Build the room around one or two dramatic antiques. Today's rooms are not proportioned well for Victorian furniture: the parlor, especially, is too small with too high a ceiling. While a roomful of Victorian furniture is likely to look awkward and overcrowded in a modern space, a few well-chosen focal points can look terrific and give a focal point to a room with few features. Combining Victorian cabinets and side chairs with modern sofas is probably the most practical plan, as older sofas tend to be difficult to find and uncomfortable to sit on.
Eliminate white walls. Victorian decorating pundits despised white walls in any home space that was meant to be pleasant or restful. Probably the nicest and most authentic rooms we saw were two formal dining rooms, each with wainscotting of lincrusta done in a leather-like faux finish, and wallpaper above the chair rail. But these impressive rooms were unusual among subdivision houses for having four walls and a door -- most modern tract homes feature a much more open plan. In open rooms, it may be wisest to confine special wall treatments to walls that don't run into another room -- or to simply texture walls in warm neutrals to eliminate the coldness of white.
Opt for Pergo or patterned carpets. Solid-colored plush carpets never quite look right in a Victorian home, no matter how many Oriental rugs you pile on top. If your taste in furniture is pre-1876, opt for wall-to-wall carpet with an all-over floral pattern (the nicest one we saw had a solid-colored border inset). If you plan to have a post-1876 look, which would normally call for hardwood floors, Pergo looks just fine in a modern house and requires less maintenance than the real thing. Small white tiles are, of course, the best bathroom treatment.
Consider chintzes. Most Victorians couldn't afford to have velvet everywhere -- and that's just as well if your architecture calls for casual elegance in suburbia. Colorful chintzes lend a lighter touch to upholstery and curtains, and are especially adorable in a small house. If you yearn for velvets and fringes, consider a more muted, neutral color scheme, so that you can spread your favorite look through several adjoining rooms without creating visual chaos.
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