15 Elegant Victorian-Inspired Dining Room Designs

Nothing says timeless elegance quite like a room that reflects Victorian style and charm. Take a half-step back in time with our favorite dining rooms that deploy Victorian motifs with a modern-day twist.

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December 09, 2020

By: Lauren Oster

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Photo By: Christopher Stark, Architect: Sutro Architects, Contractor: The Tobani Group, Landscape Architect: Triple BK Landscape Gardening

Photo By: Ryan Ford

Photo By: Phillip Ennis (Design by Alex Papachristidis Interiors)

Photo By: Nancy Nolan

Photo By: Jackson Design and Remodeling

Photo By: Alyssa Rosenheck

Photo By: Julie Dodson

Photo By: Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn

Photo By: Carrie Patterson

Photo By: Inspired Interiors

Eclectic Energy

It’s safe to say that when this space was built in 1886, it boasted neither an oceanic teal ceiling nor a quartet of sculptural magenta chairs. That said, its spectacular molding and period-appropriate mirror, chandelier and sideboard look right at home with a few well-chosen young roommates.

From: Loczi Design

Living History

Leanne Ford updated this Victorian living room with her characteristically crisp, monochromatic palette. Instead of jewel tones, the room now boasts white walls and cabinetry. The intricate area rug is the sort of piece one might have originally found in this room; the chandelier situates this space firmly in the 21st century.

Saying It With Flowers

Oversized, unapologetically romantic floral prints are a hallmark of Victorian style; in this modernized space, a strategically desaturated wallpaper updates the look. Rustic brass vases on the mantel, in turn, introduce an element of primitive contrast to the blowsy roses behind them.

From: Leanne Ford

Casual Friday

Victorian standards like the damask-slipcovered dining chairs and feminine pendant find unexpected partners in this quirky dining room. A pair of slipcovered chairs soften the head and foot of the dining table, which happens to be … glass? The unexpected combinations are, somehow, just right.

From: Heather Scott Home & Design

Shift Into Neutral

The heavy window treatments, cut-crystal chandeliers, hand-painted wall mural and balloon chairs in this generously sized living and dining room are all congruent with traditional Victorian style. The organic color scheme and the rugged stone pedestal base on the dining table cast those classics in a new, more contemporary light.

Country Cousins

The balloon silhouettes and button tufting on these dining chairs situate them squarely in the Victorian tradition, while their pale wood and upholstery fabric tip them in the direction of French country style. Comparatively rough pieces like the iron chandelier (as opposed to a brass pendant) and distressed sideboard create casual contrast with the chairs’ more formal tone.

Fresh Greens

Homemakers in the 19th century would have gone wild for this vivid wallpaper: Its deep tone echoes the arsenic-based pigments that were all the rage at the time. In the company of a thoroughly modern bubble chandelier, a glass table and lacquered chairs, it’s a knowing wink at the past.

From: Tobi Fairley

High-Concept Collage

This spacious dining room draws its neo-Victorian appeal from its spectacular floral wallpaper. Opulent accessories like the mirror on the rear wall and the three(!) chandeliers are a generation or two younger, and would be more closely associated with the art deco movement. The dark, rough-hewn beams between the room and the rest of the home, in turn, take the space in a third direction. Isn’t style-hopping grand?

From: Jackson Design and Remodeling

Streamlined Space

This elegant dining room takes traditional Victorian elements like the chair shapes, pendant lighting and floral art and administers contemporary polish; in lieu of intricate wood- and metalwork, the room boasts clean lines and abstract blooms. The Chinoiserie on the table sideboard time travels in the other direction: It was originally popular in European-style interiors in the 17th and 18th centuries.

From: Mel Bean Interiors

Damask and Drama

The stately, pattern-backed chairs, gleaming wallpaper and intricate mirror in this dining room all lend it traditional appeal. The unexpected, rough-hewn concrete mantel and fantastically odd chandelier skew it in a delightfully new direction: Charles Dickens’s Miss Havisham would love this space.

From: Julie Dodson

Industrial Revolution

Classically inspired wallpaper and seat silhouettes reference the past in this dining room, while the showstopping, nickel-finish steel drum chandelier blazes into the space like a technological breakthrough. (It’s also a clever echo of the rounded backs on those leather-bound dining chairs.)

From: Chango and Co.

That's Toile, Folks!

Traditional blue-and-white scenic paper forms a stylish bridge between the wainscoting on the lower third of this dining room’s walls and the magnificent details on its gleaming white ceiling.

More Is More

The deep aubergine, russet and olive tones in this living room make individual appearances in traditional Victorian spaces all over the world. In combination on nearly every surface (and punctuated with modern art on a feature wall), the drama they create is utterly of-the-moment.

From: Leah Atkins Design

Flower Power

Many designers relegate look-at-me patterns like this one to smaller spaces like powder rooms — a waste of blooms, one might argue. A dining room can be a modern Victorian jewel box as well, no?

From: Jennifer Visosky

Something Old, Something New

A pedantic history buff would foam at the mouth over a “Victorian” designation for this room: The balloon chairs in its corners are too old, the dining chairs at the table are too new, and cruisers like the one on the wall appeared in the '30s, for goodness’ sake! With that in mind, the mood here is just right. Moreover, it’s lovely.

From: Inspired Interiors