So, you have been binge watching British series set in Victorian eras like “The Alienist” or “Alias Grace” and can’t get enough of the majestic design of their houses? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. We too have sometimes been dreaming of having a Victorian Bedroom.
One of the most prominent characteristics of Victorian designs are contrasting color and rich pattern all around the room. While originally earthy tone color such as brown, red, amber, beige, and green are used, a more modern take on Victorian designs use ‘loud’ bright colors while keeping the pattern and contrasting characteristic.
Furnitures are usually made of dark woods with intricate ornament and carvings. High quality fabric such as silk and velvet are widely used for practically everything, from window curtains to decorative pillow cover.
While most of these are costly, some of them can be done without having to sell your kidney. Here are some ideas you can do to create your own Victorian bedroom so you can travel back to the 1800s even without costumes and wigs.
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Use Victorian window accessories
A red, long velvet curtain with gold sash is one of the easiest ways to give your bedroom a Victorian feel.
Alternatively, you can use floral pattern jacquard to give it an antique touch. You can use similar material for your pillow and couch cover as well so you can buy the material in bulk and save some cost.
If your budget is limited or you would rather spend your money elsewhere, you can simply get rid of the velvet curtain and just use a white lace as a cover for your window. It is a simple yet efficient way.
Swirly or floral pattern carpet or rug
Since one of Victorian design prominent characteristics is the use of floral and rich pattern, using a swirly pattern carpet will instantly give your room a Victorian theme.
If you are not keen on carpeted floor and prefer a parquet floor for your bedroom, you can use a rug instead. It will still give your room a Victorian theme with minimum effort.
You can use a large rug next to your bed, or a few smaller rugs scattered across the room.
Adding fireplace
If you are not a fan of complicated decorating ideas that require a lot of small details, this one is for you.
Although this idea can be costly, if you have the means to do it adding a fireplace is a sureway to turn your room into an antique bedroom. It fills up the space and even with minimum decoration it will still give your room a vintage 1800s vibe.
Victorian style stained glass window
What better way to infuse a gothic atmosphere than to use stained glass windows? Obviously, it doesn’t have to look like a gothic Cathedral window with stories engraved on it. A simple pattern stained glass would suffice.
If you want to limit your budget or still prefer a lot of natural lighting, instead of going full stained glass you can use it only for the top part or the sides of your window.
Victorian furnitures
If you like the traditional approach and wants to go full Victorian for all your furnitures then by all means go ahead.
However, if you prefer the modern approach you can simply buy Victorian style bed and wardrobe and mix it with the rest of your modern furnitures.
For an even more modern approach, instead of buying the furnitures in dark wood that is the common theme of Victorian era, you can buy the furnitures in white or cream. Combine them with parquet floor and voila, you have your modern Victorian bedroom.
Modern victorian style bedding
Using a Victorian bedding will instantly give your room a Victorian theme as it is the main furniture in your bedroom.
There are literally hundreds of options for a modern Victorian style bedding. From the classic color of gold, black, and navy to brighter colours such as purple and pink.
While usually silk is used for luxury bedding, you can opt for satin instead. With a fraction of the cost, it gives similar smooth surface and sheer appearance. Moreover, unlike silk most satin can be cleaned using washing machine! What more can you ask for?
Collages of small ornaments on the wall
This one is for you if you love doing details. Instead of hanging a huge portrait, you can hang several smaller pictures of you and your loved ones using intricate vintage frames and organize them on one side of the wall.
Moreover, you can mix the pictures with paintings and ornaments to obtain more texture and contrasting design. Don’t be afraid to throw in modern or French style paintings and ornaments into your collages!
Floral or swirly pattern wallpaper
Similar with carpet, having floral or swirly pattern dominating your room will instantly transform your room into a Victorian bedroom. You can combine the patterned wallpaper with either similar pattern carpet or parquet floor for a more minimalistic look.
Throw in different pattern for your curtain, bed sheet, or couch cover to get that contrasting characteristic. It is best to use neutral color such as white or cream as the base color to help balancing the contrasting pattern.
Wall decor
Another characteristic of Victorian design is textures as shown by its intricate carvings on the furniture. Another way to get texture in the room is by using vintage wall décor.
You can use French wall décor with delicate carvings or Victorian one with more gothic style. Alternatively, if you want a more modern approach, you can use 3D wall sticker with swirly patterns. You can use silver or black stickers to get that modern, sleek, yet somehow vintage vibe.
Decorative pillows
Ever wonder why those small square pillows are not fluffy like regular pillows? Because its job is not to make you sleep, like the name, its job is to decorate the room. Whether you have unlimited budget or very limited resources, this simple idea can easily infuse Victorian vibe to your room.
From silk with intricate embroidery, velvet cover with flashy fringe, or a simple white or cream lace you can not go wrong with it. You don’t even need to have the exact same pattern for the decorative pillow and couch cover, just make sure they are made from similar fabric.
Window seating
If you have limited space in your room, instead of putting a sofa you can opt for a window seating. Aside from saving space, just imagine how nice it is to seat comfortably with your legs straigthen while reading a book with natural lighting right next to you.
You can use similar material for your window curtain and window seating cover to save some money as you can buy the material in bulk. You can simply line the edge of the curtain with fringe and the seating cover with lace to have some variety.
Use bright colours
Although earthy colors such as green, red, and ambers are commonly used in Victorian period, bright colours are popular choices for a modern version of Victorian bedroom. Nowadays people use pink, purple, and blue for the wall colours and neutral colors such as cream or white for the furnitures.
Alternatively, if you already have a theme neutral room, you can easily slip in the bright colors in your bed sheets, lamps, or even wall ornaments. This way your room will still be antique without making it feel dull due to lack of color.
Dark wood furnitures and flooring
There can’t possibly be too much wood when it comes to Victorian era. Favorite dark woods used for furnitures are mahogany, oak, walnut, and rosewood. Each has different shade, texture, and hardness.
You can use dark woods for the couch, bed frame, cabinets, closets, and even window frame. While for flooring, parquet made with engineered wood instead of full solid wood is a popular choice nowadays as it is more affordable.
Let the room lit well through natural lighting
Back in the 1800s natural lighting plays a big role as people during that era spends a lot of time reading or writing and rely on natural lighting to do so. That is why enormous windows can be found in every corner of the house, including the bedroom.
Multiple large window pannels will allow natural lighting and giving your room the warmth and vintage theme that you can’t obtain through LED light.
Antique Victorian floor lamp
While you don’t have to use an oil lamp, you can certainly use one or two electrical floor lamps with antique Victorian design next to your bed. Not only it doesn’t take a lot of space, they are both functional and decorative.
Although traditional victorian floor lamp have plain white or cream color, there is no reason why you can’t put more colors on it. You can use similar or matching fabrics with your window curtains, you put lace on it, or you can also use fringes for extra flair.
High post bed frame
There is a reason why all king and queen beds during the Victorian era has a high post bed frame. Not only it is expensive because it needs more material and more difficult to make, it is very eye catching and simply screams rich.
You can pair your high post bed frame with embroidered silk bedding, a fluffy duvet cover and some decorative pillows to give it an even more luxurious feel.
Drapery over bed
To step it up from the high post bed frame, you can also put drapery over your bed. If you are aiming for the luxurious theme, you can use full drapery that looks like curtain for your bed with similar material of your bed sheet.
If you want something simple, you can use white lace or tulle then twist it around and across the posts.
Alternatively, if you only have regular bed frame, you can put drapery on the wall behind your bed head frame to achieve similar Victorian bedroom theme.
High ceiling
As Victorian design is associated with heavy ornaments and accessories, a high ceiling is needed to give more space so the room does not feel suffocating even with the enormous amount of ornaments and contrasting patterns.
If you are able to incorporate high ceiling into your room, it is a sure way to give your room a Victorian theme. Moreover, it will allow more natural lighting to come into your room and thus complementing the vintage vibe.
Use a chandelier (or few of them)
If you have a high ceiling in your room, you definitely should take an advantage of it. You can put a chandelier, or a few smaller chandeliers depending on how big your bedroom is.
If you like simple, minimalistic approach, using a chandelier will allow you to get away with minimum decorations. You can have plain painted walls and parquet floor, and yet your room won’t feel empty or boring as the chandelier will stand out even more.
Hand painted ceiling
This one is for you if you are into classic art and gothic style. Similar with the stain glass window, one of the most prominent characteristics of gothich cathedral is their hand painted ceiling.
However, just because it is a hand painted ceiling doesn’t mean it has to be a scene from the Bible drawn on the top of your bed. You can use decorative pattern designs that will complement your flooring or wall, or even a simple blue sky with clouds. Choose whatever that will work best for your own Victorian bedroom.
Have a bookshelf in your bedroom
Back in the 1800s people didn’t read using kindle or iPad, that’s why every luxurious household will have their own library. Often times they will have a giant bookshelf in their bedroom to place their favorite books.
While traditionally bookshelf only had sections for books, modern bookshelf contains different sections so you can put pictures, albums, or whatever you want in it. Instead of using dark wood as the material, you can use plywood and paint it with whatever color of your choice.
Traditional Victorian style bedding
There is hardly anything that can be more Victorian than a traditional white or cream bedding with laces and layers that goes to the floor. With this bedding, even if you have minimum decoration your room will still have that Victorian theme.
Alternatively, if you are looking for a more modern option, you can use bright colors such as pink or purple with floral pattern and lace on the edge. Remember that contrasting characteristic is part of a Victorian design, so don’t be afraid to throw in some color.
Decorate your table with vintage accessories
What if none of your furniture and bedding has a Victorian theme to it? Can you still create a Victorian bedroom theme somehow? Yes, you can!
Put a white lace over your table, then organize some vintage accessories on it. You can use accessories such as jewelry box, vase, candle holder, or even throw in a classic Britsh female hat as a décor. To cut some cost, you can buy them from thrift shop that will sell them with bargain price.
Victorian style door
First impression is crucial. Since your door is the first thing that you will see before you enter your room, what better way to complete your Victorian bedroom than to use a Victorian style door?
Although traditionally dark wood is used, wood with red tint such as sapele wood can be a great alternative depending on the overall theme color of your room.
Victorian door style usually comes with carvings on the door frame. However, if you want to step it up you can also use Victorian door knob with more delicate ornaments on it to complete the look.
We understand that it can be costly to create your own Victorian bedroom dream. That’s why we provide some ideas here that will hopefully inspire you to decorate your room without breaking your wallet.
From antique design with a lot of ornaments and texture to simple minimalistic design, whether you are looking for a gothic or modern approach we have it all here!
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