The Victorian Era

Victorian Interior Design

Article · Architecture & Design · The Victorian Era, 1837–1901

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The Victorian interior was as varied as the Victorian exterior, and it was shaped by the same forces. The interior of the early Victorian period was generally dark, heavy, and cluttered, with deep colours, dense patterns, and a great deal of furniture, fabric, and ornament. The interior of the mid-Victorian period was generally lighter, airier, and more comfortable, with more space, more light, more colour, and a greater attention to convenience and the comforts of family life. The interior of the late Victorian period was generally simpler and more aesthetic, shaped by the Aesthetic Movement, the Arts and Crafts Movement, the influence of Japanese design, and the early stirrings of Art Nouveau. The history of the interior is examined in Victorian Architecture and Interior Design, and the furniture of the period is examined in Victorian Furniture and Decorative Arts.

The Hall

The hall was the principal entrance of the Victorian house, and it was the first room that the visitor saw. It was generally a long, narrow, tall room, with a wooden or tiled floor, a dado, a staircase, and a fireplace, and it was furnished with a hatstand, an umbrella stand, a settle or hall chair, a table, a mirror, and a clock. The hall was often decorated with antlers, hunting trophies, sporting prints, family portraits, mottoes, and encaustic tiles, and the floor was frequently laid with Minton or Godwin tiles in a bold geometric pattern.

The staircase was the principal set piece of the hall. In a small suburban house it might be a plain dog-leg stair with turned balusters and a mahogany handrail, lit from a window on the landing. In a larger house it was a grand, sweeping, often cantilevered stair with a richly carved newel, a heavy moulded handrail, and a substantial balustrade, lit from above by a coloured glass lantern or a leaded skylight, and it was one of the visual centrepieces of the house.

The Drawing Room

The drawing room was the principal reception room of the middle-class house, and it was the room in which the family received guests, took afternoon tea, performed music, and spent the late afternoon and evening. It was generally the largest and most richly decorated room of the house, lit by a chandelier or gasolier, warmed by a marble fireplace with an overmantel mirror, and furnished with sofas, settees, chaises longues, balloon-back chairs, occasional tables, cabinets, and whatnots crowded with ornaments.

The windows of the drawing room were dressed with layers of fabric: outer curtains of rep or velvet, inner curtains of lace or muslin, a pelmet, a valance, swags, tassels, and fringes. The walls were covered in wallpaper, generally with a substantial pattern; the dado was often of a different colour or of a different pattern from the wall above; and the ceiling was generally a pale colour with a moulded cornice. The principal feature of the room was usually the fireplace, with its marble or wood surround, its overmantel, its cast-iron insert, and its tiles, often painted with a classical or medieval subject. The principal reception room is examined in What is a Victorian parlor?.

The Dining Room

The dining room was the principal eating room of the house, and it was the room in which the family took its meals and entertained its dinner guests. It was generally a long, narrow, tall room, with a wooden floor, a dado, a fireplace, and a chandelier or gasolier, and it was furnished with a large dining table, a set of dining chairs, a sideboard for the display of plate, and a serving table. The decoration of the dining room was generally darker and more masculine in character than that of the drawing room, often in deep red, deep green, or dark oak.

The dining table was the centre of the room, generally extending to seat the family and a number of guests, and the sideboard was its most conspicuous piece of furniture, generally a heavy, late-Georgian or William IV mahogany or oak piece, often inherited from the previous generation and set with a display of silver plate. The dining chairs generally matched the table, in mahogany or oak, with leather, horsehair, or rep seats. The dining room is examined in the broader context of Victorian Architecture and Interior Design.

The Bedroom

The bedroom was the principal sleeping room of the house, and it was the room in which the family slept, dressed, and took its morning tea. The principal piece of furniture was the bed, generally a four-poster, a half-tester, or, later in the period, a brass or iron bedstead. The four-poster of the 1840s and 1850s, hung with heavy curtains and crowned with a deep cornice, gave way by the 1880s to the lighter brass or iron bedstead, hung with lighter curtains, and by the 1890s to the simple iron or wooden bedstead, hung with white cotton or dimity, of the Aesthetic interior.

The other furniture of the bedroom included the dressing table, with its swing mirror, its pin cushion, its ewer and basin, and its pomade pots; the washstand, with its jug and basin, its soap dish, and its ewer; the chest of drawers, in mahogany, walnut, or oak; the wardrobe, in the same woods, often with bevelled mirror doors; the bedside table, with its candle, its matches, and its book; and, in the late period, the wickerwork or cane chair of the Aesthetic interior.

The Kitchen, the Scullery, and the Servants’ Rooms

The kitchen was the principal working room of the house, and it was generally situated in the basement, with a separate servants’ staircase, a separate entrance, and a separate set of bells connecting it to the rooms above. The scullery, the larder, the pantry, the butler’s pantry, the housekeeper’s room, and the servants’ hall were situated around it, generally in a planned sequence, and the whole basement was a self-contained working unit.

The servants’ quarters of the larger houses were substantial: a butler, a housekeeper, a cook, a kitchen maid, one or more housemaids, a lady’s maid, a nurse, a footman or two, and perhaps a coachman and a groom. The butler’s pantry contained the plate, the glass, and the silver, and was generally fitted with mahogany or oak shelves, lead-lined counters, and a small safe. The housekeeper’s room was her sitting room and office, generally a small, well-furnished room, often with a fireplace, a desk, a chest of drawers, and a cupboard for the household linen.

The Colours and the Wallpapers

The colour scheme of the Victorian interior was one of its most distinctive features. The early Victorian palette was deep and saturated — crimson, claret, bottle green, Prussian blue, chrome yellow, and chocolate brown, generally set against dark woodwork and richly patterned surfaces. The mid-Victorian palette was lighter and more varied, transformed by the new aniline dyes of the 1850s and 1860s. The late Victorian palette was muted, with sage, olive, dove grey, taupe, and mushroom the dominant colours. The history of the palette is examined in What defines a Victorian color palette?, and the history of the wallpapers is examined in How to identify Victorian wallpapers?.

The Legacy

The Victorian interior shaped the modern British home. The hall, the staircase, the drawing room, the dining room, the bedroom, the kitchen, the scullery, the pantry, and the servants’ quarters were all brought to a high level of planning and finish in the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s; the sideboard, the china cabinet, the whatnot, the balloon-back chair, the ottoman, the chaise longue, and the four-poster were all standard pieces by the 1880s; and the Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts interiors of the 1890s set the pattern for the artistic interior of the early twentieth century. The furniture of the period is examined in Victorian Furniture and Decorative Arts.