7 Decorating Tips for an English Style House
What comes to mind when we say “English style”? No doubt a palace or castle with afternoon tea! Flowers, porcelain tea cups, velvet chairs with curved frames and overflowing elegance. In today’s post, we’ll give you 7 tips to make your house the object of envy, even for Buckingham Palace.
How can you decorate in English style?
The English style is classic, elegant and very sophisticated. Is that what you want for your home? Then you should be aware of a few crucial keys! Whether you’re aiming for urban or cottage decor, read our pointers carefully.
1. Hang wallpaper
Wallpaper is a must for this style. But make sure that the pattern includes jubilant flower prints that create a slightly serious atmosphere for the room. Other options include stripes in darker colors for bedrooms or kitchens. You can even try out different textures or patterns.
2. Choose wooden furniture
Another must-have piece for an English look is wooden furniture. It has to be light wood and also be hand-crafted in order to look as antique as possible.
For your dining room, go for long tables to seat several people. In the kitchen, don’t forget to add a cupboard or cabinet to showcase your items. As for your bedroom, you’ll need a canopy bed. Lastly, for the living room, include a coffee table where you can place a tea set. Every room will have its own charm!
3. A fireplace for the living room
These days, not all homes have the space for a nice fireplace, but if you do happen to have one… installing a fireplace is a must for the English look! In British decor, the fireplace is considered to be the focal point, surrounded by the sofa, table and chairs.
4. Chandeliers for the ceilings
The lighting in a room can help us spotlight a specific area, but it can also create just the right ambiance. For the English style, ceilings are decorated with chandeliers, which are the light fixtures that feature in palaces, castles or showcase living rooms.
You can also use lamps that imitate candle-holders (which use light-bulbs instead of actual candles) and glass decor. As for the color palette: golds, whites and silvers offer the most elegance.
5. Buy a Chesterfield sofa
Your English living room won’t be a true English living room without this classic upholstered sofa. Traditional models use leather and have ornate rounded borders and legs. Modern Chesterfield sofas come with velvet decorative pillows, or with floral-patterned fabrics. Be careful if you use the latter if you already have floral wallpaper.
Another option to consider are Chesterfield poofs, which are small footstools that are meant to support our legs while reclining. They’re perfect for TV time!
6. Flowers, flowers everywhere
A living room, dining room, kitchen or bedroom with big vases that are full of flowers is typically English. Of course, you can use flowers in other spaces as well. In addition to the previously mentioned wallpaper and sofa patterns… you can used them on pillows, rugs and curtains!
This might be an interesting fact for you. English decor has an abundant floral presence in order to withstand the hard, long and sad winters. On the other hand, the spring and summer seasons allow people to enjoy their famous colorful gardens, which provide flowers to decorate and perfume the interiors of homes.
7. Don’t forget about the details
For a perfectly executed English decor, decorate your wall with frames (hang antique photos, for example), lay out a tray with porcelain cups and plates (all read for tea time), hang up classic mirrors that match with the details on your sofas and chairs (doing so will also make the room appear more spacious) and find standing lamps to set next to your fireplace.
Rugs can also be very useful for setting the style. Velvet decorative pillows that are thrown on top of a sofa look perfect. And curtains, contrasting with the other fabrics in the room, that stream down onto the floor give both a classic and elegant touch.