How to make the interior in the English style
If you like classic decor with charm, character and a breath of luxury, then traditional English is exactly your style. Inheriting the traditions of “English at home”, Tatiana Zaitseva, the head of the studio of progressive interiors, Tatiana Zaitseva Design Studio, the author of the course on design, knows how to adapt its stylistic features to the modern lifestyle.
Traditional English style is the eclecticism of the “aromas” of different eras, which today we perceive as classics. The style is good for creating an independent of fashion, elegant and at the same time cozy interior of the house where the middle-class family lives, but not at all for the grand projects of country villas.
Key features:
1. Calm respectable carpets in wealthy residential interiors and spectacular, with patterns – in the main living rooms.
2. Fireplaces or wood stoves with carved decor made of wood, limestone or marble and mirrors above them in rich gilded frames.
3. Natural lighting, as well as chandeliers, wall sconces with two horns and frosted lamps, floor lamps.
4. Yellow copper, gilding and crystal – from picture frames to figured base of table lamps.
5. Dark wooden furniture (mahogany or bog oak) with curved legs in the form of an inverted comma.
6. Wonderful design of windows: volumetric draperies with folds, cords with tassels, pelmets, plus false inserts for those who like to sit on the windowsill.
7. Rich colored fabrics with an intricate pattern and luxurious texture – velvet, chenille, damask and more leather.
8. Wood type parquet or tile patterns on the floor in the halls and kitchens.
The basis of the style is dark wooden furniture made of precious mahogany, walnut or stained oak, elegantly harmonizing with the warm tones of the color palette of walls and textiles. Carpet on the floor is almost mandatory in living rooms and bedrooms – for a sense of dignity and wealth. The staggered tile and rich wooden floor or parquet are an authentic style feature of the halls and kitchens. Copper or gold-plated accessories from picture frames to expressive, powerful bases of lamps and even switches perfectly complete the overall atmosphere. The shine of gilding is combined with the traditionally English color palette much better than anything else.
Textile. Drawing – the most important element in the creation of a traditional English interior. Select fabrics of different patterns and tones. For example, the “companion” of a damask, iridescent with a plant pattern of two tones, can be a fabric with a different shade.
Traditional English style has borrowed a lot from design finds from all over the world. In the era of the kings of Georgov, everyone loved antique designs. Hence the popularity of the image of an acanthus leaf on fabrics. Great experimenters Victorians scooped up ideas in travel: whether it is a pattern of Persian carpets, or lush luxury of French rococo, or the elegant severity of the Italian Renaissance. The starting point when choosing textiles for the interior, stylized as traditional English, is a two-color fabric in a wide strip with a narrow stripe between them, in a color in a third of a contrasting shade to the main one.
The damask, having only one color, gives a three-dimensional effect, due to the contrast of matte and shiny areas on the same drapery relief – that’s what it is good for when there is a lot of fabric in the interior. A large paisley (“cucumber”) style — rich brick, golden, green, and blue — inspires thoughts about traveling to the East, and large colorful chintz will do a better job with a paler interior in tones of sage leaf, blue duck egg (very pale greenish-heavenly), gold and cream. In terms of texture, velvet and chenille are absolute for curtains.
Traditional English does not necessarily require a rich dark gamut. Shimmering elegant old gold and silvery green sage against the background of cream is an absolutely wonderful option if you picked up accessories with traditional patterns – damask, striped or colorful chintz of pillows.
Dark beet and shades of gold create a rich coziness of the living room. The fineness of the unlikely small drawings of the walls and furniture, together with more daring roses on the curtains, keep their eyes on themselves, and the interior does not seem overloaded and depressing.
