Not since the 1970s when Laura Ashley’s love affair with all things Victorian/Edwardian has there been quite so much interest in this decorative era. Ruth Eaton, Coco Conran, Anna Mason and Sarah Vanrenen are in the vanguard of fashion and interior designers creating a new age of elegance for the 21st Century. To find out what is so appealing about late 19th/early 20th Century design, the blog invites you to visit The National Trust’s Lanhydrock House in Cornwall.

But before we start our tour, I am wondering why this retrospective might have taken root now? Looking back to the hugely influential Laura Ashley fashion and home collections in the 1970s/80s, it seems that a love for the feminine shapes and lines of the Victorian/Edwardian era is still with us.

For fashion designer Ruth Eaton, it was about having grown up little more than a stone’s throw from London’s Portobello Road. “Many of my teenage Fridays and Saturdays were spent rummaging among the stalls of Portobello Market on the hunt for antique textiles. In those days, most sold for a song so when I became a university student on a tight budget, I dressed regularly (and shamelessly) in Victorian and Edwardian undergarments, from petticoats to camisoles to bloomers – not just because they were cheap but mainly because I loved the shapes, the crisp cotton (sometimes linen), the lace and the embroideries. Today, I recognise that those clothes have influenced the garments I create in details such as broderie anglaise, scalloped edges, tucks, pintucks and bishop and “leg o’ mutton” sleeves.”

Rather than it being one designer’s passion as it was in the 1970s, this time around it is being driven from several ground roots origins, alternating between maximalist style on the one hand, and an appreciation for authentic craft and sustainable heritage design on the other. You may also remember an earlier incarnation of this trend in my Grandmillenial Style post in 2020.

Upstairs, downstairs life

Perhaps in uncertain times, we look back to when things, at least on the surface, ‘appeared’ more organised and comforting. I have to say I had quite a visceral response not only to the domestic orderliness of upstairs/downstairs life at Lanhydrock House but also to how every surface was luxuriously and cosily decorated.

Cosy Victorian interiors

Rooms with layers of Persian rugs in warm colours, wallpapers framed by exquisite carpentry and decorative plaster ceilings; Bathrooms where marble and mahogany soften the edges and beds layered with sumptuous eiderdowns, fine woollen throws and linens. And of course, vintage and antique furniture from faux bamboo to stripped pine and dark woods is part of this look.

Victorian style at Lanhydrock House

With its long drive and fairy tale gatehouse, Lanhydrock is a 17th-century Cornish granite built country house with fine examples of late 19th/early 20th Century interiors. Captivating not only for how it nestles in the Bodmin landscape but because of the stories of its owners.

Like all fairy tales of integrity, the real life story has its darker moments. This aristocratic family home endured a devastating fire in 1881 which lead to a substantial rebuild.

You can though fully appreciate how after the fire in 1881, no expense would have been spared by this wealthy family to bring their home back to life. The subsequent Victorian interiors dovetail pleasingly with the elaborate 17th Century Jacobean plaster ceilings.

For me, the Victorian woodwork in the house is a thing of great beauty. I was particularly captivated by the carved staircase with Chinoiserie motifs, to the fireplaces, wooden Moorish arches and diamond patterned glazed doors.

So without further ado, let’s open the door on some interiors from the past…

Upstairs

Please, walk this way …

Below stairs

Please walk this way, just mind the stairs …

Period living in 2023

The use of wallpapers was a key element of a Victorian/Edwardian interior design scheme almost as much as they are now.

In addition to the lovely new Carnival collection of wallpapers by leading UK Interior designer Sarah Vanrenen (recently awarded ‘Best Patterned Wallpaper Collection’ by Homes & Gardens magazine), I would also be looking at Nicole Fabre at Tissus D’Helene, Neisha Crosland, Farrow and Ball, Common Room, Jane Churchill and Howe to create a little 21st Century Victorian style.

Shop the blog

Pair of Swedish vintage brass candle sconces with a pretty leaf and grape repousse (beaten metal) design on each one. Full of character, they would look wonderful either side of a picture or mirror or as part of a gallery wall. Equally as romantic in a bathroom, bedroom, dining or sitting room. Available now, £220 plus £7 shipping from my Etsy shop.

Thank you

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you have enjoyed it. If you would like to receive email alerts for future posts, please press the blue subscribe button either at the beginning or end of a post. Although not set in stone, I tend to post once a month.

With best wishes,

Charis x