How to Decorate a Dickensian Drawing Room
Dickens Historic House Inspiration For Victorian Home Makeover
Sep 28, 2009
With advice from experts in Victorian interior decoration, the curator Dr David Parker had restored Charles Dickens’ drawing room in Dickens historic House Museum in London in Doughty Street, the only surviving home of the famous Victorian novelist. Dickens and his family lived there in 1837- 1839. The style of the room’s interior design, as described in the Museum, falls “between the lightness and elegance of the Regency period and the heavy, dark, stuffy atmosphere of the Victorian period”.
The drawing room, or parlour, was the centre of the Victorian home, a room where the family could withdraw (with-drawing room) in comfort from the anxieties of modern life. The Dickensian drawing room in a Victorian home makeover should recreate a “colourful, solid and comfortable” effect.
Dickensian Drawing Room Colour Scheme
The paint Dickens used in his drawing room was a lilac shade. The colour was revealed through microscopic examination of old paint scrapings that remained from the 1830s. The lilac shade was almost certainly Dickens’ choice. The Victorians were initially quite restrained when it came to wall paint, though they were eager to embrace the mauves and purples of the new wallpaper and furnishing materials.
The ceiling in Dickens historic house was painted with distemper which is an early form of whitewash made from powdered chalk or lime, bound with a glue size and tinted with a suitable pigment, in this case a faint pink blush. Distemper was used only for ceilings and plaster walls. Historic paints for a Victorian home makeover can be found in Sherwin Williams paint company and Little Greene online holds a great selection of historic paints as well.
Victorian Wallpaper
In Dickens’ drawing room the wallpaper with its flower motifs is reproducing a 1830s design. For a successful Victorian home makeover, historic wallpapers can be found to match the colour scheme. The Victorian wallpaper company holds over 4,000 rolls of antique wallpaper dating from the 1850s, including the Dayle Sidewall Papers which are reproductions of Victorian Baroque, 1830-50.
Historic wallpapers can be found in the English Heritage archive. Those provided by Little Greene, the so-called London Wallpapers, are inspired by the Victorian wallpapers which were used to decorate London homes. Common patterns are representations of flowers and foliage but also patterns of diapers and lozenges.
Victorian Furniture in Dickens Drawing Room
The Victorian era saw a change in furniture arrangement and this is reflected in Dickens’ drawing room. Furniture becomes more comfortable and is now scattered in the middle of the room producing an informal look. In Dickens historic house, a plum-coloured, straight-back settee with curved armrests is placed in the middle of the drawing room facing a rosewood rectangular table (Dickens original).
Across the settee is a plum-coloured armchair which Dickens brought with him to Doughty Street. An étagère or “whatnot” is in front of the left-hand window and three dining chairs with cane seats and squab cushions are placed along the window wall. The wood of choice for the drawing-room furniture is rosewood. Mahogany is usually reserved for the dining room.
A small sideboard, a fire-screen and a little work table were bought by the museum to fit the drawing room of this historic house. There is also a piano although it is not certain that Dickens had one in Doughty Street.
Windows, Mirrors and Lighting
The use of light is important to a Victorian home makeover. Three features balance light and shadow in the Dickensian drawing room:
- Drapes: The three tall windows in Dickens drawing room are covered with two layers of fabric as it was customary: net curtains or lightweight muslin and red drapes drawn up in folds, tied with dark decorative cord and tassels and crowned by a valance with decorative fringe. Behind the net curtains are spring blinds (already fitted before Dickens took residence here).
- Mirrors: Dickens loved mirrors. There is a 1830s mirror over the fireplace and facing it is a 18th-century mirror, so-called Chippendale, Dickens could have bought second-hand at the time.
- Lighting: Victorian homes usually had a ceiling rose but none was revealed during the restoration of Dickens’ drawing room. Central chandeliers with candles or oil lamps were common in the Victorian era but apparently there was no central lighting in the Dickensian drawing room. It is assumed that there must have been free-standing candles and oil-lamps around the room.
Drawing Room Victorian Carpet
The carpet displayed in this Dickensian drawing room is a reproduction of a design dated from 1829. Early Victorian carpets had lozenge designs and whenever Dickens refers to carpets in letters or in novels he always mentions flower motifs.
Victorian Prints
Although Dickens was already prosperous at the time he settled in Doughty Street, he could not have afforded paintings. He probably hung prints on the walls. Dickens knew and appreciated William Hogarth’s work. In the drawing room hung a series of eight Hogarth engravings, “The Rake’s Progress”. The Charles Dickens House Museum is a good source of original prints and photos related to Dickens and a visit to this historic house is a source of inspiration for any Victorian home makeover.
Sources
Roger Hunt, Marianne Suhr, The Old House Handbook: The Essential Guide to Care and Repair Frances Lincoln Publishers, 2008
Thad Logan, The Victorian Parlour: A Cultural Study, Cambridge University Press, 2001.
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