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If you're feeling stressed out by the horrors of the world right now, you could always do what some of the Victorians did in response to their societal problems…
Be a little a goth about it. 💀
Mary Shelley, the Bronte sisters, Bram Stoker… they all looked around at a rapidly changing, morally oppressive society and made monsters that stared back through the mirrors of beautifully decorated Victorian abodes.
And this aesthetic of the dark corners of humanity can bleed into interior design to create a gothic beauty that helps us navigate the monsters, the madness, and the magic of being a person.
So in today I'm giving you some Gothic Victorian home decor ideas for creating a dark, romantic retreat that takes a little bit of horror and twists it into something pretty!
Because if the world is going to insist upon being one big horror story right now, then I wanna use my decor to be a horror story right back. 😉
Would you rather watch than read? Here’s the video! ↓
The Victorian Gothic Sensibility
I find it very interesting that Victorian society, even though they were pretty buttoned-up and emotionally repressed, was drawn to medieval Gothic influences, which were so dramatic, theatrical, and even a bit sinister. Clearly, an outlet was needed, and the Victorians really ate it up.
It was kind of a Goth Nouveau, a new shade of Gothic adjusted for the psychological needs of the time.
In this way, the Victorian Gothic aesthetic actually seems to have a lot in common with Art Nouveau, which I did a YouTube video about recently. Both were responses to a rapidly changing world plunging headfirst into the Industrial Revolution.
Victorian Gothic and Art Nouveau were both aesthetic coping mechanisms, just carried out differently. Art Nouveau's cope was to celebrate nature, the Victorian Gothic cope was to explore the dark corners of the human mind. Art Nouveau looked outward, Victorian Gothic looked inward.
Imagination, mystery, identity, romanticism, psychology, the supernatural, each of these are some of the individual vertebrae that make up the backbone of the Victorian Gothic sensibility.
Pointed arches stabbed upward while the fangs of Bram Stoker's Dracula stabbed at the neck of civilized Victorian society. Intricately carved woodwork swirled around fireplaces, trim, and paneling as Dr. Jekyll's mind swirled with the madness of Mr. Hyde. Buildings and interiors were influenced by the decadence of old churches while Frankenstein played God with his monster.
This air of the horror and the romance of monstrosity within society (and within ourselves) is key to the Victorian Gothic aesthetic.
Monsters: Science + Academia Decor
When thinking about the Victorian Gothic aesthetic, my mind goes to the monsters of science that demonstrated the Victorians' apprehension around the rapid advancement of technology at the time. (Relatable, right?)
I think about Dr. Jekyll's laboratory, but like… if he made it cute. 💅
This is where I think the Victorian Gothic decor style can mix with green academia. Apothecary bottles and test tubes containing plants and florals, botanical wall art, little drawers for hiding things.
Victorian Gothic is very much about the hidden things; what lurks beneath the surface, what's obscured by the layers, the monster hidden within the human, the beauty hidden around the home.
An animal bone flower sculpture, for example. It's pretty, but macabre. Like a beautiful abomination you'd find in Dr. Frankenstein's lab, you know? Death twisted into something trying to be life.
I mean, what can I say? The Victorians were pretty obsessed with death. We all are, but they were meditating on death through art in a way that really set a lot of groundwork for the Gothic aesthetics that have evolved over the years.
Like I said, the Victorian Gothic style is very psychological. In a way, it should kind of mess with your head a bit. In a good way. In a complicated, romantic way. The monster that messes with you, but also draws you in.
It's about dimension, layers, romance, and indulgence, all arranged together in a way that feels beautiful, but also piques curiosity, raises questions, raises eyebrows. It's a dance between beauty and disturbance.
The Victorian design style was so ornate, so attentive to the pretty little details. When I look at pictures of it, I see a society that was quite rigid and repressed, but at the same time, their design choices betrayed their desire to indulge.
So, indulge in your decorating. Indulge in your inner monster even. Let Ms. Hyde come out just a little bit and see what kind of styling choices she makes.
Madness: Dark Feminine Decor
This style isn't just about beauty. It's also about a little bit of chaos, a little bit of madness contained in beauty. It's a kind of controlled madness that sometimes creeps out of the container of domestic perfection.
Victorian Gothic is feral femininity boiling under delicate details like velvet and lace, floral wallpaper, and tastefully selected antiques.
This was a time in which women were creating lovely homes, yet there was definitely a dark underbelly underneath. This article, Victorian Gothic Fiction: The Sublime and the Beautiful, puts it well:
"The Victorian Gothic often placed scenes of terror within the domestic sphere… While they explored female subjugation, they also allowed their readers freedom to also explore the transgressive attempts to rebel or escape."
It's impossible for me to ignore this aspect of feminine rebellion lurking in the shadows of a perfectly decorated Victorian room. It's present in every cushion, every piece of lace, and every facet of glass. Disobedient Eve tempted by the fruit of knowledge, obedient Ophelia “incapable of her own distress” (Hamlet, Act IV, Scene VII), every woman a breath away from getting tossed in the proverbial attic like Bertha Mason in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.
Here's another fun little tidbit for you. In the 1979 book The Madwoman in the Attic, which analyzed Victorian literature through a feminist lens, the authors argued that Bertha Mason (the woman who was locked away in the attic), can be read as an embodiment of the anger and rebellion that Victorian ideals of femininity left very little room for women to express.
So yes, all the pieces of decor you're seeing here are very pretty, soft, and feminine, but I think it's interesting to have all this in mind because we're not just talking about the Victorian aesthetic. We're talking about the Victorian Gothic aesthetic. The Gothic aspect is where it gets interesting.
These days we have the freedom to express whatever we want in our homes. I mean, what if you leaned into your inner madwoman a little bit? Try interrupting the prettiness with moments of unabashed self-expression. The duality of beauty and a little bit of feral feminine madness is where the magic is.
Magic: Witchy Supernatural Decor
Magic itself is a very appropriate motif to explore when it comes to Victorian Gothic styling.
Once again, you have this very polite, controlled society, yet they developed a fascination with the supernatural. They loved a good séance, a good Ouija board, a good medium. They ate all that up, and it translates to some really enchanting decor possibilities.
Overall, the way I picture this is a room with the elegance of Victorian details, the dark palette and subject matter of Gothic themes, and moments of witchy supernatural visuals throughout.
Alongside the more refined beauty of Victorian decor, you can also infuse your home with this sense of magic, an otherworldliness that takes you somewhere else.
That's really what decorating is all about, whatever style you're going for. It's about creating your own little world, and it's something that you have some level of control over.
