Victorian style and the "Art of Exotic Ornamentalism"

Whenever I do lectures on Victorian Interior Design, I often get asked what is Victorian style? Now I can go into the 'textbook answers' about the history the main players of the era. But often its easier to tell you what it is not. Victorian Is not:

Ducks with hats, wooden shelfs with sawn hearts, It not 'clutter for the sake of clutter.

Victorian style is a combination of artful placement, layering of materials and striking a "sophisticated balance" that said more about ones hopes and ambitions and how "worldly' one was. If one were to make a historical comparison. the Victorian shared a lot with the 'dot com era' of the 1990's. It was about success, it was about ambition, it was about 'keeping up with the Jones'. More importantly it was about the fact that the Victorian believed  that ANYTHING was possible. Most of them came to this country or were 1st generation Americans and they understood that hard work and the belief in ones abilities could overcome almost anything. Remarkably different than today where many are 'government dependent' from birth to grave.

Ones home even if it was a modest one, was about ones dreams and ambitions and it was a "personal statement' Particularly among the middle and business class of the era.The hardest part of this era from a design standpoint is we have no color photographic records of the era. We know the popular colors of the era, from written accounts. We know the Victorian appreciated the "exotic", but we largely only have black and white photos to guide us on the way they arranged things so we must 'guess' about the colors.

Studying those images tells us a lot about how they achieved that art of "Exotic Ornamentalism". We see rich fabrics, the mixing of fabrics and the use of layering to achieve a luxury using fairly common items.

By using simple things like Peacock feathers and patterned fabrics in the Aesthetic or  Moorish style, we create a sense of a far away place and the "presumption' that the Victorian of the era had perhaps traveled there. Or at the least that they appreciated the finer things and were well read on world travels. This was one of the reasons that the "Worlds Expositions" were so popular in the era as it gave one the opportunity to see how people lived in exotic locals albeit "staged". Because much like a fine Victorian home and these B&W photos of the era they are "staged" too.

But this exercise illustrates that you can have an authentic Victorian look by using items you can find at antiques stores or on line. Because what we are looking at is a 'Staged area' that I set up to illustrate that by studying your room in black and white mode ( by simply converting your color photo into Blank and white) you can get a much better sense if you room really "looks Victorian.

Organization and record keeping of your antique collection

We all know if you live in an old house you also have a fondness for "Old Things". For some it's simply 'clutter' for others it may become a collection. At some point you will find yourself needing to "manage' all that stuff.

Right now I am in the process of "decluttering' our Indy House, "The Willows", built in 1895 as a shingled style late Victorian cottage, the house has a major remodel in 1915 to the craftsman style. When we bought this particular home, it had "no style', in fact every piece of woodwork was gone, doorways between rooms a had been closed up and the house suffered the indignity of the room between the kitchen and formal dining being opened up and a "breakfast bar" installed.



Our "high style'  will not translate to the typical buyer so we have to take things "down several notches" to furniture the typical buyer will have.



We elected to take the house back to its 1915 roots. With the brick porch and other changes made during the 1915 remodel it made the most sense to restore to this period as everyone except maybe the most clever of Victorian architectural buffs would recognize it as a shingle style bungalow and this house as well as the other homes on the block all the other houses around it underwent the same high style "Craftsman makeover". We actually never intended to live in this house but rather bought it to 'rescue' it from the clutches of a slumlord who was looking at it to turn into an illegal duplex.. We actually lived in a large Victorian home around the corner which we put on the market during the "real estate heydays' and watched in amazement as it sold in a few days for far more than ( in my opinion) it was worth and we found our self shoehorning 3000 square feet of "stuff' into a 2200 square foot house. Thankfully we had just built a new  oversize carriage house with an office above that was perfect to store the overflow......besides who needs to actually keep a car in a garage anyway? Apparently the house wasn't too bad as it was on HGTV as an inspiration house on the series "Rate my space" and has been the subject of a couple of feature articles. Pictures of the House are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/victiques/Listing# and certainly if you know anyone moving to Indy, send them our way!



We have had the house on the market for while and I finally decided the "restage era' has come so the high style Victorian/craftsman furnishings must go to be replaced with "Ikea Crap" so it will appeal to the 'typical buyer of a 225K house.

So I am going through the packing stage, which is a good thing as it means our final transition to Cincinnati is not that far away. I am sure the City of Cincinnati "spies/employees" who read this blog are probably refilling their Valium prescription's about now with the thought of having to deal with me ON AN EVERYDAY BASIS!



I am not going to talk allot about packing antiques there are plenty of articles out there about that. But rather how you keep things organized. Everything, and I mean everything is listed on an access database I put together. You could just as easily do the same thing in excel spreadsheets and there are even some household inventory control programs out there that you can use too. I use the same program as I use for my antique business but in a different database. Since I keep the 'best stuff' for me I can shift between the two. I keep a copy for my insurance agent so he can update my coverage. I have riders for the antiques and one for the art. It is also a good idea to keep backups and I keep a copy ona secures server off site as well.

So what do I keep track of? Well for example take this wall sconce: I know from my inventory report the following. I bought this in 2001 from an auction house, I know exactly what a paid (surprisingly wasn't much) and I know this piece came from the estate sale of an old building  that was once a small hotel on US40. I've also done some research on just who made it and I acquired a matching one in 2006 (slightly different globe). In addition to  the photo on my database I scanned the original receipt. If you have an inherited piece it is critical to document that, which family member gave it to you , and if  there is a specific family history etc. While it doesn't seem important now, your great, great grandchildren will appreciate it more if they know the story.



Rare pieces, like this open back Rennaisance Revival barrel chair, should always have an independent appraisal done



Why go to all this trouble? Well look around you, how many things are in your room right now? If lightening struck your house, how would you know what you had. Documentation is critical. Also I am already planning where everything in this house will go in our house down there, I know what pieces will go into our warehouse storage and I can figure what pieces will come out of our warehouse and go into our house  down there as well.. Serious collecting is about more than just owning a  lot of stuff, it is about management and knowing what you have , where its at. In my case it is not only antiques I am concerned about but an art and rare book collection as well.

Soooo......someday if the Knox Hill Cottage is landmarked, it can easily become  the Nagele-Merz House Museum  of decorative Victorian design.



Make your own "no sew" Victorian Mantle Scarf.

Your mantle may look a little bare or the Holidays are coming up and you'd like something different that a piece of garland taped on you mantle. More than likely an original mantle scarf is a piece of Victoriana that you'd like to have but they are almost impossible to find. It's very likely that you are "Sewing Challenged". Sewing is not something "taught' to young people today whose only dexterity is the ability to text at lightening speed, or you might just never have figured out how that sewing machine with the 500 page manual actually works.

Well this project is easy (NO SEWING REQUIRED) and can be made with scrap material you already may have and  a couple of dollars of fringe you can buy at a craft store. The only tool you will need? A hot glue gun and just about everybody has one of those stuffed a drawer somewhere.

This is the basic pattern. Measure the length of the area you want to cover. the width should be the width of your shelf plus an inch or so, No more than 2 if you are using fringe on the edge. Add 2 inches to whatever that length is. Your front fringe should be the length you need plus 2 inches and if you want a piece of  gimp at the back the same two inches apply.

Construction is easy take your cut fabric and turn in over to the back side fold all your edges over 1 inch and if you have an iron handy iron that to make a crisp edge. Simply lift up the flaps and fold them back. Take your glue gun and run a bead of glue , then fold over the edges. REMEMBER glue guns are hot so use caution. Once the edges are glued, flip the fabric over to the front side and glue your fring and  gimp on..

You can also use this technique to make matching table runners with fringe on the short ends, a table runner or even a piano scarf.