Welcome to The Victorian Emporium advice

General Advice on Victorian living

Welcome to the General Advice area of The Victorian Emporium. Here you can view and read all of our advice articles on their various subjects.

Fitting Traditional Victorian Skirting Boards

Fitting Traditional Victorian Skirting Boards

Some tips for making a perfect job of skirting in your room. Like all DIY jobs, it will take time to get it right but the result will be worth taking your time over.

22 Jan 2013
There are many different styles of traditional Victorian skirting available to fit into your period house. It is likely that you already have skirting in some places but that it has become damaged or needs to be replaced. Skirting boards are relatively cheap to buy and apart from minor cosmetic damage, is probably not worth the time and cost of wood filler and other materials to repair it.
Choosing The Right Victorian Chandeliers

Choosing The Right Victorian Chandeliers

Good quality chandeliers are expensive and should be viewed as an investment for your home.

22 Jan 2013
Good quality Victorian chandeliers are expensive and should be viewed as an investment for your home. If you choose a classic chandelier, you will be able to take it from house to house with you if you choose to and it should last you and your offspring a lifetime or more.
Traditional Kitchen Cupboard Handles

Traditional Kitchen Cupboard Handles

For a traditional cottage feel use inset cupboard doors painted in muted colours with porcelain handles, bone, brass or plain cupboard pulls. For something more glamorous choose crystal or glass handles in clear, red or olive colours.

22 Jan 2013
Traditional kitchen cupboard handles can be purchased in many different styles, materials and price brackets. If you have a kitchen that is a little tired but budget does not allow you to simply replace, upgrading your kitchen cupboard handles and kitchen drawer knobs is an excellent way to revamp your kitchen at a fraction of the cost of a new kitchen.
Choosing Victorian Curtain Poles

Choosing Victorian Curtain Poles

Curtain poles are available in many different price ranges from basic wood or brass poles that are cut to fit the window, to hand made bespoke finished curtain poles.

22 Jan 2013
To keep the heat in or the sun out on hot days, Victorians would use both blinds and curtains combined on the same windows. Curtains would be changed according to the seasons with heavy fabrics with good insulation properties used for Winter curtains and lighter ones used in Spring and Summer. On Winter curtains, a thermal type of thick lining would be used to keep out drafts.
Choosing Bathroom Lighting

Choosing Bathroom Lighting

Choosing the right bathroom lighting and suggested positioning for lights.

22 Jan 2013
Choosing bathroom lighting and the correct positioning for lights can be tricky. The bathroom is a room where lighting needs to be bright to enable activities to be carried out with ease. There is nothing worse than plucking ones eyebrows in semi darkness with inadequate bathroom lights.
Choosing Victorian Interior Lighting

How to choose the right light for your Victorian room

Choosing the right interior lighting for the ambiance of the room and having the right amount of light for the activity that goes on it that room.

22 Jan 2013
When choosing Victorian interior lighting for your period home, there are many different factors to consider. One of the most important considerations for interior lighting and ambiance of the room and having the right amount of light for the activity that goes on it that room.
Reproduction Victorian Wallpaper Guide

Reproduction Victorian Wallpaper Guide

In the Victorian era, wallpapers and wallcoverings became possibly the most important element to interior decoration as they became accessible for the majority of comfortably off householders.

22 Jan 2013
When choosing the right type of wallpaper for a Victorian house, and its different rooms, it’s important to understand how wallpaper was used in the Victorian era and to try to pay homage to that in order for the interior decoration to be in keeping with the age of the house.
What are the Right Victorian House Tiles?

Which tiles to use in a Victorian house

When renovating your home, the following information should help you to choose Victorian style floor tiles that are appropriate for the different areas in the house.

22 Jan 2013
In a Victorian house there are several different uses of tiles. When renovating your home, the following information should help you to choose Victorian house tiles that are appropriate for the different areas in the house.
Choosing Victorian Curtain Fabrics

Choosing Victorian Curtain Fabrics

Follow the general rules that the Victorians stuck to when choosing Victorian curtain fabric or material for your Victorian house renovation.

22 Jan 2013
Well-chosen Victorian curtain fabrics and vintage style upholstery fabric designs can really add to the authentic Victorian atmosphere in any room of your period home. To keep that genuine Victorian feel, try to follow the general rules that the Victorians stuck to when choosing Victorian curtain fabric or material for your Victorian house renovation.
Victorian and period style lighting – how to achieve the authentic Victorian effect

Victorian and period style lighting effect

In Victorian homes lighting was used sparingly. There were several small pools of light created in each room, next to chairs and over tables rather than a large central bright light in every room.

22 Jan 2013
A very important point to make is that Victorian lighting was not very bright, especially outdoor lighting. A gas street lamp only illuminated a few feet around its post and as they were placed at some distance apart a lot of the outdoors was not illuminated at all. It could be said that any exterior Victorian lighting served the purpose of providing distant points of brightness to aim for. So when choosing exterior lighting for your…

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