Victorian Living Room Ideas
Embracing the elegance of a bygone era, you scroll through images of grand Victorian interiors, captivated by their timeless charm and intricate detailing. This opulent design style blends ornate furnishings, luxurious fabrics, and rich, warm hues to create a sophisticated and inviting space.
Looking around your home, you consider all the ways you could add a touch of Victorian splendour. Decorative mouldings frame the walls, plush velvet drapes create a sense of grandeur, and gold light switches and sockets tie the space together. And of course, to elevate its vintage allure, a carefully chosen statement piece – a gilded mirror or a carved mahogany cabinet – becomes a focal point at the heart of the room.
Discover how to introduce vintage luxury into your home with inspiring Victorian living room ideas from Dowsing & Reynolds.
What is Victorian interior design?
Victorian interior design is inspired by the Victorian era and is synonymous with bold colours, plush furnishings, and grand, intricate detailing. This era was all about elegance and luxury, which is reflected in the styling of Victorian interiors. However, there was also a big focus on comfort, with everything from the textures used to the arrangement of the furniture working to create a relaxing and cosy atmosphere.
While living in a Victorian-style home might make it easier to incorporate elements of Modern Victorian interior design, it’s certainly not essential. Anyone can bring Victorian design elements into their home to create sophisticated spaces that reflect the grandeur of this era, with a modern twist.
9 Victorian living room ideas for an elegant space
1. Refresh your colour palette
Victorian interiors are known for their use of rich colours, so refreshing your living room’s colour palette is a great way to start introducing elements of this interior design style.
Rich, dark shades of blue and green are especially reminiscent of the Victorian era and perfect for adding a touch of drama and sophistication to your living room. Just be sure to balance them with more neutral colours like soft greys, creams, or taupes to prevent the space from feeling too heavy. Finally, add depth and elegance to the space by incorporating metallic elements through frames, décor, or wallpaper.
“Victorian-inspired living rooms are all about rich, enveloping colours that create a sense of drama and comfort. Deep greens, burgundies, navy blues, and warm neutrals work beautifully to capture the mood of the era. It’s less about copying period interiors exactly and more about embracing the boldness and warmth that defined them.”
Lyz Igwe, Colour Expert at Dowsing & Reynolds
2. Opt for gold or bronze finishes
Metallic elements are essential for tying Victorian-inspired living rooms together, punctuating the space and adding visual interest. No metallic finishes are more emblematic of this era than gold and bronze, two metals that instantly make an interior feel more luxurious and elegant.
When incorporating gold or bronze into your space, focus on the smaller details – using these colours too liberally can ruin their impact and look overly garish. Consider opting for bronze or gold switches and sockets and choosing lighting fixtures with bronze or gold finishes.
“Gold and bronze bring a real sense of luxury to Victorian-inspired living rooms, but it’s all about using them carefully. Smaller details, like a beautiful bronze light fitting or elegant gold switches, add richness and character without overwhelming the space.”
Ally Dowsing-Reynolds, Interiors Expert and Co-founder
3. Create extravagant focal points
One of the easiest ways to introduce a sense of grandeur and opulence into your Victorian-inspired living room is to create eye-catching focal points. There are countless ways to do this, but one of the most common that you’ll see in Victorian interiors is dramatic chandeliers that effortlessly capture your attention and serve as a beautiful centrepiece.
To keep your space feeling modern and fresh while still embracing elements of Victorian interior design, consider opting for a contemporary chandelier. Dowsing & Reynolds’ bestselling bubble chandeliers are the perfect choice, beautifully combining modern and vintage aesthetics.
4. Use luxurious textures
Victorian interiors are known for their use of plush furnishings and luxurious textures to create a cosy and inviting atmosphere, so incorporating materials like velvet or chenille is a must.
Try mixing and matching different textures to add depth to the space, pairing a vintage velvet sofa with a leather chair for contrast. Add ottomans and footstools to make your Victorian living room feel extra cosy, and arrange your sofas and armchairs in a way that feels relaxed and encourages conversation.
5. Incorporate vintage furniture
If you can get your hands on some vintage pieces of furniture, these are perfect for making a modern home feel more reminiscent of the Victorian era. Chesterfield sofas are iconic Victorian pieces, but also keep your eye out for any kind of tufted furniture with buttoned upholstery.
For a beautiful fusion of Victorian and modern aesthetics, consider refreshing vintage pieces with rich fabrics or bold colours.
6. Create a gallery wall
Another great Victorian living room idea is to create a curated gallery wall. This will provide a personal backdrop for your space, ensuring it feels unique and homely.
Frame family portraits or maps for a timeless feel, or opt for contemporary artwork for a fusion of modern and vintage aesthetics. To add more texture to the room, you could even use your gallery wall to display woven tapestries.
Display any family photos in ornate gold frames to add vintage charm and depth to the space. For a more relaxed atmosphere, use an asymmetrical layout rather than lining your frames up side by side.
Image courtesy of @cotty_lee
Style tip: Wall lights are great for accent lighting and can be used to draw attention to your favourite pieces of artwork.
7. Draw attention to the ceiling
Victorian homes often boast high ceilings, which become captivating design elements in and of themselves. If you’re lucky enough to have high ceilings in your living room, go bold with a large chandelier to make a statement.
If your living room’s ceiling is on the lower side, don’t worry – there are still plenty of ways to draw attention upwards. Coffered ceilings are a popular Victorian design element, so consider adding recessed panels for depth and detail. If your ceiling features exposed beams, these can also be refreshed and incorporated into your Victorian interior design.
Image courtesy of @childhoodinteriorsbygemma
8. Upgrade your lighting fixtures
In Victorian interiors, lighting is used to emphasise the atmosphere and grandeur of the space. While statement chandeliers are often used in Victorian living rooms, make sure you choose ceiling lighting that is appropriate for your ceiling height – semi-flush ceiling lights might be more suitable for low ceilings, or you could suspend pendant lights over tables so they are more out of the way.
To create an inviting and multifunctional space, incorporate a combination of ambient, task, and accent lighting into your Victorian-inspired living room:
- Ambient lighting: Use overhead lighting for overall illumination in the room, then place table and floor lamps to provide cosy light and add depth.
- Task lighting: Make sure you have enough light to illuminate tasks where needed, such as by positioning table lamps by armchairs for reading.
- Accent lighting: Use accent lighting to accentuate areas of the room that you want to draw attention to. This could be using overhead lights to highlight the ceiling or spotlights angled towards pieces of art.
Consider putting your lights on dimmer switches for even greater control over the ambience. This will enable you to increase the brightness when you need more light and dim the lights down low when you want to create a cosy atmosphere.
Style tip: Candle-style light bulbs are great for evoking period charm in Victorian interiors.
9. Incorporate ornate mirrors
Ornate, gilded mirrors are often featured heavily in Victorian interiors. Use one large mirror to create an attractive focal point, or position smaller mirrors strategically around the room to make it feel more spacious than it really is.
Mirrors can also be used to bounce light around the space, which is great if you have a dark living room that gets limited natural light. Position mirrors opposite windows or close to light sources to help disperse light more evenly around the room.
Show us your Victorian-inspired living rooms
We’d love to see how you’ve used these Victorian living room ideas to transform your home. Tag us on Instagram @dowsingandreynolds – we can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with!
