Homeowners who inhabit historic residences like Denver Squares could take a page from the fashionista’s handbook:
A touch of vintage makes a wardrobe pop. But dress head-to-toe in period clothing, and onlookers will assume this fashion offender is off to a costume ball or under consideration for a part in the next Merchant-Ivory film.
Admirers of turn-of-the-century homes are often inspired to respect and reflect the property’s history. Still, few things could be less practical these days than filling a house with antiques or going full-speed-ahead with late-Victorian-era décor. Instead, designers suggest using antiques like jewelry while updating the interior with fresh colors and rethinking spaces.
This is how designer Lisa Peck describes her approach to modern Victorian decorating: “Use design details and shapes that are true to the architectural period, but add some modern touches.”
Peck holds up a recent powder-room remodel in a Victorian home as an example. Her design team chose ornate tiles and a very traditional vanity to anchor the room. But they kept it fresh by adding a decorative aluminum panel below the sink (to conceal a radiator), funky beaded window treatments and a pale salmon hue. “Unexpected splashes of color, warmer neutral, modern materials or whimsical detailing can give the interior a contemporary look,” Peck says, who lives in Minneapolis.
New Jersey-based interior designer Jeffrey Haines describes his style as “clean English continental and classic with contemporary flavor.” He recently won accolades for his modern Victorian take on the drawing room inside a 1771 house refurbished for the annual Mansion in May philanthropic fund-raiser in New Jersey.
Haines says a significant challenge when decorating Victorian- and Queen Anne-era homes is rethinking the use of space. During the Victorian era – which was marked by opulence and prosperity resulting from the Industrial Revolution – each little square room of the house had a specific purpose: sewing room, dressing room, parlor, library, butler’s pantry and so on. These days, families want more open floor plans and multi-functional rooms.
“The part that does not work comfortably today are the (ideas) about what those rooms have to be,” Haines says. “Switch their usage so they are more inviting.”
Federal antiques punctuate his Mansion in May contribution, which was formerly a drawing room. Haines switched up the way the room can be used by arranging multiple seating areas with upholstered pieces covered in light, lush fabrics.
“We envision the inhabitants of this home as nostalgic, as well as sophisticated,” says Haines, who adds that showhouse visitors responded well to the idea that the space could used for anything from reading or sewing to a small dinner party.
“There isn’t really a no-no other than don’t go too far with any one thing,” he says.
A recent episode of the HGTV show “Sensible Chic” challenged designers to transform a pedestrian bedroom into a modern Victorian haven. They painted white walls cream and replaced pink carpet with a blue-gray offering. They stenciled a light-blue border around the room’s upper perimeter, installed dramatic drapes, added a window seat and a pair of grand, thrift-store paintings.
California designer Caryl Kurtzman also told viewers how to achieve the look on-the-cheap.
“You can get a lot of effect from paint,” she says in the show’s synopsis. Stenciled wall treatments and wallpaper borders also enhance a historic flavor while “piling up a bunch of pillows (and) mixing textures and colors will give you a terrific effect.”
Staff writer Elana Ashanti Jefferson can be reached at 303-820-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com.
Picking your period touches
The Victorian era was defined as a period of excess. In full flower, Victorian style was dark, cluttered and excessively embellished. Fusing elements of Victorian style with modern fabrics and shapes can be an effective way to update an historic home. Those elements included:
Scale was large in every aspect: big rooms, coffered ceilings, ornate moldings and stained glass, highly carved, darkly stained furniture and woodwork, dense wallpaper patterns, heavy ornamentation of all kinds, oversized fringes and tassels, potted ferns and knickknacks.
Paintings with very romantic themes, photographs, mirrors, prints and drawings, all with heavily embellished frames, were packed floor to ceiling, rather than placed at regular intervals along the walls.
Windows were elegantly dressed in layers of draperies, scarves, sconces and sheers.
Wallpapers were bold in color and pattern. Combinations of wainscoting, chair rails, walls and ceiling borders were popular. Ceilings were commonly papered as well.
Floors and woodwork in the main area of the house most often had natural finishes with elaborate inlays.
Several movements within the Victorian era were embraced by the popular imagination. Gothic Revival, inspired by medieval times, was marked by carved dark wood and pointed-arch windows.
The Rococo and Renaissance Revivals brought increases in comfort, a less theatrical appearance and softer colors.
Source: The Home Depot
