzker Prize
The first woman to win architecture's best-known prize.
Japandi
Japanese calm meets Scandinavian warmth: low furniture, natural texture and paper light.
Organic modern
Soft curves, plaster, linen and stone. Calm rooms that feel made by hand.
Soft brutalism
Chunky, sculptural forms in warm, matt finishes.
Aalto on the World Heritage List
Thirteen of Alvar Aalto's works are inscribed by UNESCO in July 2026.
Found your era? Ask the studio.
Send a photo of your room and Joseph will suggest pieces that suit its period, or the style you love.
