DECOR : Designers Renewing a Gothic Romance

Lighten up. Today’s Gothic design is anything but heavy. White paint and handsome stencils replace dark wood interiors. Tall Gothic windows with pointed arches let daylight pour in. And at night, with candlelight playing on the tracery, it can be downright romantic.

Gothic Revival, a style popular in the 18th and 19th centuries based on medieval church architecture, is enjoying a bit of a renaissance. Gothic-inspired rooms are showing up in decorating magazines, and reproductions of Gothic furniture, accessories, fabrics and wall coverings are coming into the market.

There’s also a new book, “Gothic Style: Architecture and Interiors from the Eighteenth Century to the Present,” (Abrams, $60) by Kathleen Mahoney, a senior editor at House Beautiful magazine.

The original Gothic style that arose in Europe during the Middle Ages was primarily architectural, but with the revivals came interior decoration. Today, Gothic motifs such as the trefoil and quatrefoil, three- and four-lobed clover-like patterns, the fleur-de-lis and the oak leaf are used on flatware, lighting fixtures, fabric, wallpaper and much more. Gothic arches found on cathedral windows and doors are translated into furniture design.

Another characteristic of Gothic design is the stone tracery in Gothic churches and castles that shows up as lacy patterns in windows or on walls. The tracery is reproduced in plaster or wood or simply as lines drawn or painted onto fabric.

Mahoney dates the latest incarnation of Gothic Revival to the 1980s when touches of Gothic began appearing in trendy rooms.

“The Gothic style appeals to a number of key interior designers because of its whimsy and fancifulness, and the strength and eccentricity of many of the furniture pieces, fabrics and decorative accessories,” Mahoney says.

Two of the country’s best-known designers, Mario Buatta and Mark Hampton, have embraced the style.

“Buatta is restoring a Gothic cottage in Connecticut,” Mahoney says, “and Hampton has designed a collection of furniture for the Hickory Chair Co. with a number of 18th- and 19th-Century Gothic pieces such as a painted chair and a mirror with a pointed arch top.”

Those who want to see the style carried to its fullest will find it done to the nines in Mahoney’s book. For those who want to follow her lead and stencil a wall as Mahoney did in her bedroom, stencil patterns are available.

Fabrics with a Gothic motif are increasingly available, including those by Brunschwig & Fils, Scalamandre, Clarence House, and Osborne & Little. These are available through decorators, but the style is filtering down to labels available in retail stores.

“Every time I go to a builder’s show, I find that a couple of manufacturers have added products such as a Gothic-style fence, screen door or window,” Mahoney says.

While American Gothic was influenced by the English, Carpenter Gothic is uniquely American, appearing as modest houses ornamented with wood cutouts known as gingerbread.

The steam-powered scroll saw, which came into use by the 1830s, could easily cut intricate shapes from wood. Patterns for gingerbread decorations were printed in architectural pattern books. Those without the tool could buy ready-made moldings.

You don’t need a Gothic house to create a Gothic room, revival or otherwise. And you don’t need a practical reason to create it.

“What brought Gothic back in the 18th Century was a fascination with nature and the supernatural,” Mahoney says. “Many people are once again interested in the supernatural, as shown by the popularity of angels and Gothic novels.

“Gothic design is part of the same mood.”