Living Room Decoration

The Victorians deserve credit for introducing a style that allowed them to have warm and cozy homes and thus conveyed their interest in maintaining households.

Entire house, as well as living room itself, was decorated in such a fashion that it made the ceilings look lower and the room smaller, thus creating a very intimate atmosphere. These days the style would look a bit odd but many householders are keen to revive that Victorian look. Though the idea may not work very well with houses having modern designs, apartments would look nice and warm, more so with furnishings in Victorian styles. The Victorian style patronized a limited number of colors, comprising mostly of reds, greens, purple, salmon pink and lilac.

One reason for that could be the non-availability of the range of colors that we get these days, thus colors like sunshine yellows and white were not at all patronized. Their choice of using rich and dark colors didn’t essentially result to having gloomy interiors. Those looking to having something similar can still have that feel of spaciousness and good lighting.

Victorian Wall Treatment: The customary way of decorating living room in Victorian times consisted of dividing the wall area into quite a few parts.

*Pine was the wood used most frequently and it was always painted with skirting board as deep as sixteen inches and was painted in colors contrasting to the wall above.

*Wallpaper would be used to cover the area from the skirting board to the dado rail. The designs would be deeply textured. Finally, it was given a coat of shimmering gloss paint. These days, people may not like to have the walls of the living room covered with glossy paint.Yet, plain colored wallpaper with an appealing design should look good. It would be interesting to know that originally a dado rail comprised of molded wood that was attached to the wall at a suitable height so that the backs of chairs wouldn’t hit against the wall and spoil the same. Now it has become a design feature and can be fixed at any appropriate height, usually four feet from floor gives best results.

*The dado rail would customarily be painted to match the wall beneath it or the skirting board. The space above the dado rail would be covered with wallpaper having colored patterns. Usually, the Victorian décor patronized botanical themes that had leafy floral designs. As an extension of the same theme you may have a floral wallpaper, else have one depicting plants on a white background that goes well with the paper beneath the dado rail. In case the room is small, care should be taken to have smaller designs, else the room will give crowded looks.

*The wallpaper would go up till it met the picture rail. As a matter of fact, it was just a strip of molded wood that was painted to go with the wall above and it went around all the walls of the room at the height of the door frame. They would hang pictures using strings that were attached to hooks on the picture railing.

*Space between the ceiling and the picture rail could be filled with anything. It could have more moldings, coving, a relief frieze, cornices and even more of floral wallpaper in a design different from the one beneath it.

*Victorian ceilings had dark cream paints. If you like to have more light reflecting back, let the ceiling have an off white paint and continue with the same shade down till you reach the picture railing.