Eclectic architecture resulted in demand for interior decor specialists who posses knowledge and skills to arrange interiors according to external styles of the building. For this purpose a special field of applied art was established namely interior decor. A typical decorator had to study historic styles , gain knowledge and skills with reference to connection of many elements that together made for a project of interior and often had to act as an expert with regard to purchase of antiques, works of the art and everything that was indispensable to close the project. Many decorators at the same time operated in the field of furniture, carpets and other art items sale. Their main feature were skills with regard praising, placing an enchantment and meeting the tastes of rich clients.
Eclectic style made for a standard of larger, public interiors decor of official or commercial nature. Designers with specialist knowledge and skills with regard to creating a particular style built up their reputation; they were admired for ability to create convincing imitation of any historical field, e.g. Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942) was a popularize of ornamentation, and at the same a gifted practitioner of this style. In his book Church Building (1901) Cram presented advantages of the Middle Ages English gothic and attached illustrations of selected buildings from the Middle Ages that were compared to „defective ", „pretentious " and „non-intelligent " decorating cases. His project for Ali Saints" Church in Dorchester, Massachusetts (1891), was based on accurate and detailed reconstruction of typical English parish. The firm of this designer - Cram, Goodhue and Fergu-son - was very successful with regard to designing of gothic churches and buildings in Tudor style for university campuses, where gothic architecture was in fact a standard. "University Gothic" was a term used to describe Project like dormitory buildings at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (1895-1901), designed by Cope and Stewardson, or a courtyard at Yale with an interesting Harkness Tower (1931) projected by James Gamble Rogers (1867-1947).
Crama Company designed buildings for University in Princeton, with many very interesting spaces as a dining room in Graduate College (1913)and the university chapel (1925-28) that were accurate reconstructions of original patterns constructed in Tudor style in Oxford and Cambridge. An outstanding architecture work was a magnificent Church of Saint Thomas (1906-13) in New York with very beautiful interior with stone vault, stained-glass windows and the altar wall with carvings, where varied gothic details were connected, presenting the Middle Ages art to all Americans that at this time rather rarely had a chance to commune with original prototypes.
Elsie de Wolfe, Golony Club, Now Jork, 1905-7
A private dining room presented on illustration from the book The House in Good Taste (l9!3), de Wolfe presented an individual style, with application of delicate colours, wallpapers and simple forms, what reflected inspiration with many historical sources, without resorting to precise imitation of particular period.
Eliel Saarinen, Saarinen House, Cranbrook, Michigan, 1928-30
Saarinen has brought from its homeland, Finland, the inclination towards Scandinavian simplicity and the respect for reliable craft. The symmetry of the living room is enlivened by traditional Finnish fabrics of the ryijy type designed by Loji Saarinen, the furniture designed by Eliel and lamps designed by Eero Saarinen. Source: John Pile "Historia Wnętrz", Arkady 2000
