Period Style

How the interiors of houses have developed through the centuries, how styles have changed and how we might adapt the styles of the past to modern life is a subject of great interest to me.

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‘Period Style’ is not just for stately homes, museums and other grand places. It translates perfectly well into our own homes.

The desire to decorate homes in the most authentic way has never been stronger.

By mixing old and new, authentic and reproduction, and by drawing on the wealth of wallpaper, fabric and flooring available today, creating a period-style home becomes far less daunting.

The style can be achieved with confidence and at sensible cost, while still evoking an atmosphere of grandeur. In my own home, the distressed and the recycled share space with the more elegant and refined, and the mix of old and new is very pleasing to the eye.

If you are thinking of adding a period touch to your home, these are the points to consider:

Colour

Colour can change the character of a house from one era to another. I have a great fondness for the later Georgian period and its palette of muted colours: soft grey, pale green, pale pink and ‘dead’ white.

In the past, colour was kept for the walls and white was used mainly for the mouldings. In a modern room with dark wood furniture, however, white walls lighten and brighten the space. With so many shades of ‘white’ available, you will find the one that suits your home best. (Farrow and Ball have a wide selection of period colours.)

Fabric

The great furnishing fabrics of the past were sumptuous and expensive, but similar effects can be achieved today at a far more moderate cost.

Shops such as Ikea stock excellent linen, and you can mix fabrics with floor-length muslin and lace curtains. Curtains should be long, elegant and sweeping the floor.

I once read about a designer who used builders’ dust sheets for curtains, and they really do make beautiful curtains; I have them hanging in my own house. The effect is surprisingly elegant. Wash them on a delicate cycle, as they will shrink a little.

Furniture

Furniture can be painted or polished. If you are lucky enough to own a piece of antique furniture, however, never attempt to paint it.

Woods need not match, but they should complement each other. The larger charity shops are an excellent source of period pieces.

Almost all of my bedroom furniture, apart from my sleigh bed, came from second-hand shops and is worth much more than I paid for it. I value these pieces for their age, beauty and patina, and would never part with them.

Lighting

Nothing evokes atmosphere like the flicker of candlelight, but we cannot live by candlelight alone, and the crowning glory of any room is a graceful chandelier.

A single chandelier, even in an otherwise empty room, lifts and enhances the whole space. Many reproduction French-style chandeliers can be bought locally for a fraction of the cost of an original, so it is well worth looking around.

Art

No period home is complete without pictures. A painting makes a statement in a room and is an essential ingredient of period style, and artwork can be bought at little cost. When you have time, browse second-hand shops and car boot sales: you may come across an unexpected treasure. We are also fortunate to have excellent artists here in Sussex, most of whom exhibit in local galleries.

If you are starting a collection of paintings or pictures, it makes sense to collect around a theme: pictures of food for the kitchen, perhaps, while nudes are better suited to the bedroom or bathroom and portraits look good in the sitting room. Ultimately there is no right or wrong; choose whatever appeals to you.

Accessories

Many modern or minimalist spaces lack soul and are devoid of accessories, stark and formal, more hotel than home. Beautifully mismatched accessories play a great part in a period home.

The rule is simple: choose accessories that please the eye and have special meaning to you.

China sits well in a period house, as does silverware of every kind, and I am an avid collector of both. Home is where you use your best china and silver.

However your home comes together, it should always contain the essence of comfort and style.