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A Victorian Passage has published 172 articles on a diverse range of subjects. Most of our growing archive of Victorian Era subjects are taken directly from 19th century sources to achieve a closer look into how our ancestors really lived. We have also been expanding our historical eras to include Early American from 1790-1839 and the Edwardian period of the early 20th century. Latest article added April 27, 2010
Listing all the Interior Design Articles
Plaster Ceiling Medallions
Plaster ceiling medallions were first introduced in America in the 18th century. Some know them as rosettes and occasionally they were referred to as "Plaster Centers". These ceiling centerpieces reached a zenith of popularity in the 19th century. The bigger the room the bigger the medallion was. However, the lower the ceiling the smaller the medallion would get so as to not overwhelm its...Continue Reading
Braided Rug
The braided rug is still ever so popular today. Even in my babyhood I sat playing on a very large braided rug at my grandmother's house. They have found their place in homes for generations now. They have indeed stood the test of time in practicality, charm, and sturdiness. I found these instructions on making a braided rug in Beautiful homes: Or, Hints in...Continue Reading
Secret Floor Stains
WITH the spread of Anglo-mania, smooth, bare floors, in early English style, have grown more and more popular, and wealthy men pay more dollars per square foot than I care to specify, for rosewood, mahogany, West India cherry, and antique oak floors, solid, not veneered. And yet, with all this lavish expense, there are few of them more beautiful than some which might have...Continue Reading
Edwardian Bath Accessories
1908 H & H Mfg Co. Advertisement for bath accessories. "One very great convenience in a bath room is a towel bar at a suitable height, placed against the wall all around the room, except where it would interfere with other stationary furniture. Bars of heavy glass or nickel plate are easiest kept clean. Every bath tub should be provided with a large sponge-holder...Continue Reading
A Look Around the Early Country Kitchen
"IN the primitive days of our grandfathers' time, When the fire-place, genial and bright, Its cavernous recesses glowing with flame, Filled the old-fashioned kitchen with light;" - Taken from a poem by Lizzie Clark Hardy 1877 Kitchens have changed dramatically since the early days of the 19th century. They were simple and often very plainly furnished. This simple mentality is reiterated in the statement...Continue Reading
Soapstone, Wash-Tubs and Sinks
AMONG the mineral productions the usefulness of which has for centuries remained unknown, and only recently has become to be appreciated, is undoubtedly soapstone, by mineralogists called steatite, and by chemists hydrated silicate of magnesia. The pure material is white, translucent, and looks like soap, while all the varieties have a. greasy feeling, whence the name soapstone. The ordinary variety has a bluish or...Continue Reading
Sweet Dreams - A Look at the Bed and Bedroom of the 1850's
This being a cold and snowy afternoon has me drowsy and looking over at my feather pillows and covers wishing to slip off into slumber. So with that said and the fact that we have had some recent articles on bedroom cottage furniture, we are going to go over some advice from the book The Practical Housekeeper, about this topic. We have mentioned before how...Continue Reading
Cottage Furniture - Bedroom Set
Still on the topic of an early Victorian bedroom, it was suggested in the book The Architecture of Country Houses good furniture could be purchased from Edward Hennessey of Boston. It described a small bedroom set like this: "This furniture is remarkable for its combination of lightness and strength, and its essentially cottage-like character. It is very highly finished and is usually painted drab, white,...Continue Reading
Cottage Furniture - Wardrobe
When most of us think of the early Victorian era, we think of highly ornamental furniture and decor. However the book 'The Architecture of Country Houses' published in 1859, suggests that the highly gilded, ornate furnishings and details should be left to city dwellings. The mindset of cottage homes was to have a more subdued and peaceful surrounding. The book goes as far as to...Continue Reading
Improved Porcelain Bath Closets.
For a number of years past there has been a steadily growing demand among the well-to-do class for a higher grade of sanitary appliances for the household, and the demand has extended not merely to the comparatively unimportant features of greater elegance of form or better taste in decoration, but also to the quality of the appliances and their adaptation for their intended uses. As...Continue Reading
Interior Decoration - Management of Colors.
PAINTERS, as a general rule, acknowledge but three primary colors--blue, red, and yellow; and whatever exception ninny be taken to such a statement on scientific grounds, there is no question that such a view of the subject does afford certain practical advantages. It is further assumed, that all other tints are mere mixtures of these three colors. For instance, green is made up of...Continue Reading
Wall Papers
If a paneled effect is desired for a room that is intended to be particularly dainty, .such as a boudoir, nothing would be prettier than to use a plain paper at the top and bottom of the wall, and to separate the panels. This should be delicate in tone, buff, cream or pale blue, and used in strips from fifteen to eighteen inches wide. The...Continue Reading
Sanitary Science and Domestic Architecture.
By John Crowell, M.D., in the Popular Science News. NO. IV. Nearly every well-appointed dwelling has a room called the library, and it is quite apt to be located in some obscure and dark coiner or angle of the house, shut out from the light and air of street or courtyard. Many city libraries are so dark that it is difficult to read or write...Continue Reading
Stencil Designs for Ceilings, etc.
Click Image for a Larger View Until lately, it was the prevailing fashion, in all houses of any pretension to elegance of interior finish, to introduce more or less elaborate ornamentation of the ceilings with the aid of stucco, which was then finished in colors, giving a florid, but, for apartments of good size, a general attractive appearance. This fashion has to some extent...Continue Reading
Toilet Roll Holder
This Victorian toilet roll holder dates around 1891. It was originally in a blackened finish and it measures around 8" x 6 1/2"....Continue Reading
Household Conveniences.
WE have received from our various correspondents quite a number of requests for us to publish something about the minor household conveniences. In compliance therewith we present the following details with explanatory illustrations, for which we are indebted to the American Agriculturist, for the particular benefit of those residing remote from cities, who are desirous of learning how such commodities are arranged. Fig. 1 gives...Continue Reading
The Rochester Lamp
Click Image for a Larger View The attention devoted to the construction of lamps, electroliers and chandeliers for gas and electric lighting, has had the effect of greatly improving the artistic merits of these fixtures, which afford so inviting a field for the exercise of the skill and good taste of the designer. The same improvement may be remarked in the production of artistic...Continue Reading
Remodelled Hallway
We offer the accompanying illustration as an example of remodelling. In the original house the stairway was narrow and enclosed. This has been removed, and a new staircase in hard wood introduced, with fireplace and settle at the foot of the same, and at the end of the settle the old hall clock. The upper portion of this fire-place has the brick-work exposed, the...Continue Reading
Kitchen Furniture
NEVER have dark furniture for a kitchen. It shows the dust much more than light and requires double the care. Never have extra shelves or mantels painted dark if you can help it. If it is your misfortune to have dark painted furniture, wipe it once in a few days with a damp cloth, and have it varnished often. Have your sink in a convenient...Continue Reading
Furnishing a House.
A newly-married young couple, just about taking and furnishing a house, anticipate a great deal of pleasure in the choice and selection of their furniture, carpets, paper-hangings, etc. Both being persons of good taste, they never for one moment imagine that anything but the most complete success will crown their choice; but it very often happens that the carpet which looked very handsome in the...Continue Reading
Bathroom Decor - Soap Dish & Faucet
Examples of Soap Dish and Bathroom Sink Faucet - Taken from Manufacturer and Builder Nov 1880...Continue Reading
Plumbing Improvements.
Every one will agree that the ordinary arrangement of wash-basins and bath-tubs, consisting of a stopper and chain attached, is objectionable; the chain is often in the way, it will pull the stopper out when this is not desired, and soon look dirty and unsightly, and no doubt it would be far better if they could be dispensed with. This now may be accomplished by...Continue Reading
Improved Kitchen Sink.
We represent on this page an important improvement in one of the most essential contrivances necessary in housekeeping, namely, a kitchen sink, which can also be used as a wash-basin, dish-pan, laundry wash-tub, and drainer. It possesses a valve, which is opened by raising the pull P; 0 is an overflow, and Q an adjustable partition, while S is the outlet and valve seat....Continue Reading
Kitchen Sinks.
THE sink is without doubt one of the most essential features in a modern kitchen, but at the same time it has, unfortunately, thus far been a neglected piece of manufacture, being made after a certain accepted form, without any attempt at improvement to overcome the inherent defects of that form. Let us see what these defects are. First, the grate over the waste...Continue Reading
Plumbers' Cabinet Wood-Work. [Sink Cabinets]
ONE of the signs of industrial progress is the continually increasing formation of specialties in trades. Thus we have piano-makers' hardware, barrel-makers' tools, etc. At present we call attention to a branch of business established by Messrs. Win. S. Carr & Co., of 106, 108, and 110 Center street, New York, of plumbers' cabinet wood-work. As might be expected, if progressive and intelligent parties...Continue Reading
Interior Decorations.
IT is a singular fact that amid all that is being constantly written upon matters of art but little is said in reference to the interior decoration of ordinary country or city dwellings. By ordinary we mean dwellings that cost 4000 dollars or there-abouts. The art of internal decoration has received very little attention at the hands of men calling themselves practical decorators, intending thereby...Continue Reading
Old and New Fire Grates.
THERE is a constant tendency toward the revival of old fashions, old styles, and old methods. These are improved, it is true, just as the crinoline of modern belle is a very different affair from the hoops which encased the fair ones of the court of Queen Anne. When our forefathers landed on these shores, they found that the grates and fire-places of Britain...Continue Reading
The Selection of Wall-Paper.
ONE of the most important features in the decoration of the interior of dwelling-houses is undoubtedly the adorning of rooms by means of wall-paper. In this respect people do not always exhibit good taste. It is therefore proposed to make some suggestions in regard to the proper selection of colors. In the first place, it ought to be remembered that here can never be an...Continue Reading
Portable Wainscoting.
Click Image for a Larger View IT is always a peculiarity of all valuable inventions that no sooner are they once explained than every body wonders why nobody ever thought of a thing so very simple before; and to this law very few exceptions are ever presented in its application to the common matters of every-day life. An invention has been recently brought before...Continue Reading
A Woman's Idea of what a Kitchen should be.
To begin with, I would have a kitchen well lighted; yes a great deal of the broad, expansive sunlight shining in boldly, as if it had a perfect right to be there. That would, of course, necessitate large windows. And then I would give as much attention to the ventilation of a kitchen as I would to a sleeping-room. I would have a large circular...Continue Reading
A Cabinet Refrigerator.
A FEW days ago, while passing up Sixth avenue, we saw at the store of Mr. Lesley?No. 605?a very neat and useful little article with which the readers of our home department can hardly fail to be pleased. It is nothing more or less than a small, portable refrigerator, which can be carried from room to room as circumstances may require. It has a...Continue Reading
Improved Sanitary Appliances. (Water-Closet)
We exhibit in the accompanying illustration one of the recent improvements in water-closets manufactured by the J. L. Mott Iron Works, of 88 and 90 Beekman street, New York, one of the leading houses in this country in this branch of manufacture. The closet shown is of the wash-out pattern, with back outlet, and is provided with simple and effective water-seal, and patented improvements...Continue Reading
The Modern Bath-Room. (1885)
Click Image for a Larger View We have pleasure in being able to lay before our readers, from advance sheets of a new catalogue about to be issued by the J. L. Mott Iron Works, of 88 and 90 Beckman street, New York, the accompanying beautiful illustration representing the appointments of a modern?and, we might add, model -bath-room, the whole making a most harmonious...Continue Reading
A Modern Bath-Room Interior. (1884)
Click Image for a Larger View The accompanying illustration, which represents a bath-room interior fitted with the latest and most approved modern conveniences and sanitary appliances, forces directly upon the mind a realization of the great progress that has been made in all that relates to household sanitation during the past ten years. The revolution that has been made within this brief period is...Continue Reading
Bath-Room Interior, with Approved Modern (1883)
Click Image for a Larger View The attention that of late years has been bestowed upon all matters relating to public and domestic sanitation, has given us not only healtheir towns and dwellings, but has had the incidental advantage of educating the public up to a better appreciation of the character and importance of sanitary measures and appliances. The result is that public buildings...Continue Reading
Shall our Houses be Painted or Plastered?
Of course, says the American Builder, everybody knows, or ought to? know, that walls and ceilings are finished with plaster. But everybody may not be aware that plaster has the property of absorbing moisture. This, perhaps, will not take place in rooms where a fire is kept steadily; but in rooms left, as is often the case, for weeks without a fire, the walls will...Continue Reading
Improved Domestic Sanitary Appliances. (Tub)
We illustrate and describe herewith some representative specimens of a very superior class of domestic sanitary appliances and conveniences, which are manufactured exclusively for the J. L. Mott Iron Works, of this city, by Messrs. Joseph Cliff & Sons, England. We have repeatedly had occasion to invite the attention of our readers to the high rank occupied by this well-known house as manufacturers of...Continue Reading
Color in House Interiors.
The principles of the proper use of color in house interiors are not difficult to master. It is unthinking, unreflective action which makes so many un-restful interiors of homes. The creator of a home should consider, in the first place, that it is matter as important as climate, and as difficult to get away from, and that the first shades of color used in the...Continue Reading
Improved Sanitary Appliances. (Kitchen Sink)
We have had occasion in former articles to describe some of the admirable novelties in sanitary appliances for the household made by the J. L. Mott Iron Works, of this city. Of the several improved appliances of this nature which received favorable notice at our hands, the Imperial porcelain bath tubs will doubtless be recalled by our readers; and we have the pleasure now...Continue Reading
Decoration of a Dining-Room.
The following suggestions applied to a breakfast or dining-room may be of service: The flat of ceiling a vellum tint, cornice of the same, but deeper in tone, in pleasing contrast with the ceiling. The prominent members of the cornice may be picked out in color to harmonize with the wall - paper. Ornamental cornices, with breaks and connecting-lines in color, may be put upon...Continue Reading
Home Decoration - The Hall
"The Hall" The hall being the index to the whole house, due care should therefore be given to its furnishing. Light colors and gilding should be avoided. The wall and ceiling decorations now mostly used are in dark rich colors, shaded in maroons or deep reds. Plain tinted walls and ceilings in fresco or wainscot are also frequently used. The latest shades of wall...Continue Reading
Home Decoration - The Kitchen
"The Kitchen" It is a remark too often made that this or that "is good enough for a servant." If all knew that unpleasant surroundings made unpleasant servants and ill-prepared meals, we think more pains would be taken to have pleasant and comfortable kitchens. There should be a pleasant window or two through which fresh air and floods of sunlight may come, a few plants...Continue Reading
Home Decoration - Dining Room
"Dining Room" The dining-room should be furnished with a view to convenience, richness, and comfort. Choose deep rich grounds for the walls-bronze-maroon, black, Pompeiian red, and deep olive-and the designs and traceries in old gold, olive or moss green, with dado and frieze to correspond. Or, the walls may be wainscoted with oak, walnut, maple, ect. Some are finished in plain panels, with different kinds...Continue Reading
Home Decoration - The Chambers
"Chambers" The walls of bedrooms should be decorated in light tints and shadings, with a narrow rail and deep frieze. Most housekeepers prefer rugs and oiled floors to carpets, but this is a matter of individual taste. Rugs are as fashionable as they are wholesome and tidy. These floor coverings should be darker than the furniture, yet blending in shade. If carpets are chosen...Continue Reading
Home Decoration - The Library
"The Library" The walls of the library should be hung with rich, dark colors, the latest style in wall paper being a black ground with old gold and olive-green designs. The carpet comes in Pompeiian red, with moss-green and peacock-blue patterns. Statuary and the best pictures should find a place in the library. The library table should be massive and the top laid with...Continue Reading
Home Decoration - The Sitting Room
"The Sitting Room" The sitting or everyday room should be the brightest and most attractive room in the house. Its beauty of decoration should not be so much in the richness and variety of material as in its comfort, simplicity, and the harmony in its tints-the main features being the fitness of each article to the needs of the room. In these days of...Continue Reading
Home Decoration - The Parlor
"The Parlor" The furnishing of the parlor should be subject to its architectural finish. The first things to be considered are the walls and floor. The former may be decorated in fresco or papered, according to the individual taste and means. The prettiest styles of parlor paper are light tints of gray, olive, pearl, and lavender grounds, and in small scroll patterns, panels, birds,...Continue Reading
Home Decoration - Overview
Taken from Useful Information for Ladies 1897 "Overview" The chief features to be observed in house furnishing are color, form, and proportion. All stiffness of design in furniture should be avoided. Do not attempt to match articles, but rather carry out the same idea as to color and form in the whole. It is not en regle to have decorations in sets or pairs ;...Continue Reading
On Colors...
Taken from Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper 1873 Much of the beauty of furniture is secured by the tasteful combination of colors. There usually should only be two colors in addition to the white of the ceiling. Blue unites well with buff or corn color, or a yellow brown. Green combines well with drab, or white, or yellow. Scarlet or crimson unites well with gray...Continue Reading
On Curtains...
Taken from Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper 1873 The cornices to your windows can be simply strips of wood covered with paper to match the bordering of your room, and the lambrequins, made of chintz like the lounge, could be trimmed with fringe of gimp of the same color. The patterns of these can be varied according to fancy but simple designs are usually the...Continue Reading
Walls and their Coverings
Taken from Scribner's Monthly May 1872 In the old days of wainscots, when every room of any pretensions to elegance was banded with light or dark wood to height of three or four feet from the base, it was far easier to effectively ornament the portion of wall left uncovered, than it is when an unbroken surface sweeps, as now, from floor to ceiling. If...Continue Reading
Floors
Taken from Scribner's Monthly September 1871 WHEN Mr. Ruskin chronicled the "Ethics of Dust," he should have devoted a large portion of his space to the modern floor. The popular theory of a floor, reduced to practice, amounts to this: it is the principal dust-trap of the room. Being of soft and porous wood, its cracks open easily for the admission of dust, from furnace,...Continue Reading