A room filled with lavish antiques and high-end modern chairs is a perfect mix to create Modern Victorian Style. Image Source: Andrew Flesher
Owning a character-laden Victorian home sounds dreamy until you move in and discover that the ancient antiquity runs throughout the home — including the wiring, roofing and windows. That’s fine, you can just remodel, right?
Well, sometimes it’s not all that simple. Remodeling a Victorian home is not only costly and time consuming, but before modernizing a historical home you may have to jump through the hoops of historical and preservation societies, as well. Read Why You Should (or should’nt)Buy A Fixer Upper to learn more about remodeling an older home.
Despite all the obstacles, the intrigue of owning an age-old Victorian home is still strong for some. We can understand why when these wonderful homes are so chock-full of character and craftsman qualities that are hard to come by in most modern homes.
Aside from costly remodeling, how can we mesh modern interiors into our ancient home? Or on the flip side, how can we take our modern home and decorate it with a touch of Victorian charm.
Meshing modern design with a Victorian flair can be done — in any home.
Let’s look at inventive ways (that don’t require remodeling) to bring the nostalgic appeal of bygone Victorian days into your home, but in a modern manner:
This room is a fun mix of old and new. Image Source: Nina Interior
Some may call this look eclectic, but we prefer to call this mixture, Modern Victorian. Really it only makes sense that this style has evolved into being. Most people who own a Victorian home want some small sense of modern design in their home, and those who don’t own a Victorian crave the Victorian quality and character that seems hard to come by now-a-days.
Creating a modern Victorian interior can be achieved by carefully meshing the two styles together. Stress on the word, carefully — you don’t want a messy mixture that makes your home look like it was decorated by a bunch of your grandmother’s cast-offs, mixed with some modern chain store furniture finds.
This design is one that must be well thought out, not thrown together.
This is a fun eclectic mix of old and new. Image Source: Donna Benedetto
Let’s look at examples of a perfect mixture that helps create a modern Victorian interior:
These perfect mixtures all create a true style statement that says, “I like modern design, but I also like the curves and quality of Victorian antiques.” To learn more about Victorian style consider reading Historic Homes And Why They Still Capture Our Hearts.
This room is a great mix of contemporary furniture with a romantic Victorian-style fireplace and mirror. Image Source: Usona Home
This article promised design ideas that did not require hefty renovations, so in keeping with this promise we will not tell you to have crown molding, dado rails, wainscoting, cornicing and wall panels installed in your home in order to create Victorian character (but all of these would help if you desire doing a bit of remodeling).
Victorians were very much in love with ornately carved wood furniture made of mahogany, walnut and oak. Everything was hand crafted, hand-carved and well-made.
Nothing was cheap; homes were meant to show-off your wealth via all the wonderful high-quality belongings that filled it.
How else can you add this charmed craftsman character without renovating?
This room shows off some high-quality furnishings. Image Source: Harwick Homes
Here are great ideas to add craftsman character to your home:
How do you get the right mix of modern and Victorian in your home? Image Source: Ali Budd Interiors
Those who lived in the Victorian period were not scared of paint color. There were no white walls in this time of opulence and decadence. Rich hues of green, gold-brown, red, and blue were very popular.
Victorian colors were somewhat dusty in nature compared to our bright modern colors, but colors were used everywhere (ask your local paint store if they have a heritage color line). Sometimes the bolder colors were used to denote a room of high importance such as the dining room or library, while less bold colors were used in rooms such as the kitchen. Either way, color was everywhere and each room had a new dramatic color than a neighboring room.
This color scheme is easier to pull off in an older Victorian home that is broken up into numerous tiny rooms, versus our modern, open floor plan homes.
This bold red dining room has a nice mix of traditional and contemporary. Image Source: Msvicas Interiors
Take a look at a few ways to add Victorian color into any style of home:
The deep, yet dusty blue-grey walls covered in white trim are a great example of Victorian color. Yet, the black and white furniture is very modern. Image Source: Faiella Design
Victorian times were full of detailed decor. Everything was in excess — homes were brimming with ornate furniture, textiles, knick knacks, and paintings.
When decorating your Modern Victorian home, restraint can be used sparingly. Floors can be layered with persian-style rugs, walls can be covered in ornate oil paintings, and windows can be trimmed in lavish silks.
However, you still want a modern vibe, too, right? Modern interiors are the exact opposite; they are stark, straight-edged and restrained.
How can you create the best of both design worlds?
Mix old and new to create a layered Victorian Modern style. image Source: Caitlin Wilson
Here are some ways to mesh this lavish layered look with a modern twist:
This pretty room is perfectly layered. Not too little, not too much. Image Source: Amory Brown
As you can see, creating a contemporary interior that meshes with the Victorian times, can be tough. It takes a keen eye to mix these two styles and achieve a result that looks spot-on, instead of some crazy puzzle that doesn’t exactly fit together.
Add the puzzle pieces slowly to be sure they fit well together. Start by mixing your modern and Victorian furnishings together in a room, step back and see what works together. Maybe you need to reupholster an older piece with a modern fabric, or maybe you need to paint the walls a bold color. Live with the two styles together to get a feel of what works for you. Eventually, you will have the perfect mix of old and new, creating your very own Modern Victorian home. There are many other design styles that mix well with Victorian homes, such as 10 Ways To Achieve A Victorian Gothic-Inspired Home.
What ideas do you have to create a Modern Victorian home?
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