Renovating a Victorian home can be an exciting and challenging project. To remain authentic a Victorian home should never have any white gloss paint on woodwork, quite simply because it hadn’t been invented and was therefore not used! If you want your Victorian house to replicate its originality steer clear of white gloss.
The Victorians did love paint and used it on walls, ceilings and woodwork to inject colour into their rooms. They also had relatively strict codes which they followed meticulously if they wanted to impress visitors. The main focus was in the parlour. This is were all guests and visitors would be taken to sit. Parlours were crammed full of objects of interest which the owner had collected from their journeys abroad. Exotic stuffed animals, birds and insects were displayed in elaborate glass domed cabinets which varied in size according to the creatures being displayed.
The wall of the parlour were usually divided a third of the way up with a dado rail. Although many people nowadays like to strip the paint from these and leave the natural wood exposed, the Victorians always painted them. Paint was a relatively expensive commodity and to leave it unpainted hinted that you were not very well off financially. The top half of the wall would have highly elaborate wall paper. Beautiful intricate designs such as those by William Morris were the order of the day. The lower half of the wall was typically painted in a coordinating colour.
Renovating a Victorian home can be an exciting and challenging project. To remain authentic a Victorian home should never have any white gloss paint on woodwork, quite simply because it hadn’t been invented and was therefore not used! If you want your Victorian house to replicate its originality steer clear of white gloss.
The Victorians did love paint and used it on walls, ceilings and woodwork to inject colour into their rooms. They also had relatively strict codes which they followed meticulously if they wanted to impress visitors. The main focus was in the parlour. This is were all guests and visitors would be taken to sit. Parlours were crammed full of objects of interest which the owner had collected from their journeys abroad. Exotic stuffed animals, birds and insects were displayed in elaborate glass domed cabinets which varied in size according to the creatures being displayed.
The wall of the parlour were usually divided a third of the way up with a dado rail. Although many people nowadays like to strip the paint from these and leave the natural wood exposed, the Victorians always painted them. Paint was a relatively expensive commodity and to leave it unpainted hinted that you were not very well off financially. The top half of the wall would have highly elaborate wall paper. Beautiful intricate designs such as those by William Morris were the order of the day. The lower half of the wall was typically painted in a coordinating colour. 
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