The English style is a deep mixture of the visual characteristics of the Georgian and Victorian epochs with the addition of a colonial touch, which appeared due to the positioning of Great Britain of those times as a colonial empire. The spread of the interests of this country to the distant corners of Asia and the East contributed to the appearance of the British exquisite gizmos from India and China. They reliably served as evidence of prosperity, as well as the high social status of their owners. To create an English style in the interior of an apartment, it is necessary to take quality factors, respectability, thoroughness for the starting points. If you are happy with Conan Doyle, Dickens, Wilde, Chesterton and Agatha Christie, then cool restraint, firm adherence to traditions is the best option for decorating your home.

Elements that emphasize the interior of the chosen style: square carpets, numerous portraits, a fireplace, collections behind the glass, good furniture, an armchair with ears, quilted sofas, chairs upholstered with flower chintz, heavy curtains, twin plafonds, a lot of pillows, porcelain baubles, watches and bronze.

Walls, as in the days of Sherlock Holmes, are half paneled with oak panels or dies trimmed with mahogany veneer. The upper part is pasted with wallpaper or painted. Preferred colors for common rooms: maroon, silver-green (color of a sage leaf), dense gray, dark blue. For wallpaper is characteristic acanthus or damascus, or voluminous bouquets, tied with gold ribbons. Private rooms are decorated with wallpaper of light colors with a small floral pattern.

A special place in the British interior is occupied by draperies - three-dimensional, multi-folded, tied with brushes or picks at a height of about one meter, arranged on the floor.

Heavy curtains are made in two layers, on a dense lining. This technique is used so that the curtains do not burn out from the sun, and their folds keep the shape well.

Traditionally, smoothly colored fabrics, a cage, a strip, a flower are used. The windows of the living room, study, dining room are decorated with white muslin curtains and curtains made of expensive materials: velvet, satin, brocade. For the summer period, thick curtains should be replaced with lighter cotton fabrics.

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Walking around the English house

As the theater begins with a hanger, so the English style begins literally from the front door. The aroma of old England, the first accent of English style is instantly felt when you are only approaching it: on the paneled door, in addition to the ordinary door handle, there is a door knocker. It is not necessary that this object be made as a real hammer. By design, it is a clamp with a protruding part that hits the metal plate. Now, like two hundred years ago, it is made in the form of a ring, a lion's head, a mythical animal, many other interesting options, for example, a human palm. This attribute of the input group immediately emphasizes the belonging of your interior to the English style. The entrance door of the Victorian era was painted with a dark green, cinnabar-red or black paint, emphasizing the texture of the tree. Now designers continue to use this technique.

Apartment, the interior of which has absorbed the spirit of British traditions, implies the presence of a large number of rooms. Each of them plays its own role, creating scenery for a certain time span of human life: a living room, an office, a bedroom, a kitchen, a dining room, a children's room (or even a separate study room). What are the distinctive features of space in accordance with its purpose?

The ideal living room, corresponding to this style direction, is a room with a high ceiling and a bay window. Obligatory large, elongated windows, starting almost from the floor. The dominant of the living room, the symbol of the house and its main decoration is an open fireplace, with a black cast-iron furnace placed inside. Facing the fireplace is made of marble, carved wood or tiles. Cutting off intense heat, a decorative screen is put ahead, and above the fireplace there is a large mirror framed by a ceremonial frame, or a picture.

Strictly in front of the fireplace is a voluminous furniture group: a sofa, armchairs and banquettes, surrounded by small, enchanted tables with twin floor lamps or vases.

On both sides of the fireplace there are mirrored sideboards, round glass showcases or slides, inside of them, as on the mantelpiece are collections of porcelain (Chinese, English), watches, bronze. Clock mechanisms under glass caps, graceful figurines or the finest items from the great-grandmother's service - this place of values ​​is exactly here.

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The walls of the drawing room are decorated with paintings in heavy gilded frames, ceremonial family portraits and photographs. A feature is a very dense weighing, i.e. the distance between the pictures is chosen to be the minimum permissible.

The main content of the traditional English cabinet interior is books. They are located on open shelves up to the ceiling, completed with fillets, cornice, possibly pilasters. On the walls there are engravings, and from the furniture, except for a desk or a bureau, a sofa band is supposed to be surrounded by small tables. Strict lines, muted colors should help create a working mood.

The heart of the bedroom is a high bed, and its distinctive features are a voluminous headboard, a gaze decorated with ruffles and festoons, a canopy on the pillars (an option used at will), a huge number of pillows. At the foot of the bed is installed ottoman. Symmetrically the beds have bedside tables, night lamps, on the contrary - a dressing table with an armchair or a puff. The walls of the bedroom are decorated with prints, lithographs, photos in fine frames. Curtains are made of cotton or linen fabrics that duplicate the wallpaper wallpaper or upholstery materials used for upholstered furniture.

The most important symbols of the British style in the kitchen are a giant slab, metal dishes, copper pots hung on the walls, ceramic pots and porcelain on exposed shelves, a tiled floor of dark shades, a faience deep rectangular sink.

Interior of a small apartment

If your love for "fives about clocks" is prohibitive, then it is possible to reproduce the modern style of a classic English house in a small apartment, but before starting the work, you should ask yourself the question: "Is it convenient to live feeling like a tourist (or even an exhibit) of a historical museum, especially if it is not at the source of the Thames, but inside an ordinary modern building? "

The best and more elegant solution will be to think about a simple classic English interior, but to make a certain reference to England, add a light scent of foggy Albion, using as accents objects that have an unquestionable affiliation with the British style.

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When developing an English design for a small space, it is important to keep the main trends: symmetry and pairedness, but most importantly - do not clutter the space. Take only the most necessary things: a sofa, a square carpet, a fireplace (a false-fireplace), and tabletops. Instead of a traditional desk with cabinets, you can use a bureau with a folding or folding lid. This kind of furniture is very functional and takes much less space. Floral curtains, chintz upholstery, quilted collection of Chesterfield furniture, Victorian paint in wallpaper, "gentleman's" armchair, print "British flag" on cushions, as a designer's joke - these elements will give your house the required color, but do not overwhelm it with the massiveness of the old England.