FURNISHING COSTS AND BUDGETS   217
HIGH-MEDIUM COST FURNITURE
High-medium cost furniture is naturally finer in finish, stronger
in construction, and made of more valuable wood than less ex-
pensive furniture. Mahogany and walnut are often used, although
gum and birch are freely substituted. Period, cottage, and Modern
styles are usually procurable in high-medium cost furniture. In
this price range one can expect to find some accurate reproductions
of museum pieces of period furniture.
Colonial furniture, made of walnut or mahogany after Queen
Anne and Chippendale designs, is ordinarily plentiful.
Federal furniture, which includes American Sheraton, American
Hepplewhite, and Duncan Phyfe designs, made of walnut or ma-
hogany, is also plentiful.
Nineteenth-century furniture, particularly Empire and Vic-
torian, is sometimes procurable in antique or second-hand shops.
New reproductions are usually simplified in design and reduced in
scale.
English Regency furniture, of graceful Classical forms, finished
in black and gold or dark wood, is usually procurable.
French Directoire furniture, similar to English Regency, but
lighter in color, is not yet generally procurable.
French Provincial furniture of this and costlier types is often
procurable.
Biedermeier furniture, a Modernized German version of the Em-
pire style with peasant ornamentation, has been manufactured here
and is sometimes available.
Modern furniture, made of wood, plastics, or metal, is plentiful
in progressive sections of the country. Furniture designed by the
best living designers is procurable and should be sought.
Scandinavian Modern furniture, made in the United States, is
excellent in design and is available in several price ranges. The
articles imported from Denmark, Finland, Norway or Sweden
are usually rather costly. In Scandinavian type furniture light
or medium tones of wood are used with the natural grain show-
ing; laminated wood and bentwood are employed effectively.
Oriental Modern furniture is simplified but retains traditional
lines such as curved, upturned edges. See page 261.