Our favourite Georgian houses and the lessons in decorating to take from them
Georgian interiors are often the easiest to decorate and restore, says architectural historian Oliver Gerrish in his design tips for historical homes. “Let the attractive, harmonious proportions speak for themselves and leave great piles of furniture to the Victorians. Although grey has become ubiquitous in modern day historic interiors, don’t be afraid of strong and vibrant colours – the cool and serene proportions can take them. The wealthiest Georgians tried to be positively shocking with their palettes. One only has to enter the Ante Room at Syon, with its thrilling gaudiness, to feel transported into another realm. Later Georgian interiors, otherwise known as Regency, can be daring and colourful or simple and light."
Beyond colours, pay attention to the interior architecture, from cornicing to doors, floors and fireplaces. Many Georgian houses can benefit from simple, pared-back detailing, or look to the work of Sir John Soane and his Lincoln's Inn Fields house for inspiration. Beyond this, as Oliver explains, "the architects from this period experimented with a wide range of styles, including Egyptian (as seen in the dining room at Goodwood House), Indo-Chinese (the Royal Pavilion in Brighton) and heavy Greek. This approach works well today with Art Deco pieces and well-proportioned, plain furniture.”
Owen Gale1/14Will Fisher and Charlotte Freemantle, the couple behind Jamb, have created an interior of great beauty at their Georgian house in Camberwell, filling it with period-appropriate fireplaces and antiques. Their drawing room, which occupies the full width of the house, shows how well pale blue works as a colour for such a light-filled space (three floor-to-ceiling windows occupy one wall). The colour is ‘Fenching Blue’ by Papers and Paints. Fireplaces, Jamb's speciality, are hugely important for getting the feel of the room right, and the grandeur of this space is matched by the elaborate Portland stone chimneypiece in the drawing room, which dates to the mid-18th century.
Owen Gale2/14Will and Charlotte have retained the hierarchy of spaces in their Camberwell house, and the kitchen and downstairs dining area are much simpler rooms. The walls are painted in 'Hardwick White’ by Farrow & Ball, and an early 20th-century dining table and benches occupies one end of the room. The early 18th-century fireplace in this room is by contrast, much more austere than the example in the drawing room.
Christopher Horwood3/14Designer Carlos Garcia is behind the harmonious interiors of this Georgian townhouse in north London. The drawing room is particularly beautiful, with its pale blue walls (the paint is Edward Bulmer's ‘Welmish Blew’) and classical allusions (like the elegant pedimented bookcases at the back of the room). Pattern makes its way in through the curtains and the rug, but the other fabrics in the room are plainer and calmer. There are some formal shapes among the furniture, and others that are squashier and more relaxed.
Christopher Horwood4/14Living in a Georgian house, even one of great significance, does not mean that you need to be slavish about historicity. When Peter Sheppard and Keith Day restored the grand Palladian Wolterton Hall in Norfolk, they installed this beautiful contemporary kitchen, the joint winner of the 2020 Historic Houses Kitchen Award.
Alexander James5/14Not all Georgian houses were grand or highly decorated. The famous weavers' houses in Spitalfields are elegant in their proportions but were designed as commercial premises as well as residences, and their restorations do best when they reflect these relatively humble beginnings. The owner of this example was careful to keep things simple and pared-back. She has painted most of the walls white or pale grey, and used reclaimed early 19th-century floorboards from a Welsh chapel for the floor, which had previously been decked out in fitted cream carpet. See the rest of the house here.
Hugo Rittson Thomas6/14In perfect Georgian style, the pale blue dining room of Beckside House has a cluster of prints and medallions hung above and around the chimneypiece with its distinctive carved frieze.
Paul Massey7/14The fine proportions of a Georgian house can also take stronger colour, as this hallway in the West Country house of tech entrepreneur Rose Hulse shows. The colour is ‘French Blue’ by Edward Bulmer, a perfect foil for the rich reds of rugs found at Woolley & Wallis.
Lucas Allen8/14In the drawing room of print maker Cameron Short's restored Georgian house, a lamp with a 'Varx' shade made by Cameron sits on a restored eighteenth-century oak table, which was unearthed in a barn adjoining the house. The carpet-covered ottoman and chair were both auction buys.
Sharyn Cairns9/14Ben Pentreath's Georgian parsonage in Dorset is one of our favourite examples of how to blend tradition with modernity. 'Although we did a lot of rescuing, it doesn't look over-restored,' the designer says. 'The kitchen floor, for example, needed replacing. As there was a patch of old stone flagging, I had hoped there would be more beneath the linoleum. Of course, there wasn't, so we simply glued wooden boards on top of the existing floor and painted them dove grey. It looks really nice and happily maintains the fiction that nothing much has happened here in the past 200 years.'
Sharyn Cairns10/14The dining room walls in designer Ben Pentreath's Georgian parsonage have been painted in Farrow & Ball's 'St Giles Blue' and lined with Piranesi prints. The imari lamp and shade are from Pentreath & Hall.
Paul Massey11/14Pastel and candy colours feel just right for the grander Georgian houses, like the charming Bradwell Lodge in Essex. The front entrance leads into a domed neoclassical vestibule, built around 1780 with access to the Tudor wing to the left and, up the steps to the right, the Georgian wing. The pale peach of the walls is eye-catching and makes the most of the room's beautiful proportions.
Paul Massey12/14Simple panelling in the Georgian style can be a gracious way to decorate a room, and we love the symmetry of this fireplace in the dining room of gilder Claire Mosley's south London house.
Paul Massey13/14Such panelling can also be the backdrop for a contemporary interior. In this modest Georgian cottage decorated by Henry Prideaux, the same clean-lined panelling features throughout, but the furniture is largely contemporary or mid-century. In the bedroom, the walls are painted in Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Sea Nor Sky’, while a bed by Pure-Ex, a Vaughan wall light and a bedside table designed by Henry complete the scheme.
Simon Upton14/14Cornicing is one of the most crucial aspects to get right when restoring a period house of any type.The owner of this 1830s London house wanted it to be restored to its original style, and had a passion for Sir John Soane, whose influence can be seen in everything from the arrangement of the rooms to the mouldings (copied from designs in the Soane Museum). Dealer and designer Max Rollitt retained its elegant idiosyncrasies, including the original dentilled cornicing in the hallway, and added a judicious selection of antiques and reproductions, including the classic 'Original Globe' lantern from Jamb here in the hallway.
