My current work-in-progress (WIP) keeps me looking at all things Victorian. This article, How to Create Modern Victorian Interiors, caught my attention. Just last fall, I had the opportunity to drive by my Great Grandparents’s home in Chicago and click a few photos. The home was built for them in the 1890s, and it’s current owners have kept it well-maintained. The workers you see are creating a native garden area.
Unfortunately, I was unable to see the inside, but looked for photos of furnishings the way they might be or may have been during the time period. I love the colors and the ambiance in this photo. I’ll let my imagination wander. According to my WIP, I believe it also had a piano. If my main character’s plans to use her sewing skills in her friends couture shop fall through, she may be able to teach piano to neighborhood children.
To create our own modern victorian settings requires combining the old with the new. The rocking chair in the last photo has a million stories to tell. I wonder how many babies it rocked. It rocked mine, and it rocked me. It rocked my dad and his siblings over 100 years ago. I believe it was a family piece my grandmother received from her aunt. It’s been in my home for nearly fifty years. The teapot and cups belonged to my other grandmother. She would have been a teenager living in the Chicago home. I’ve successfully combined the old and the new. Go to our Facebook page and share some vintage pieces you have brought into a more modern setting.
