"The most expensive hobby a rich man could have is a boat, and the second most expensive hobby he could have is a very old house." Barbara Corcoran
The Victorian style in American domestic architecture was never a clear-cut single design like the Colonial Cape Cod or the Greek Revival. Rather it was a dynamic medley of several architectural styles blended into something distinctively American. It included the Gothic Revival with peaked gables, towers and profusion of carvings. Another style was the Second Empire with mansard roofs and colorful stonework. The Tudor Revival style featured casement windows and half-timbered walls covered with stucco or shingles. Some 19th century houses might have all these showy features, plus some more ideas borrowed from Italy, Japan and even the 18th century.
There are many distinctive and exclusive styles of Victorian house architecture ranging from seaside cottages to Italianate villas, Queen Anne dwellings to stately stone castles, brownstones, octagon houses and mansard-roofed mansions.
Restoring the garden at your period home? Explore colorful photos of private and historic gardens for inspiration plus old-fashioned gardening ideas, flower garden tips, garden furniture, and landscape design for your Victorian garden.
Inspirational rooms and decorating ideas for your Victorian home. Featuring furniture, rugs, lighting, wallpaper, etc. Create beautiful window treatments with elegant designs and fill your linen closet with beautiful vintage linens.
Find pictures of Victorian houses and mansions for inspiration featuring interior images, architectural drawings, landscape designs, and floor plans. Older properties are a hot commodity - get tax credit for restoration and find resources to help. Thinking About a Tin Ceiling? Affordable alternative to expensive artistic plaster in Victorian houses & farmhouses. Pressed metal panels also work great in today's kitchens or for wainscoting panels. Design Your Bathroom: Transform your Victorian house bathroom! Bath fixtures, lighting and tile. Also highlighting the latest vintage bath design for any home. Garden Furniture: Decorate your outdoor living area with wrought iron patio furniture styles from the past, featuring wrought iron table and bench designs. Window Treatments: Create beautiful window designs with indoor and outdoor wood blinds styles, free stencil designs, and window curtain and drapery ideas.
Seating arrangements add coziness of an indoor living-room to the charms of a Victorian garden. Create your garden design with wrought iron patio furniture styles from the past, featuring wrought iron table and garden bench designs.
Have an old house, cottage, farmhouse or Victorian home? Browse our house plans for designs of country homes, farm houses, Victorian cottages, and Gothic style homes for inspiration and to help identify your structure.
Pictures of splendid floors, paths, porches, and hallways, using encaustic geometric tiles are found, expanding options in how to remodel house floors. Encaustic tiles are individually patterned, geometric tiles fit to make a pattern.
Thinking of remodeling your Victorian house? Start with your windows. When remodeling houses it is important to maintain the integrity of the original architectural design especially regarding Old House Windows styles.
There is no end to the variety of floors made today. Woods, hard and soft, inlaid and plain panels; concrete - all colors and textures; marble, granite and stone in patterns; tiles in large or small squares in rich colors. Find pictures for inspiration.
Residential restoration is a major project -- find tips and ideas for home improvement of your old house. Planning on removing a water damage mold problem by yourself, then odds are you are wondering how to go about doing this safely.
Architectural design and historic preservation information, features, ideas, flooring pictures. Window treatments period home, hardwood flooring in geometrical patterns, William Morris wallpaper designs and much more. In antique hardwood flooring, oak and maple were the most used, and birch, beech, and others to a limited extent. The so-called softwoods included the various kinds of conifers. Of these, long-leaf pine and Douglas fir, or red spruce, as it was sometimes called, were perhaps the most durable for parquet flooring ideas and patterns. Every Tin Ceiling can create the "Wow Factor." The tin ceiling, tin ceiling panels, or tin ceilings were popular from the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century in farmhouse kitchens and Victorian houses as an affordable alternative to expensive, artistic plaster. See Victorian style windows including bay windows, double hung windows, plus window treatments for old houses. Try window box gardening on your window sills throughout the four seasons. It is quite possible, with careful thought and care, the windows of the house can be kept filled with growing plants year-round.
Perhaps your plans for purchasing a new home cannot be realized. In such a case, you might consider the prospect of remodeling your house or investing in an outdated home to remodel. An important factor in how to remodel your house is to have an overall plan.
Find reviews of the top free room planners, home design software, and free apps to create your new design space. Photos, floorplans, virtual room planners help you arrange and reinvent each room on your mobile devices and laptop.
Decorate with the best new color schemes. Reviews of top free paint apps and room planners. Preview and interact with manufacturers latest new paint colors with the help of virtual room painter apps and free online room painters.