Interior Products Review: Period-Style ProductsTimeless Style: Period-inspired new products offer modern features.

Time-worn brick, intricate moldings, decorative art glass, and knotty pine flooring reminiscent of simpler times can help homeowners escape the pressures of the 21st century. Whether they install just a few well-placed stained glass lighting fixtures that speak of Frank Lloyd Wright or elaborate molding and millwork to create a gingerbread-house effect, builders and remodelers are realizing that profits abound in the designs of days gone by.

Each generation perceives itself as much more advanced than the one that preceded it in terms of technology, social customs, and of course, style. So just what's driving homeowners to look to the past for design inspiration?

Robert Cohen, owner and president of Meyda Tiffany, a lighting fixture manufacturer that offers standard and custom products inspired by many eras, explains that Americans are reclaiming the past because they're still recovering from the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, and they want to cocoon within safe havens. “People are trying to create warm, comfortable places where their families and friends can gather,” Cohen says.

But homeowners still want the modern features and low maintenance that new innovations offer, so they're turning to up-to-date period reproductions. “We want these pieces to blend well with and enhance other furnishings in the home. These styles bring a fresh look to traditional designs,” Dianna Holmes, design manager for Canac cabinetry, says.

Old World finishes such as Venetian bronzes and weathering patinas are showing up on all kinds of interior products: doors, door hardware, fireplaces and their accessories, flooring, lighting, molding and millwork accents, ceiling tiles, and decorative pieces like wrought iron fireplace grilles.

Remodeler Dave Carlson of River Edge Restorations in Hillsborough, N.J., says that he typically uses new reproductions to bring period homes back to their glory days. Accordingly, he tries to complement existing elements with new details such as matching new wood beams with old ones.

Vincent Del Donna, president of Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.-based R&M Design Group, installs new period-style products in the numerous Victorians he works on. “It can be cost prohibitive to use genuine antiques or other materials,” Del Donna says, adding: “Alternative materials like urethanes and composites last a long time and are a good choice.”

Products that emulate old looks offer other modern benefits. For example, Jeld-Wen's Rockport molded interior door has the same classic beaded sticking design as 1920s five-panel wood styles that were popular in Colonial, traditional, and bungalow architecture, but it's available with a ProCore construction that blocks out more noise than an old wood door, the company says.

Manufacturers and pros agree that fireplaces are another product category where new technology rules. But gas and electric models, which are more energy efficient and easier to operate than old-fashioned hearths, are available with brick fronts and liners to achieve classic appearances.

Twenty-first-century products and materials can evoke the same aura as their classic counterparts; nevertheless, sometimes reproductions, particularly in the case of flooring and molding, won't do if the homeowner demands a traditional product to complement an old-fashioned aesthetic.