Decorating: How to Gently Bring a Victorian Home into the 21st Century
Bring your Victorian home up to date while still celebrating its original details with these stylish but sensitive ideas
Many of us live in Victorian homes. From handsome town houses to humble terraces, properties from this period were typically solidly built and simply configured. Inside, they were full of interesting features, including sash windows, ceiling roses, cast-iron fireplaces, cornicing and tall skirting boards.
These days, we consider these original features as integral a part of the interior as the kitchen sink, but it wasn’t always the case. Cheap modernising swept through Britain after the Second World War and only really calmed down in the 1980s. During that time, many fireplaces, panelled doors and cornices were ripped out and replaced with plywood, melamine and lurid wallcoverings in a bid to bring Victorian homes up to date.
Today, though, a more considered approach is the norm. We want to preserve or reinstate original features to bring character to our home without compromising on contemporary style and functionality. Often this means marrying hallways, living rooms and bedrooms bursting with authentic character with a highly efficient kitchen and bathroom. But there are other ways of celebrating your Victorian home’s ancestry without living in a museum piece. Here’s how…
These days, we consider these original features as integral a part of the interior as the kitchen sink, but it wasn’t always the case. Cheap modernising swept through Britain after the Second World War and only really calmed down in the 1980s. During that time, many fireplaces, panelled doors and cornices were ripped out and replaced with plywood, melamine and lurid wallcoverings in a bid to bring Victorian homes up to date.
Today, though, a more considered approach is the norm. We want to preserve or reinstate original features to bring character to our home without compromising on contemporary style and functionality. Often this means marrying hallways, living rooms and bedrooms bursting with authentic character with a highly efficient kitchen and bathroom. But there are other ways of celebrating your Victorian home’s ancestry without living in a museum piece. Here’s how…
Preserve original floorboards
We are still as obsessed with original boards as we were a few decades ago, when it became fashionable to rip up carpet and show off the wood beneath. Even battered and worn boards can be repaired and patched, so seek renovation advice before giving up on your Victorian originals.
We are still as obsessed with original boards as we were a few decades ago, when it became fashionable to rip up carpet and show off the wood beneath. Even battered and worn boards can be repaired and patched, so seek renovation advice before giving up on your Victorian originals.
Create contrast with cornicing
Ornate plasterwork cornicing was beloved by the Victorians, but you can reinvent it today, while also making it stand out, by painting a bold shade around it. This is a neat way of both celebrating and modernising an original feature.
Take a look at more photos of traditional hallways like this one in our photos section.
Be inspired to rethink your ceiling colour
Ornate plasterwork cornicing was beloved by the Victorians, but you can reinvent it today, while also making it stand out, by painting a bold shade around it. This is a neat way of both celebrating and modernising an original feature.
Take a look at more photos of traditional hallways like this one in our photos section.
Be inspired to rethink your ceiling colour
Celebrate a ceiling rose
Original features such as ceiling roses are great assets, but you can bring them gloriously up to date. Why not juxtapose a contemporary light fitting with a traditional plasterwork rose? In this living space, the lattice design of the shades throws interesting shadows onto the ceiling, drawing the eye up, so you can’t fail to spot the original features.
Original features such as ceiling roses are great assets, but you can bring them gloriously up to date. Why not juxtapose a contemporary light fitting with a traditional plasterwork rose? In this living space, the lattice design of the shades throws interesting shadows onto the ceiling, drawing the eye up, so you can’t fail to spot the original features.
Use bold colour
Today’s moody dark hues work brilliantly with Victorian features and are in keeping with that period’s love of dark shades. Here, a cloudy grey looks striking alongside an original fireplace. Avoid cluttering the mantelpiece with objects, which will tax the eye, especially if there are decorative tiles on the fire surround. A striking, contemporary artwork hung above, on the other hand, strikes just the right note of edgy modernity.
Browse contemporary accessories to complement your Victorian home in the Houzz shop
Today’s moody dark hues work brilliantly with Victorian features and are in keeping with that period’s love of dark shades. Here, a cloudy grey looks striking alongside an original fireplace. Avoid cluttering the mantelpiece with objects, which will tax the eye, especially if there are decorative tiles on the fire surround. A striking, contemporary artwork hung above, on the other hand, strikes just the right note of edgy modernity.
Browse contemporary accessories to complement your Victorian home in the Houzz shop
Add a sleek extension
No house, however beautiful, should stay static, so don’t be afraid to add striking contemporary style to your Victorian home. Thousands of properties from this period have been extended, with a super-sleek kitchen-diner added to a period frontage — and it works! Much of family life can take place in the large, contemporary extension, while smaller rooms in the original Victorian side of the house offer more intimate space.
No house, however beautiful, should stay static, so don’t be afraid to add striking contemporary style to your Victorian home. Thousands of properties from this period have been extended, with a super-sleek kitchen-diner added to a period frontage — and it works! Much of family life can take place in the large, contemporary extension, while smaller rooms in the original Victorian side of the house offer more intimate space.
Expose brick walls
You can reference the industrial buildings and lofts of the period in any Victorian home by exposing the brickwork. Just one wall, or even a section of it, with visible bricks brings a raw, rustic quality to any space.
See more beautiful bare brick
You can reference the industrial buildings and lofts of the period in any Victorian home by exposing the brickwork. Just one wall, or even a section of it, with visible bricks brings a raw, rustic quality to any space.
See more beautiful bare brick
Avoid contemporary clichés
Certain ingredients crop up time and again in contemporary conversions and extensions. Bifold doors, for example, are much loved for their ability to blend inside and out. But if you wish to bring your Victorian home up to date in a more subtle way, steer clear of these choices and source more timeless options that will bridge the gap between the decade in which your home was built and today. In this kitchen, for example, the owners have fitted a door and windows rather than the typical wall of folding doors. It prevents the space looking too ‘now’ and means there’s room to build in bench seating with views over the garden.
Certain ingredients crop up time and again in contemporary conversions and extensions. Bifold doors, for example, are much loved for their ability to blend inside and out. But if you wish to bring your Victorian home up to date in a more subtle way, steer clear of these choices and source more timeless options that will bridge the gap between the decade in which your home was built and today. In this kitchen, for example, the owners have fitted a door and windows rather than the typical wall of folding doors. It prevents the space looking too ‘now’ and means there’s room to build in bench seating with views over the garden.
Invest in new classics
These days, modernising a Victorian home is more about making it function well while still preserving its character. We are less interested in creating a stark, modern look in a period property. So look out for fittings that reference the period, but offer contemporary efficiency. It can be expensive and time consuming to source original, reconditioned pieces from the Victorian period, but newly made versions of traditional designs are widely available. You can find everything from radiators to tiles that are dead ringers for the real thing while offering the benefits of being newly manufactured.
Browse through thousands of traditional bedrooms to inspire your renovation
These days, modernising a Victorian home is more about making it function well while still preserving its character. We are less interested in creating a stark, modern look in a period property. So look out for fittings that reference the period, but offer contemporary efficiency. It can be expensive and time consuming to source original, reconditioned pieces from the Victorian period, but newly made versions of traditional designs are widely available. You can find everything from radiators to tiles that are dead ringers for the real thing while offering the benefits of being newly manufactured.
Browse through thousands of traditional bedrooms to inspire your renovation
Upcycle period pieces
Source some inexpensive Victorian pine furniture – chests of drawers, cabinets and blanket boxes are easy to find in flea markets and on eBay – and bring them up to date by stripping them back or painting them a bright shade. Add new knobs or handles, too, for a fresh look. These upcycled pieces will feel at home in your Victorian property without looking stuffy.
Have you improved your Victorian home? Share your tips and photos in the Comments below.
Source some inexpensive Victorian pine furniture – chests of drawers, cabinets and blanket boxes are easy to find in flea markets and on eBay – and bring them up to date by stripping them back or painting them a bright shade. Add new knobs or handles, too, for a fresh look. These upcycled pieces will feel at home in your Victorian property without looking stuffy.
Have you improved your Victorian home? Share your tips and photos in the Comments below.
Victorian homes were typically fitted with simple sash windows. If you have original ones, repairing and waterproofing them can help them live a long and beautiful life. Also consider upgrading sashes with double glazing – numerous companies can fit double-glazed units into existing frames. Alternatively, there are companies that can manufacture authentic replacements.