Victorian Facades – Design, Ideas and Inspiration
Among the most famous Painted Ladies in the USA is the glorious White House. The construction work on this building lasted from 1792 to 1800. Naturally, it has been restored more times than anybody could remember. It is important to keep this beauty looking young and strong. The style used for the White House was called the “pure Greek.” However, there are many more styles when it comes to Victorian architecture.
Regency Style
To achieve the beauty of this style, you need a symmetrical home with the doors in the middle of the front façade. The entrance should be emphasized with a formal entrance porch. The doors should definitely be made of, at least six panels. Both of the sides separated by the central door area should be large, elliptical windows if not verandas. Regency style is all about the symmetry, order and stability, so feel free to add some pillars to the entrance doors and make it classical.
Gothic Victorian Style
This asymmetrical style was primarily used while building churches, but it was still used for homes, as well. It is also called the Gothic Revival Style. To achieve this romantic style that echoes the nostalgia for the British Empire, you need quite spiked and tall gables. You need to decorate them with white-painted, lace-like woodwork and add some pointy ornaments on the spot where the gable sides meet. The chimneys also need to be in style with the gables, as we
ll as the veranda that fits best at the side from the entrance door. To form the complete look, add some geometrical flower beds and picket fences.
Boom Style
The new-found we
alth of the Gold Rush, as well as the availability of the ornamentation that started being produced amass, rather than by hand, caused this to be the most decorative Victorian style. It mashes up all the previous styles together and presents Victoria
n style in all its glory. Verandas and terraces are breathtaking and they surround the front façade on every floor. The lacing is carefully manufactured and it makes this the perfect style for homes and hotels, respectively. The trend is on the rise, as many architects look up to well established properties such as Avonmore on the Park and their amazing exterior for inspiration. Terracotta, marble, mosaics, plaster and stone, as well as the colored bricks – all these things are used as the ornaments of this great style.
Italianate Victorian Style
Tone down the steep gables, turn the main room into octagonal shape and add tons of stucco and iron ornaments to the façade, and that is how you turn Gothic into Italianate. Use marble to make mosaics on the entrance floors and decorate even the chimneys. Verandas are necessary and the cast iron lace-work is also a must. The roof should be shallow and the windows should be decorative, just as everything else about this comfortable and lively style.
Using the Victorian style as inspiration for your own façade means that you will definitely need to make a nice veranda with iron lace-work and mosaic tiles. This will bring the romantic flair of the Victorian age right to your doorstep.
Exclusively Written For Homes Re-Imagined, LLC By Derek Lotts