Creating Authentic Victorian Rooms

by Elan Zingman-Leith, Susan Zingman-Leith

The proprietors of Leith Hall Historic Seashore Inn, a restored Victorian bed-and-breakfast in Cape May, New Jersey, provide an armchair excursion through Victorian houses of various interior decors, including Gothic, Greek, Rococo, and Renaissance, giving readers the opportunity to examine representative rooms in detail and discover why they looked the way they did. 180 illustrations.

152 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1995

Reviews

[quoms · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars, maybe. This is not a very good how-to book, nor is it a good style resource (being sparsely illustrated and mostly in black and white), but it is an excellent and accessible guide to the diverse and frequently opposed styles that constitute what we vaguely think of as "Victorian." If I need to explain the various strains of the Aesthetic movement to someone, or talk about the impact of Exotic Revival on the last 150 years of design, I'll probably reach for this book.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was looking for, not to the fault of the book. I was looking for decorating interiors, especially painting the walls and attention to floor coverings. But this is a good book for research; I just wanted more DK style, show-me type book than a lot of text and a few small illustrations each page. This book would be good for a historian or someone looking for accuracy in redesign.