Interior deco style for period house

[AllBuggiedOut]

We recently moved to a house that was probably built in the 17th century, 1700 at the latest. Does anybody know where I can find, online if poss, info about what house interiors were like at that time? I can find stuff about Georgian properties but I think that's a bit late for ours, although I don't really know what period ours falls into... Any historians or interior deco gurus out there please?

TIA

Hmm - looks like it would be either Stuart or Queen Anne , do you think?

I can find you two books on Amazon - look up Judith Miller and Period Style.
I would also try the V & A website, and also, English Heritage for a house of this age.
You are looking at Restoration period I would guess, but I live in a 30s semi so am not qualified to comment other than how lovely for you.

JackieNo, on the other hand, is a Style Queen

(I don't really do house style - not something I know anything about, sadly, but am happy to google lots)

Are you looking to decorate ? A lot depends on the nature of the house - like whether it was a farmstead/town house/mansion and so on.

My grandmother lives in a house that dates from 1645. It was originally a wedding-feast house. So would have been used by the local villagers for festivals. Subsequently was divided up internally (1700's) to provide separate rooms, but you can still see the original massive fireplace and work out where the external staircase was. Also if you look in her woodshed you can see the original jetties (sp?) as in the 1800's it was extended below.

Fascinating stuff. I have a great book on how to date houses and vernacular building styles. Don't know the name and it's in ds's bedroom.

By the way - her houseis just whitewashed inside, with the odd bit of Wiliam Morris wallpaper. Needed to be fairly light because lots of wood around.

I think Marina's right - if you look at the Restoration bit, it seems to cover the right time span. And I'd also guess that Pooka's completely right - the style also depends on what sort of building it is - rustic, town house, etc.

And, of course, look at the National Trust properties for the period. Squerryes is a great example because it's not a an opulent, show-off place.
If you are in a townhouse, Spitalfields in London is a good place to start as it was heavily developed post the Great Fire in 1666, so a superb example of small-scale domestic architecture of that period.
I think one house is decorated entirely in keeping with its origins and can be visited
Also the Geffrye Museum in the East End has room settings for various periods in history, if you can get there. And their bookshop might be a good source of mail-order items

Wow - thanks ladies.

It's a town house, and I think the interior was ripped to shreds in the late 1980s and completely remodelled. All the interior walls seem to be plasterboard! There are a few (lovely) exposed beams upstairs but I think all the "features" you see downstairs were the 1980s additions.

I am loving the panelled rooms on the websites (although sadly the decorating budget is unlikely to stretch to that...). Yes, Pooka, we just need to decorate as at the moment we're surrounded by flowery boarders and pink and yellow walls. Not nice... Your grandmother's house sounds amazing. How did she find out the history?

Am planning to rip up the carpet in the bedroom upstairs tomorrow and am hoping to find gorgeous wide floorboards

Well, it's listed so when English Heritage list a house they write up the features that make it listable IYSWIM. YOu can get hold of a copy of the listing from EH or from your local council.
Also, my aunt is a historical buildings consultant and so knows a lot about the subject.
Local history sections at your local reference library can also be useful - not least for looking at historical ordnance survey maps to see how an area developed over the centuries.

Dulux do an excellent range of Heritage paints - they have a collection specifically for the Georgian period. Cheaper than F&B, and according to FIL (a decorator) give far better coverage. They have the same lovely flat matt look as F&B.

Sounds like you've got a lot of work to do!

If you're interested in finding out the history of the house, the national archive has some advice here .

Good luck

footstep
x

Thanks footstep. I think it will be really helpful to know how it woud have been decotrated in the past - not so we can recreate it exactly, but so we don't do anything that looks too silly!

As you say, busy times ahead

I think the key with old houses is to see them as a work in progress really. By that I mean that you can't live in a museum and it would be wrong to completely deck a house out in a static style, like a time-capsule. Better to have a variety of fabrics/paint colours or wall papers to reflect the way a house has evolved over time. After all, people have lived in your house in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and you could borrow the best of each period to make a more eclectic look.
Not sure if that makes sense, but for example, my grandmother's house is pretty much white, but she has the odd william morris/liberty cushion cover or curtain. Bits of wallpaper here and there. Rugs and so on. Furniture from the very old to the more modern. It seems to work because it seems lived in, comfortable and unstaged.

Good advice, thanks Pooka. The lounge is the room that bothers me most because of the dado rail - the wallpaper at the moment makes the room feel very formal which just isn't right for the house at all. But do like the idea of William Morris papers. Much sofer and friendlier. And will definitely be on to English Heritage in the morning...

You might find this website useful - though it is mainly aimed at Georgian and younger - it has a forum where you can get advice on renovations etc.

this one

Queen Anne?
Try V & A -they do guides to different periods and their interior designs.
www.vam.ac.uk
sounds lovely house by the way!