How to Integrate a Modern Victorian Living Room into Your Existing House?
Integrating a full-scale Victorian style into a modern home can feel like an uphill task. Detailed features, intricate designs, adherence to authenticity, all play a crucial role in determining the viability of the project.
In this article, you will discover expert tips and techniques on how to seamlessly transform your existing living space into a modern Victorian living room.
In this article, you will discover expert tips and techniques on how to seamlessly transform your existing living space into a modern Victorian living room.
Opulent, Enigmatic, Nostalgic and Eclectic! While there are a lot more adjectives that can do justice to describe the charm and elegance of the Victorian style, adding a few more is never an exaggeration. This pretty much sums up the Victorian style. Imagine being surrounded by a space with intricate & eclectic designs, a flickering fire grate, high ceilings, antique & ornamented elements, regal armchairs, framed cheval mirrors, and what not. There are a lot more attributes that can take you back to that dramatic, gothic-inspired style of the Victorian era. What you get in return is pure enchantment and that unyielding yearning for an intimate time with yourself and your loved ones. Such can be the aura of a Victorian living room. If you are a fan of the bygone era and are planning to bring back that timeless Victorian indulgence into your living room, read on and get intimate with how to integrate a modern Victorian living room into your house.
The style has been derived from the reign of Queen Victoria in the 19th century where construction patterns, design manuals that included features and details were carved by the Victorians. These were secured in books for a designated period and helped architects and builders of that era stick to a definite pattern to stay in line with the style.
What Defines a Victorian Style?
Victorian style is all about indulging in a larger-than-life aura. Exquisite features, embellished interiors, luxury exuding draperies, antique rugs, mirrors with elaborated frames, a striking fireplace with a quiet presence, and colours that exude depth and richness. If you want to imagine a Victorian living room, you may probably have to resign from the present and step into the elaborated decorative aesthetics of the past reign.
Consider these Elements to Recreate a Victorian Living Room
Physical elements and aesthetic features are the cornerstone of Victorian living room ideas. They are born of nothing but elements and features.
1. Walls and Floors
One of the easily traceable features of a Victorian living room is the interior walls. Victorian walls are characterised by elaborate floral patterns, golden-brown & reddish-brown drapes of wallpaper designs and vibrant colours of velvet and damascus patterns.
2. Colours
Did you know that inner wall colours during the Victorian era had a connection with heating methods? Yes, due to excessive use of coal for heating purposes and also because coal was the only readily available and affordable fuel source at that time, coal-fire heating was prevalent during the Victorian era.
To hide the smoke and ash from coal-fired heating, dark colours became more prominent in use. Colours like burgundy, dark red, maroon, brown, dark blue & dark green were common. On the course of change in heating methods, lighter and brighter hues, and pastels, gradually caught up.
Although this was a scientific reason, the use dark colours did make for a profound aesthetic mark.
3. Wall & Ceiling Borders
Walls were often divided into three sections in a tripartite style. The space between the frieze (upper border of the wall) and the dado (lower border of the wall) was usually draped with wallpapers or painted designs (floral & plant patterns) as discussed above.
To partition the walls, wooden panels were mostly used.
4. Fabrics
When talking about Victorian living room ideas, fabrics undoubtedly play an integral part.
- Use of luxurious fabrics such as brocade, velvet, silk, and needlepoint were prominent in use to adorn the furniture.
- Curtains too were adorned with velvet, silk and brocade. Printed cotton then caught up and became widespread at a later stage. Muslin and dimity fabrics were used on curtains which offered a fresh and clean look.
- When coming to style, curtains were often layered and decorated with fringes, tassels, and metallic trimmings.
- Brass was used as curtain rods, while corded and beads were used as curtain tie backs.
While mahogany, rosewood, walnut, and similar such fine woods were used to build the furniture, the scale and size of the furniture too was large and highly dominant. This was to an extent where it was oversized with intricate shapes exuding pure grandeur.
6. Decorative Elements
Other tangible elements and decorations consisted of stone-made fireplaces, paintings on walls, elaborate cheval framed mirrors, crystal chandeliers & ornate light fixtures for lighting were highly prominent in use.
Integrating a Modern Victorian Living Room
Victorian living room ideas are often a collection of defining aesthetics, over-the-top accessories & designs along with luxurious amenities. So, accommodating these into your existing modern home can be a challenge.
On this background, let’s now dive into the how’s of accommodating a modern Victorian living room into your existing space.
1. Colours
Let’s start with the colours. If the inner walls and ceilings of your house are painted in lighter hues or in white, just reverse the effect. Colours in the Victorian era are mostly dark.
- Use burgundy, dark red, maroon, brown, dark blue & dark green for wall and ceiling colours.
- If yours is a smaller home, try colour variations to distinguish the walls. Remember, Victorian living spaces are eclectic, so do not shy.
- If you have a larger living space, try adding emerald green, rich burgundy, sapphire blue, to create that drama. If you seek a truly royal feel, then you can consider adding brass accents.
When considering wallpapers, balance it out with contrast. Consider boldness in patterns and subtlety in design.
- If yours is a small living room, then opt for delicate, small-scale patterns instead of extravagant ones. Avoid cramming the wall. Use neatly spaced floral patterns or a fine damask feature.
- If you have a larger living room, go for larger botanical motifs, Japanese motifs (cherry blossoms). For floral patterns, consider lilies or roses. When considering other patterns, go for brass, silver, or gold accents, bolder patterns. You can also consider geometric shapes and designs.
Lighting is one of the most essential aspects of Victorian living room ideas. Lighting choices should be made such that they are scaled according to the living space.
- For a vintage look, you can opt for exposed bulbs, chandeliers. They also offer an industrial feel to the place. You can also consider pendant lights if you really want to make lighting stand out.
- When it comes to colours for lighting fixtures, brass, copper, coloured glass, and wrought iron can create that opulence of the Victorian era. If you want to detail the fixtures, consider designs like filigree, beads, etc, that reflect the Victorian vibe.
- If you are purely for the ambience, wall sconces can add to the aesthetics.
A Victorian-inspired gallery wall is a combination of horizontal and vertical spaces. It is also a mix of modern and eccentric art works with touches of retro art as abstracts.
- Attach a mix of horizontal and vertical portraits and frames.
- Let the wall layout be asymmetrical while you create grids with 2 or 3 frames in line
Victorian living room ideas are never complete without furniture selections. A combination of contemporary and the classic, along with strategic placements of furniture, is crucial to attain cosiness and flow within the space.
- Go for over-the-top, oversized furniture with intricate detailing.
- Add footstools in front of the furniture to reinstate comfort along with style.
- Velvet and chenille add depth when blended. Try contrasts to add drama. For example, pair velvet or silk textures/patterns with leather or stripes.
- Persian rugs, and oriental rugs add warmth to the interior. Rectangular shaped rugs are classic from the past, while round shaped rugs add a bit of drama and character to the interiors. You can still consider adding that modern touch and make them sustainable by choosing natural fibers as materials.
An important feature of a Victorian living room is the fireplace. If you plan to add a fireplace, you must start by assessing the space and measure it to decide on the installation. Stone fireplaces are reminiscent of the Victorian era. Choosing a modern fireplace is more beneficial as they are energy efficient, compact, and can be altered to suit the area.
Conclusion
It is no doubt a huge challenge to create a Victorian living room inside your existing home. If you are on a budget but still are green with the plan, consider some contrasts. Try blending period elements with contemporary ones. You may have to shell out a lot of money if you desire to install authentic Victorian attributes. Instead, you can try replicas of the same.
Let your choices be loud and exaggerated. This is exactly what defines a Victorian living room.
Architecture has woven numerous projects quite intricately to help hundreds of our clients meet their desires whilst costing light on their pockets. If you are on the hunt for more such ideas, our specialists can offer you complete guidance till execution to help realise your dream of a period home.
