Victorian decorating

[DixieLandReject]

I have just bought a Victorian cottage and am looking for inspiration for doing it up. It needs a quite a bit of work but can only afford to do the kitchen and a bit of decorating for the moment.

I've been looking at various websites at lovely floral wallpapers and chandeliers.

Has anyone bought a house of this type and tried to sympathetically decorate? Any tips on where to look? I'd love to see some photos of living rooms and kitchens for inspiration.

Your old house UK - repair and conservation, Facebook.

I enjoy putting together Pinterest boards. At the moment I'm slightly obsessed with early Arts & Crafts movement style decor. Start with Morris & Co and look around at who else was making prints (fabrics & wallpapers) at that time (I like Voysey for example but a lot of his work was a bit later and although he was British his prints are not so easy to find in the U.K.). Arts & Crafts era had a big emphasis on the materials used (quality woodwork etc) and simplicity (that famous Morris quite "have nothing in your jobs that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful)

We've previously renovated a few Victorian houses sympathetically using period style wallpapers and colours. From about 2004 we began collecting Arts & Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau furniture and at one point our whole house was styled around those decorative movements - we had everything from cushions to lamps to rugs as well as original pottery etc.

In fact our last house whilst built in 1854, had been extended in the Arts & Crafts style so it was the perfect backdrop for all our treasures. Sadly, due to unforeseen circumstances we sold it before doing the place proper justice.

In our current house (400 years old but only converted to a residence about 150 years ago) we've used some William Morris and Voysey wallpapers - the Voysey pattern (Fool's Parsley) in our snug came from the US. The third wallpaper is a Liberty pattern - a contemporary take on the famous peacock feather motif - which we've used in our kitchen.

We sold the majority of our furniture/ornament collection when we downsized moving here and this house has a more eclectic vibe, but we kept some of the smaller items which we couldn't bear parting with as it's still my favourite architectural style. It's been fun putting together though and I think it still works ok! I'll attach a few pics of our wallpapers which might be helpful....

FB group called Victorian & Edwardian Renovations DIY (UK) is a good starting point. Also I Love My Period House!

Thanks everyone, I've joined the groups on fb. I have a feeling it's going to be a long journey, mostly due to budget really.

I saw home lovely floral wallpaper from Warner House which I fancy for the main sitting room but I would have no idea what furniture would match! I'll post the paper to see what you all think.

Wow, absolutely amazing. I would never think to put all those together but it really works! Interior design isn't my strong point, hence going to carry out lots of research!

I have a sixties / seventies house house but did the extension in a victorian style. Lots of patterned floor tiles

Here it is

Ooooh @LibertyLily I love your decor!

What are the blossoms in the vase in front of the stove and is the panelling and / or tiling in the bathroom original or did you add it?

(And excuse typo in the William Morris quote. Should be: "Have nothing in your HOME...")

Sienna Miller’s thatched cottage recently featured in AD and had some lovely interiors. You can find photos if you Google it.

@DixieLandReject there are a lot of greens in that wallpaper so you could put it with an olive green sofa but I think you might also want a contrasting colour to break it up. Maybe a few things in a pinkish or plumish tone (scatter cushions and lampshades for example).

I think I prefer the blue colourway of that wallpaper but I am always drawn to blue tones.

Beautiful home @LibertyLily. I also think that Warner house wallpaper is lovely. They have some gorgeous fabrics and wallpapers.
I live in a very old cottage. EBay and vintage/secondhand/ antique shops are your friends. Brown furniture is still too underrated and is beautiful and excellent quality compared to mass produced modern stuff. In terms of things like Morris fabrics for blinds and curtains I found eBay excellent for smallish amounts.
I also remember reading in The English Home to layer antiques and furniture by not picking everything from the same period - so it looks like it has built up over centuries much like you see when visiting Historic Houses or NT properties. So in my very old beamed little dining room I have an inherited Georgian tallboy, a 1630’s carved oak acorn pattern chest (inherited) and a late Victorian pot cupboard I bought in a junk shop a couple of decades ago. Simplicity works best in cottages too.
I would also suggest to always use natural materials for flooring, kitchens etc - plenty of wood and stone not modern plastics etc. shaker kitchens never date and suit old houses.
Your home sounds beautiful and good luck with the renovations.

Ps The English Home magazine is good inspiration for timeless period style. Sometimes I roll my eyes at it with the “country bolt hole” brigade featured and the slightly fawning language over the posh homeowners but it really is great to use as inspiration even for us modest homeowners. Try a years subscription as it is half the price of buying in shops. I like Period Living too. Country Homes and Interiors has tried to go a bit too modern In the last year and I don’t think it works.

Thank you @DixieLandReject. DH and I both have design backgrounds so in theory it should come a bit easier for us....however that's not always the case and I tend to agonise for ages over the perfect combination of patterns/colours etc 🙄

Like @WildCherryBlossom I'd definitely be pairing that Warner House pattern with sage/olive and dusky pink. Plum would work too. I'm always drawn to old oak furniture because of the Arts & Crafts connection and previously most of ours was oak. These days we have a mix of oak, darker wood (rosewood I think), painted pieces, black Besta cupboards from Ikea which have an almost Japanese look. We even have (shock, horror as it used to offend my Victorian sensibilities!) a bit of mid century teak! Somehow it all works together.

Definitely scour the likes of ebay for fabric remnants. I recently offloaded lots of my fabric stash which included small pieces of William Morris and Liberty prints plus a few cushions. There are bargains to be had if you're in the right place at the right time!

Thanks @LoveLabradors - I agree about layering periods and styles. Previously we were too attached to just two particular eras and it all became a bit too 'museum' stylee! DH always wanted more of an evolved country house look that paid no heed to matchy-matchy but it took a while to convince me...however he was of course right.

Thanks @WildCherryBlossom - they're just faux blossoms picked up in Homesense a few years back, but it's a dark room where real flowers/plants don't last terribly well.

The bathroom panelling (and floor tiling) was done by my talented DH. He did the panelling in the snug too. I'll try to find a pic and attach it.

We've a right old mash up of decorative bits and bobs here - Homesense has been a fairly good source of unusual stuff (if you can see beyond the acres of shiny shiny!), but tbh the majority of our decorative pieces have been put together over the years and are primarily vintage/antique from eBay, fleamarkets and carboots. The snug fire surround was an auction house find - we drove about 150 miles to collect it, only to find it didn't fit in the car - so had to borrow tools from the auctioneers to dismantle it!

@LibertyLily - “evolved country house style” was want I wanted to say but didn’t articulate properly 😊.

I'm so excited about doing it all but scared about getting it wrong like a sort of mish mash!

The sitting room has a gorgeous, oak, parquet floor which will need a bit of a spruce but I am so pleased it's there as I couldn't afford to put one in. The hallway currently has quarry tiles which I'm not keen on, they are very cold. I was thinking tile effect Amtico. I've read some comments on here that it looks plasticky and fake so will have to go to a showroom to see. I suspect actual tiling will be out of reach, price wise so may have to opt for it anyway!

I'm going to read all your suggestions properly later on and get started with some research. Thank you so much, I didn't know where to begin!

Good grief, that is absolutely stunning! stuff of dreams.

Maybe think about runner rugs for your quarry tiles?

Also good old eBay for stone flooring if you really wanted to change them? You would probably find someone selling leftovers from a big project that would work for a hallway?

@DixieLandReject it all sounds really exciting! So envious of your flooring! I would thoroughly recommend Osmo oil products for your parquet floor. We use it on our oak floor (supposed to do it every year but in reality we do it every other year). It always looks gorgeous when freshly done and it takes such good care of the wood. I mop the floor regularly ( kitchen) - it withstands everything kids & pets do to it.

I agree about keeping the quarry tiles. Use a rug to soften them up rather than covering with Amtico. That would be a shame.

@LibertyLily very effective your faux blossoms. A friend of mine has a big jug of faux hydrangeas in a dark corner and it really brightens up what could be a gloomy corner of the room. Such a good idea.

Also loving your DHs panelling! We are pondering a renovation project on a Victorian place. Picture book pretty exterior but little left in the way of features internally, I am keen to add panelling to create interest. Don't think my DH can see the point.

This is the hallway. The tiles are quite worn. I am in two minds about the Amtico as concerned about them looking a bit fake! I feel it needs warming up somehow. Maybe a chunky runner and warm lamp will help with that!

Oh I really like those tiles. The colour is warm, even if they aren't warm to the touch. Perhaps change the lighting / add some wall lights or a console table with a lamp on it. A rug. A blind on the window.

Lovely quarry tiles. Tk maxx online is great for inexpensive rugs. I never want to spend much on rugs with having cats and dogs. Maybe a softer more traditional light in the hallway - a lantern style? And yes to above with a pretty blind, a vintage console table and an old chair with pretty cushions.
You have a lovely and exciting time ahead @DixieLandReject with your project 😊