Elements of Victorian Design Style

Victorian-style design was the 'It' look for most of the 19th century, an age when more was more, and everything from sofas to candlesticks dripped with ornamentation. Here’s a primer on this classic look, along with design tips for adding a Victorian vibe to your home.

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July 07, 2021

By: Leanne Potts

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Photo By: Photo Credit: Edward Addeo © Gibbs Smith, Barry Dixon Interiors, Brian D Coleman, Edward Addeo (photographer)

Classic Style From the 19th Century

Victorian style hails from the age of Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens, when fashionable homes were filled with ornate furniture inspired by ancient history and exotic lands, and produced by the might of the Industrial Revolution. There’s no single Victorian look. Queen Victoria, the British monarch for whom the era is named, ruled for so long (1837 to 1901) that the era saw a mix of designs. “Victorian is a cacophony of styles,” says Casey Rogers, head of the Department of 19th-Century Furniture and Decorative Arts for Christie’s. Here’s a lesson on the many looks of Victorian.

From: Betty Lou Phillips

Neoclassic

The Victorian Era was the age of the railroad boom and the first Industrial Revolution, when an upwardly mobile class was able to shop, travel and display its new wealth. “The Grand Tour becomes a thing in the Victorian Era,” Rogers says. “Newly wealthy people toured Europe and what they saw on their travels drove style and design in the era.” The ruins of the ancient Greco-Roman world — Rome, Pompeii and Athens — were popular destinations. So furniture that incorporated Greek Revival elements was hot, like this 1880 sideboard by Pottier and Stymus that features Greco-Roman busts, urns and a black finish with inlays that echo classic Greek black and red pottery.

Gothic Revival

The Victorians’ travels drove a craze for Gothic Revival furniture that was inspired by medieval architecture — like Notre Dame Cathedral. Furniture in this style had pointed arches, heavy, intricate carvings of trefoils, quatrefoils, rosettes and spiky bits, like this carved oak triple-back hall settee from the late 19th century. Gothic Revival was at its zenith from 1845 to 1890, and it was one of the most popular styles of the Victorian era.

Rococo Revival

Rococo Revival was another uber popular style of the Victorian era, and no one did rococo like John Henry Belter. The American cabinetmaker was the master of this most ornate of looks. His designs were inspired by the aesthetics of 18th century France and were nostalgic for a glorious, pre-industrial past. Arms and legs of his furniture were covered in carvings of fruit, flowers and leaves. Belter made his furniture in a New York City factory, when mass production of consumer goods was a new thing. The upwardly mobile masses gobbled up his over-the-top pieces, like this rosewood-veneer sofa made sometime in the 1850s. Can’t you see Morticia Addams sitting on this sofa?

Egyptian Revival

"The Victorians were obsessed with Egypt,” Rogers says. If they couldn’t travel to see the Pyramids in person, they could look at photographs, which were a new technology. The Great Sphinx, buried up to its neck for a millennia, was being excavated, and Egyptian influences made their way into interior design. “You see the great vocabulary of Egyptian design coming through in all sorts of items,” Rogers says. This pair of hardwood and leather-upholstered chairs from the late 19th century has legs carved to look like lion paws and pharaonic faces in the chair backs.

More Egyptian Revival

Egyptomania was so big that Pottier & Stymus, the Pottery Barn of the Victorian Era, made an entire line of Egyptian revival furniture, like this circa 1880 sofa adorned with brass mounted Egyptian busts, and lions’ heads and feet. Pottier & Stymus had a factory in Manhattan where they made lines of furniture for the masses as well as custom furniture for the rich and famous. They produced Neo-Greco, Renaissance Revival and Gothic Revival furniture, too. P&S even made the furniture for President Ulysses Grant’s White House.

Renaissance Revival

The Renaissance fired Victorian imaginations, too. People traveled to Italy and read about the heroes of the Renaissance in mass-produced books. So there was a craze for furniture that featured materials and design elements straight out of 15th century Venice: turned and fluted legs, brass mounts, wood or tile inlay, burled wood and marble tops on tables, like this carved mahogany table with a marble mosaic top made in 1870.

Gothic Revival in the Garden

The Victorians were mad for gardening. They — not Millennials — invented houseplants. The wealthy built large, lavish landscapes and soaring, glass-roofed solariums and conservatories. And, the newly affluent middle class, freed from farm labor and ready to grow gardens for fun, collected plants from around the globe and turned their yards into little Edens. Cast-iron garden benches — like this English Gothic Revival example made sometime in the last quarter of the 19th century — were a fixture. This one has florets and other ornamentation inspired by medieval churches. The Victorian love of gardens was spurred in part by the fear of the increasingly industrial world they lived in. A conflicted bunch, those Victorians.

Floral Rugs

The Victorians brought their love for gardens indoors in the form of floral carpets, like this Axminister rug from the mid-19th century, which features oak leaves, bouquets and garlands. They often layered area rugs over wall-to-wall carpet because the Victorians were all about Maximalism. A sparsely furnished room meant you were poor and had bad taste. More was more. “They wanted to show they had made it,” Rogers says of Victorian-era consumers. “They wanted big, showy items and lots of them.”

India’s Influence

India was part of the British empire in the 19th century, so its cultural influences showed up in decor. This pair of silver and enamel candlesticks made by Elkington & Mason in 1860 features elephant heads and floral patterns inspired by Indian textiles. New silver plating technology made silverware affordable to the middle class so there was an explosion of silverware manufacturing in the Victorian era.

Eastlake's Influence

Charles Eastlake, a British furniture designer and architect, literally wrote the book on Victorian interior design. His 19th century best-seller “Hints on Household Taste” was a bible for what was acceptable in everything from wallpaper to color schemes. Eastlake designed this giltwood faux bamboo stool in the late 19th century that draws on Indian influences. Eastlake led a backlash against high Victorian, rejecting the strong curves and high relief carving in favor of simpler shapes with less ornamentation.

Needlepoint Rugs

Needlepoint rugs were popular with exotica-loving Victorians because they mimicked Persian rugs. They were made in exuberant floral patterns in vivid colors, like this 19th century English carpet which has South Asian influences in its patterns.

A High Victorian Room

The parlor of the James Whitcomb Riley House in Indianapolis, Indiana, exudes the maximalism of undiluted Victorian style: dark wood furniture with lots of tassels and tufting, and a riot of patterns on the upholstery, floor, walls, ceiling and window treatments. Chairs and sofas have low arms, so big skirts can spill over the sides when a woman has a seat. Everything is gilded and carved and romantic. There are lots of classical references, from the Greco-Roman bust on the mantel to the gilded picture and mirror frames inspired by the Renaissance. It’s the anti-midcentury modern.

Design Tip: Modernize the Victorian Form

Designer Leanne Ford painted a Victorian chaise — both the wood and upholstery — white. While this may give a Victorian purist a heart attack, it simplifies the ornate lines and upholstery, turning the piece into a stark, sculptural piece that feels modern.

Design Tip: Mix the Style, Match the Tone

Ford paired vintage Chesterfield chairs in her home's living room with contemporary slipcovered sofas and a light fixture reminiscent of the disco era. The key to all this century mixing? Keeping all the pieces the same color, whether they’re from the age of John Travolta or Emily Dickinson. "Mixing different genres of design is the best formula, it keeps things interesting,” Ford says. “As long as you stick to the same color story, there's no way to go wrong mixing in older pieces into contemporary decor.” See the rest of her Pacific Palisades, California, home.

Design Tip: Layer Patterns in a Single Shade

Victorian style means a lot of pattern mixing, which can be hard on the contemporary eye. Undiluted Victorian is mighty loud to those of us accustomed to West Elm. To make a room feel more modern, opt for tone on tone when layering patterns. There are a half-dozen patterns happening in this room, but they look fresh and contemporary because they’re all in shades of cream.

From: Barry Dixon

Design Tip: Accent With a Victorian Piece

A Victorian arm chair meshes seamlessly into this contemporary bedroom. The trick: Update the chair's upholstery and match it to the surrounding modern pieces to tie the styles together. Use lots of lush textures and color on the contemporary pieces — like the velvet drapes behind the bed and velvet upholstery on the chaises — to layer Victorian excess on those lean lines.

Design Tip: Embrace Excess

Bring the Victorian love of maximalism into a room with a gallery wall. Here, a collection of seashells framed in 92 shadowboxes tells the world the occupant has traveled to a lot of beaches and is proud of it. Hands off, Marie Kondo. Those shells bring joy. The Victorians told stories with their rooms. You should, too.