In this assignment, I got a special chance to visit my room in past. We got assigned to redecorate our selected rooms according to our selected time period. Our professor wanted these rooms to represent a previous time by signifying accessories, wallpaper, and furniture. Also, doing proper research for our selected time was a vital requirement for this assignment.
Queen Victoria’s Britain (1837-1901)
Victorian Era is the period of Queen Victoria’s reign. It initially took place in those times’ Britain. At that time, Britain held the title of the most powerful empire in the world. With the rising Industrial Revolution, Britain had drastic economic growth. This situation caused cheap mass production of household items. These items became affordable for almost all classes, which stimulated the birth of the “Victorian Style.” It was an inspirational era for architectural and interior designs. Since Victoria’s reign was longer than usual, it was impossible to stick to a single design style. As a result of that, this era was more about creating diversity by mixing and matching the previous styles. With the lowered prices, people started to load as much furniture as possible in their houses. This overwhelming amount of accessorizing became a sign of wealth and status to the point where keeping a room bare was a thing to be ashamed of. The most striking feature of the Victorian Style was dark, rich colors and bold prints. Highly patterned fabrics and intensely colored velvet was a stable of those times. Also, mass-produced printed wallpapers with floral patterns were a hot trend of those times. This style of over decorating and overwhelming patterns became so popular that it soon got adopted by different countries. In the case of bedrooms, they still served the same purpose of a resting space where you can sleep. However, people’s approach to this room was similar to the other ones. They envisioned it as a showroom, stuffed it with as much furniture as possible, and accessorized it to the maximum.
As a minimalistic person, this design style is not especially my cup of tea. What drives me about this era is the messages behind it. In this period, we got a chance to examine how sudden economic changes can shift our vision towards design and architecture. In the case of the Victorian Era, with the rising of the Industrial Revolution, all the prices immediately dropped and caused this trend of over-accessorizing. This unexpected situation almost manipulates them to tag minorities who did not fill their spaces as poor and tasteless.
Before this research, I approached this era as a typical old fashioned way of interior designing. Little that I knew there was a whole different situation behind it. All the spaces designed according to Victorian Style actually represent the suddenly rising power of Britain during Queen Victoria’s reign. In this case, the design of the bedroom becomes a signifier and shadows the actual purpose of the room.
Write about how this project made you think differently about space (the Living Room/Bedroom space as a place you inhabit) and the passage of time.
This project made me realize that interior design can be a great indicator of time. Here I figured out that with the passing time furniture and colors tend to develop just like human beings do. All these design elements actually coney stories from different decades. Comparing this work and the previous room that I have drawn, I realized that even the smallest details can have huge impacts on the room. This difference becomes more vivid when you compare floral prints and the term monochrome. While crafting a room with a monochrome color scheme represents a modern design style, using floral prints are creating a vintage theme over the room. To sum up, this exercise made me aware of the fact that strategically designed rooms have the power to reflect the time it is from and push people to visualize a story that might take place in that period.
The Research
I made the majority of my research on the Victoria and Albert Museum’s website. I searched for period rooms that were preserved from the Victorian age of Britain. I collected inspirational photos and documented them using my sketchbook. First of all, observed my current bedroom and noted down my existing furniture, and searched how would they appear in the 19th century.
The Bookcase: In this era, I have noticed that there no embedded shelves like we have in contemporary times. They used to have wooden ones which are in colors of dark brown and beige. I also observed that back in time bookcases did not have a purpose of displaying things. Over time, with the developing interior design techniques, bookcases gained the characteristic of a showroom. In order to fit this room to the 19th century, I changed my glass shelves into a wooden bookcase full of dusty books. This bookcase was also used to be pretty plain and far from any complex form. (#1)
The Bed: Beds in Queen Victorias Britain all used to have wooden frames and headboards. They were special carvings decorating the wooden outer shell of the bed. I think the oddest feature of beds in the 19th century was the drapes forming a cage surrounding them. In my composition, I portrayed them with drapes covering only the top half of the bed. Traditionally they look more like a cage but drawing it like that would be too overwhelming for the piece. Also one of the most defining aspects of the 19th century was the heavily patterned sheets. In my research, I observed lots of floral prints coloring the bedsheets. In order to fit this room to the 19th century, I converted my leather and minimalistic frame of my current bed to a wooden one with curved corners. I also modified beige colores sheets to the ones in floral prints. (#2)
The Walls: I found out that in Victorian Britain, the wall used to be covered with a combination of wooden panels and wallpapers. Because of the developing mass production of wallpapers, they were a signifier of time. The bottom half of the walls used to be covered with wooden frames and the top half is in floral patterned wallpapers. In my art piece, I used one of the photos I have found in the Victoria and Albert Museum as wallpaper. (#3 #4 #5)
Color Scheme: From my research, I can say that some of the colors were a trend of those times. Dark, light browns and variations of greens were some of the most common colors through the interiors of Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria. As a result of that, while crafting this piece I paid special importance to insert these colors into my layout. ( #6 #7 )
The Signifiers
Thematic Object: My thematic object in the present-day was my rose quartz. I used to portray it on my shelf as a piece of equipment for my manifestation practices. In the Victorian era, I decided to present it as a royal jewel. Queen Victoria used to have the most iconic crown in the history of Britain. As a result of that, I modified it to the past time by placing my rose quarts onto the crown as a piece of decorative jewelry. Just my previous artwork, I displayed its effect on the room by using color choice and using purple hues. (#8)
Time: The signifiers of the past time are surrounding the room. From the color choice to all the furniture in the room are signifiers for the Victorian Age. I strongly support that interior design is the most powerful piece of equipment to show time and to set a theme over the room.
Inspirational/ Research Pictures
Here I have attached all the pictures I have found throughout my research. I organized them with the numbering system. All the numbers I have mentioned in the previous passages have the link connected to the site where I have found them from.
The Sketchbook
Trough out the project I used my sketchbook to record all the information I have gathered from my research. I also used it to visualize the layout I have in my mind for the past bedroom. I attached the pages below…
Comparison
In this segment, I wanted to display my previous work which is dedicated to the present time with this new one side by side. I think that this post will be a great way to observe the differences they have according to their varying time periods.
