Although it is sort of like giving away trade secrets, we felt we absolutely had to include this awesomely detailed, well set-out, clear, concise and above all, useful site in the blog! The BBC’s Homes area contains this very practical page, which details most things that you would want to know about a wide range of period styles, to make your traditional renovation more true-to-form and consistent.They include a range of styles, not just the traditional period styles – and definitely not only English period styles, although the site is, of course, English. Here is the list of decors you can get information on:

• 1920s
• 1930s
• 1950s
• 1960s
• Art deco
• Arts and crafts
• Art nouveau
• Edwardian
• Georgian
• Gothic
• Japanese
• Modernism
• Scandinavian modern
• Scandinavian country
• Shaker
• Victorian

As you can see, there’s a range from the modern to the traditional, and all over the world. If we had our choice, we would have included more of the older styles … the French types of architecture and décor don’t get a look in (I guess you can tell it is an English site in some ways!). However, the styles that they do explore have their innards pulled apart in great detail. You get tips on how to redecorate everything in your home according to a certain style, from floors to ceilings and everything in between!

The tips also range from the direct (such as, for Victorian style, go for wallpaper from the floor to the dado rail, and paint from there to the ceiling), to the general and indirect, so you can make it up as you go along, or be guided in your choices for pieces that don’t necessarily have direct advice pertaining. So, if you are wondering for example how to design your garden in a particular period style, you can look at the style and influence sections for a particular period style, and use your noggin from there. Looking at Victorian style again, the site advises that Victorian is an eclectic mix of styles, with realistic portrayals of animals, flowers and birds, and excessive ornamentation. We learn that the Gothic style enjoyed a revival for masculine areas, while ladies’ powder rooms and other swamps of femininity (!) were often decorated in the frivolous Rococo style. Extrapolate the advice to your garden, and you’ll end up with a garden filled to the brim with lush plants, where your pots and other ornamentation are very realistically decorated. Your garden shed (men’s haven…) would be influenced by Gothic styles, while the sitting area will contain delicate, wispy plants like maidenhair ferns and other misty tropical delights.

When you consider that this sort of advice is available on the entire range of styles in the bulleted list earlier, you start to realise what an invaluable resource this site is! Another hint, of course, is given when you look at the bottom of each page to the bibliography (given as Further Reading), and see lists like this one taken from the Victorian section:

• The Home Front Guide To Doing Up Your Period Home by Stewart & Sally Walton (BBC Books)
• Victorian House Style by Linda Osband (David & Charles)
• How to Restore and Improve Your Victorian House by Alan Johnson (David & Charles)
• Victorian Style by Judith and Martin Miller (Mitchell Beazley)
• The 1900 House (Channel 4 Books)
• Victoriana: A Buyer’s Guide to the Decorative Arts 1837-1901 by Rachael Field (Macdonald Orbis)

So the author has looked up actual books … rather than simply finding the most relevant website that has done it already, and paraphrasing that. Almost unheard of nowadays! Apart from at Architectural Classics of course :-)

          

This entry was filed under Site of the Month. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.