The Victorian House
As the Victorian middle classes grew, the significance of the family home grew. Enormous attention was paid to home decoration and furnishing. Magazines and books offered advice on interior design. As work moved out of the home and into commercial premises, the home could become a private and safe haven. It also became a status symbol and a showcase for the personal accumulation of wealth and a monument to family life. In order to achieve this, comfort was essential.
The separation of work and home life also created a division in men and women’s work. Whilst men went out to work and earned money, women tended to remain at home and adhere to the Victorian ideal of minding and managing the home.
Gradually men's and women's rooms became defined and were decorated in masculine and feminine styles. Social or family rooms including the parlour and drawing room were often decorated in a feminine style. The hall and dining room tended to be more masculine rooms and would be found decorated in a more serious and sombre style. By contrast functional rooms –kitchens servants quarters and so on would be decorated in a more neutral style. Children might occupy a separate area of the house and it was often deemed necessary to split the sexes here too.
As home entertaining grew in importance and popularity, the drawing room and main reception rooms became the ideal spaces to display wealth and taste. As personal privacy developed separate family rooms were established, ideally with a separate room for each function, each furnished as appropriate.
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