The first step in furnishing one's Victorian home was to make it comfortable and livable. The next step was to make it beautiful. The Victorian era is famous (or infamous) for accomplishing this, at least in some cases, by covering nearly every inch of surface area with decorations, every bit of furniture with fabric and embroidery, every wall surface with pictures and bric-a-brac. While collections of novelties were common, however, so was good taste, as these articles demonstrate. The Victorian reader of these articles was clearly not regarded as someone who sat about giving orders to the servants; she was expected to take a hand (if not the sole hand) in making her home beautiful, even if she had to do so on a very limited budget.

Decorations of Houses

Decorating the home with paper hangings. (Peterson's, 1858)

A Picturesque Room (Demorest, 1873)

Art Furniture and Decorations for Home Use, by Dora de Blacquière (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1876)

Fireplaces in Summer, by Dora de Blaquière (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1878)

How to make your fireplace a decorative part of the room during the summer months.

Home Contrivances (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1878)

Some inexpensive solutions to creating or refurbishing home furnishings and draperies.

Decorative Novelties (Demorest, 1879)

A look at some of the latest household decorating trends, including gilt fire-fenders, tinware made to look like "fire-defaced iron," and the use of every imaginable type of animal in china and porcelain décor.

Novelties for Decoration (Demorest, 1879)

Every House its Own Museum (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1880)

The Fireplace in Summer, by Dora de Blaquière (Girl's Own Paper, 1880)

Household Art (Demorest, 1880)

A column on household decorating and decorative novelties.

Hints for Amateur Paperhangers, by Julia Lawrason (Girl's Own Paper, 1882)

A Trial Balance of Decoration (Harper's Monthly, 1882A)

Tips on interior decoration.

Screens for Fireplaces, by Blanche C. Saward (Girl's Own Paper, 1883)

On Making Home Beautiful (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1885)

Interior Decoration, by Lida and M.J. Clarkson (Ingalls' Home Magazine, 1889)

New Ideas (Ingalls' Home Magazine, 1889)

Some fancy-work novelties, including silk vegetables and new uses for old fans.

The Empty Grate, and What to Put In It, by M.A. Whitby (Girl's Own Paper, 1891)

Lampiana: An Idyll of Lamps and Shades, by Dora de Blaquière (Girl's Own Paper, 1891)

A look at "modern" oil lamps, how to care for a lamp, and how to make lamp and candle shades.

A Simple Method of Window Decoration, by Blanche C. Saward (Girl's Own Paper, 1892)

Art in Daily Life, by Amy S. Woods (Girl's Own Paper, 1893)

"The most comfortable, aye, and the most beautiful homes are those where the love of Art is expounded by the mistress in even the most ordinary occupations of her daily life."

How to Drape (Girl's Own Paper, 1893)

On Gimcracks, by Maud Morison (Girl's Own Paper, 1896)

"Take the drawing-room first. Does not the average specimen suggest a fancy bazaar...when we look at its array of rickety little tables, silk draperies, brackets, wall-pockets, screens, photo frames, ornamental crockery, and multiplicity of little pictures on the walls?"

Our Artistic Home (Girl's Own Paper, 1896)

How to Hang China, by Lina Orman Cooper (Girl's Own Paper, 1898)

The Home Beautiful, by Mrs. G.W. Willock (Lady's Realm, 1901)

See also

• Do-It-Yourself Furniture & Décor

• Interior Decorative Painting & Stenciling

• See the Arts & Crafts section for many tips on creating decorative items such as screens, fireplace screens, pianoforte fronts, etc.