Accessories well placed, will catch the eye.

Accessories can add that final touch of medieval times into your space.   Some items that you can consider are fabrics, (satins and crushed velvet is one type you can use). Studs, brackets hinges and handles can be bought in a variety of gothic styles and added to furniture and cabinets.

Mirrors with carved wooden frames add grandeur to any room.  Gargoyles, dragons, gryphons  and knight bookends to hold your books together.  Doorknockers are also a fascinating feature.

Torches on the wall down a hall or outside a bedroom, sconces on the wall, wrought iron or pewter candle holders on the walls or a candle chandelier in iron or pewter hanging from the ceilings.

You can add replicas of weaponry like stunning shields, swords, helmets, complete suits of armor, daggers, spears, and axes. Small sized knight statues on horseback for the table will look amazing. If you have a lot of room why not add a large sized knight statue in the living room or just outside of the door to the bedroom or the living room or the bathroom or outside the door on the porch.

Dragon and gargoyle figurines and/or sculptures and pictures.  If you’re good at crafts and art, you can dress your windows to look like stained glass.  These were a hallmark of the medieval period and are quite unique.  When placed in prominent places, they tend to attract a lot of attention and can make be the subjects of interesting conversations.  Always keep you eyes out for knick knacks at garage sales or thrift stores.

Can you spot a Victorian House just by the outside?

The Victorian period started in 1837 when Queen Victoria came to the throne of England and lasted until 1901 when she died.

Today, we have many materials and technology that was not available in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s.  It is quite easy to remodel a Victorian home.
How can you tell if the house is from the Victorian period? Well, these could be some clues…

Clue #1:  Outside brick work
It’s rare that an owner will change the brickwork.  Some owners will change it, but if the owner wants to preserve the history of the house, he may very well just replace what bricks need to be replaced.  Mind you that could involve lots of work and maybe some headaches, but it can still be done.

Buildings from the early centuries have stood the test of time and so many are still standing strong today.  A real testament to the quality of the work and the materials used.

Most houses were built of red or orange colored bricks.  That was the standard.  The homes were built using the Flemish brick bond which consists of bricks placed in the  header, stretcher, header, stretcher positions.  The long side of a brick is called the stretcher and the end of the brick is called the header.  You can always Google more information on this.
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Clue #2;  Roofing material:
A great many houses had roofs made of slate.  I had never heard of slate, so this is what I read:
“Slate is a type of metamorphic rock which is highly durable and very very heavy”.

It seems they made tiles of slate to put on the roof.  Since slate is very heavy, the interior of the house needed to have good supports to hold the roof up.
Slate tiles are still available for home owners who have the original roof on their home and just replace the ones that are broken,  but these tiles are used less for roofing and more for other things, like tombstones,and commemorative tablets.

In the past, laboratory bench tops,billiard table tops and school black boards used slate tiles, but again with today’s technology, lighter materials are available.
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Clue #3:  Garages
Victorian houses were built in a time when not many people had cars. The German Karl Benz is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile in 1885.  He sold 25 automobiles between 1888 and 1893.  So as you can see, not many cars were on the road in Queen Victoria’s lifetime.

People either walked, traveled by boat or train or used horse drawn carriages or coaches to get around and do things. In 1840 the first bicycle to have pedals was invented by a Scottish man named Kirkpatrick Macmillan.  So naturally, the “Victorians” did not need another building beside the house.  Of course today nothing stops the owner from adding a garage on the property, if there is room.
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Clue #4: Chimeys
This next part might be a little tricky.  Chimenys.  The fireplace was the only source of heat to keep warm.  There was no electricity, so no central heating and no radiators.  Most rooms had fireplaces.  So if you see a house with more than one chiminey sticking out of the roof, that’s  a clue right there.
In this modern age, we have electricity and radiators and more ways to heat that don’t need to cut down our trees.   I don’t know if an owner  would completely dismantle a chimeny on the roof?  If I had a chimeny, I would find a way to completely and permanently  close off the hole at the top still leaving the chimeny column up and I would scrub out and wash out the inside of the chimeny all the way up the column to the top.

Then I would use the fireplace “hole” / space to decorate.  Here imagination is just great.  let yourself go nuts with this idea.
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clue #6:  Windows
With today’s technology and the fact that some, not all home owners of Victorian houses have today changed their windows to more modern ones, trying to use the  windows to try and  to spot a Victorian home is almost impossible.  Your best bet is to study the brick work.
In Victorian times, the home had two types of windows, the sash windows and the bay windows.  True Victorian windows had six and later four paned vertical sliding sash windows with a single glazing bar down the middle.
These types of windows are the ones that slide all the way up, or they slide from side to side).   Even though they provide an advantage in cooling off a room in hot weather, and it is easy to clean all the glass from the inside just by sliding the two windows in different positions,  they were plagued with a few problems.

They were manly made of wood and so were prone to rot, and distort with the swelling  or shrinkage of the frame.  This would cause the windows to rattle in windy weather.
As time went on and  technology improved, new sash windows have been developed to look like the traditional windows of olden times but they are made of better materials to avoid the problems above.
Typical Victorian bay windows are often associated with Victorian Architecture.   Bay windows are three sided and are used to provide the illusion of a larger room.  They also increase the flow of natural light into the room at the same time the view to look out is considerably enhanced.  Bay windows are very popular in all kinds of buildings.
Two other things that were used widely were stained glass windows and iron railings. Today stained glass is easily available and so anyone could install a door or a window to their home or their apartment and iron railings are very popular everywhere.
Things have changed so much in the last hundred years.  Today it is very easy to build a true Victorian home.  Don’t forget I’m not talking about how expensive it could be.  I’m talking about the technology and the materials and the know how that is available for use in this project.

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Hi, I’m Ann Mary.    This website is stocked full of information. Grab yourself a good cup of coffee or something else you like and a comfortable chair and stay awhile.

“Strangers are only friends we haven’t met yet”.

I don’t remember who said that, but I’ve always liked that saying and when you think about it, the saying is true. I hope to get to know you, maybe learn something from you and I hope to maybe bring something to you also.

Yes you read the title right.  I  am an eBayer Googler.  Now what is an eBayer Googler you are asking.  LOL  well it’s someone who always Googles information about a product  and then goes and buys it on eBay.  I am sure I have perfected this technique.

I live in McWatters, in the province of Quebec in Canada and  I’m a stay-at-home mom with two little boys.  I’m fully bilingual in both English and French, English being my native language.

I’m pretty well into almost everything.  I love to read while taking a hot bath.  I love to cook.  I love to garden, oh how I love to garden.  Now that’s something I am so so so passionate about.  I’m also an eBay seller under the name   lady_goth**   .  If you’d like you can read my world here.

Here in my part of Canada.  (I’m 2 hours away from the Ontario border),  the spring starts in the early early part of March and we have beautiful weather up until the end of October.

When I’m on the net, which is like almost 85% of my day in between dishes, the house hold chores  and everything in between.  My yahoo is open from morning until night every day and I check my emails, chat with friends, read news, and take notes on everything that catches my eyes.  My computer desk is actually buried under mounds of pieces of paper here and there all about this or that.

I also love the Medieval / Gothic period (depending on how you look at it)  and the Victorian  period. Somehow for me, the terms Medieval and Gothic just go together. I love iron works (gates, plant hangers, urns, statues, gargoyles and gryphons and such).  I love castles, the architecture and decorations (the rich always could afford to decorate lavishly).

I also love everything to do with Harry Potter.  I spend tons of time just paying attention to the decorating details, all the teeny details that went into making the world of Harry Potter.  The next step is to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort.  I am always talking to others about decorating and watching movies and that’s where I get all of my  inspiration for this website

I hope you enjoy this site as much as I enjoy researching Victorian, Goth and Medieval times. If you love the Medieval, Gothic or Victorian period, you’ve come to a wonderful website. There is so much to discover. All the information contained in these web pages will give you much food for thought. I’m JUST getting started.

Well I guess that’s about it for the moment.  I hope to count you as a friend. May you find all that you are looking for. Thanks for stopping by and having a look. Have a wonderful day.