Victorian House Styles and Examples (2024)

FAQs

What are the different styles of Victorian houses? ›

The most common Victorian style is Folk Victorian. The classic Victorian styles (Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Stick Style, Romanesque Revival, and Shingle Style) were created by professional architects, and were built mostly by the well-to-do.

In Great Britain and former British colonies, a Victorian house generally means any house built during the reign of Queen Victoria. During the Industrial Revolution, successive housing booms resulted in the building of many millions of Victorian houses which are now a defining feature of most British towns and cities.

“Recognizable characteristics are steep, tiled roofs, painted brick, bay windows, and asymmetrical design,” Dadswell says. “Wooden floorboards, plaster cornicing, sweeping staircases, wooden sash windows, and tiled entrance hallways would have been incorporated into most Victorian homes.”

Victorian-era architecture is marked by its unapologetic devotion to ornament and flourish and its ornate maximalist interior design. While there are many different styles encompassed in Victorian-era architecture, some common features that will help you spot a Victorian from the outside include: Steeply pitched roofs.

Typical Victorian layouts feature a living room, dining room and hallway on the ground floor. The kitchen is often located at the back of the house, with a small bathroom and utility room.

Darker & highly saturated colors are some of the most popular and most traditional with Victorian-style homes. Traditionally quite dark, olives, browns, greens, dark reds and maroon were all quite common.

The classic Victorian colour palette was dark and consisted of dark, rich, deep colours of maroon, red, burgundy, chestnut, dark green, brown, and blue.

Wood, clay and the beginning of the Victorian era

When the architectural design choices that have grown to be known as the Victorian style emerged, wood and clay tiles were the roofing materials of choice. For higher end buildings, clay was typically used, whereas wood was sought as a less expensive alternative.

What state has the best Victorian houses? ›

“Old Louisville has the most extensive collection of restored Victorian homes in the country and is the third-largest Historic Preservation District in the U.S.” Kentucky. Quite a few in SE Michigan.

Rich fabric, voluminous drapes, lush upholstery, detailed woodwork, and inspiring rugs are all essential elements of Victorian design. When you're putting your room or home together, remember that adding a variety of textures creates just as much depth as adding different colors and patterns.

Features of a Victorian House

The houses usually have two to three stories with steep, gabled roofs and round towers. On the exterior, there are towers, turrets, and dormers, forming complex roof lines as architects sought to create designs that would pull the eye to the top of the house.

Queen Anne homes are the quintessential Victorian home: They are asymmetrical, two or three (or more) stories tall, have steeply pitched roofs, and feature large wrap-around porches.

What Were Victorian Dresses Called? Victorian fashion was made up of several styles of dresses that followed the social norms of the period. There was the day dress, tea dress, morning black, bustle dress, and riding habit. The day dress was worn for everyday activities.

While Victorian fashions had been dominated by the tightly corseted hourglass figure, the new Edwardian silhouette was that of the S curve – a shape that pushed the hips back and the bust forward, exaggerated by floppy blouses that hung over the waist at the front.

So, unlike the smaller, darker Victorian homes, Edwardian houses were more squat, wider and roomy, with bigger hallways and more windows. It's common for an Edwardian property to have a front garden and be set back from the pavement, as there was an ever-increasing desire for privacy at that time.