Heavily ornate items, such as scrolling and floral chandeliers, are essential to creating a Victorian bedroom.
Queen Victoria favored abundantly feminine and ornate decor during her reign in the 1800s, lending her name to what we call Victorian decor. This decor caught on and decorators still use it today for feminine or formal rooms, such as bedrooms. Decorate your bedroom in Victorian style if you want a heavily decorated, frilly space that's soft and feminine. Victorian bedrooms can work for couples as well, if you use a few neutral colors or blues to offset the frilly and floral patterns.
Instructions
1. Hang wallpaper with heavy patterns including floral, scroll or damask designs. Pink, blue, red, green and gold were popular colors during the Victorian era. If patterns are too much for you, consider painting the walls in a soft hue, such as pink, blue or ivory. Cover one wall with a simple scrolling or damask pattern.
2. Lay a colorful, intricate Oriental rug at the foot of your bed or place a series of Oriental runners around the room. Let the hardwood floors show around the edges if you have them, or cover as much of the carpet with the Oriental rugs as possible.
3. Position an ornate bed against a full wall, if possible. Victorian beds typically have intricately hand-carved wooden head and foot boards or decorative canopies. Wrought iron or brass beds also complement Victorian decor. Carved wood dressers, night tables and vanities with marble tops are ideal. Dark cherry or mahogany wood is typical of Victorian decor.
4. Hang mirrors and picture frames with gilded black or gold frames on the walls. Needlepoint pictures or ornate wall sconces are fitting as well. Consider mirrors and sconces on patterned walls and floral pictures or needlepoint on plain walls.
5. Layer lacy curtains under heavy draperies in rich fabrics and patterns, such as floral-print velvet drapes. Use valances and tiebacks with ornate tassels and corded ties. Hang the window treatments on rods with hand-carved wooden finials. Avoid covering stained glass windows, as they were quite popular during the Victorian era.
6. Cover the dresser and night tables with lacy doilies. Toss needlepoint pillows on top of the bed, and on an overstuffed chair or love seat covered with a floral pattern, if there's room. Place hand-painted lamps that boast intricate floral designs on the bed tables. Arrange your knickknacks and decorative collections on top of shelves, the vanity, dresser or any other surface you have available. Over-decorating is simply not possible with Victorian decor.
Tags: Victorian decor, during Victorian, hand-carved wooden, night tables
