Travel back in time and relish some old world charm with the Queen Anne style! Mix this style with others or try it out on its own!

Have you watched old English movies and loved how rich and elegant all the interiors looked? If you love period architecture and design, you’ll love the Queen Anne decor style for your home!

Decor Styles 101: Queen Anne

The Queen Anne style is said to have originated during the reign of King William the third, and reached its peak during the rule of Queen Anne – which is where it gets its name from. The style was quite popular even after that, and spread into America where it acquired an identity of its own.

The Queen Anne style applies to architecture, furniture as well as interior design, and it is reflective of a grander time when people lived a slow, yet rich life. Yet, it was a change from heavy Victorian decor, and was more simpler and appealing to people of all social strata.

Identifying the Queen Anne style isn’t difficult at all, and it won’t seem unfamiliar either. While some homes today still employ this style, it is found commonly in hotels and universities. To know more about this, here is a look at the main characteristics of the Queen Anne decor style.

Characteristics of Queen Anne Style

• The Queen Anne style is all about impressing your visitors, due to which the entry way or hall was well decorated
• All the furniture was of mainly dark wood
• Most furniture pieces have typical elements like curved inlays and cabriole legs
• Large sized Oriental rugs were a common feature
• Built in features were popular, like wall molding and fireplaces
• Paintings and art occupied the spotlight

5 Ways to bring the Queen Anne Style to your Space

1. Get the Right Furniture

The most identifying elements of a Queen Anne styled room are the furniture pieces. The cabriole leg is common – it has an outward curve at the top and an inward curve at the bottom, and the feet are like a claw or paw. Nearly all the furniture is dark wood, like mahogany, ebony, walnut or cherry. Wing chairs, china cabinets and drop down desks are popular Queen Anne pieces.

2. Choose Rich Fabrics

As you can guess by now, there is a certain opulence in the Queen Anne decor style and this is reflected in its fabrics. Whether its the upholstery, rugs or drapes, fabrics like brocade, silk, wool and velvet are commonly used. The colors used also reflect this vibe, in jewel tones like maroon, mustard or bottle green.

3. Decorate your Walls

If you look at a Queen Anne home, you’ll find that the walls are hardly ever left bare. They are often wallpapered, in patterns like damask, flowers and leaves. Art has an important place in this style, and large paintings are hung on the wall. You can also try a traditional gold framed mirror as well, but it needs to be big enough to be dramatic.

4. Get the Right Decor Accents

In the Queen Anne style, art is not restricted to the walls. You can also include pottery, tapestries as well as gorgeous china crockery, displayed in glass cabinets. Chandeliers are also a mainstay of this decor style. These homes feature beautiful, intricate chandeliers which are significant enough to work as art themselves.

5. Include Global Influences

When the Queen Anne style began to get popular, people had started traveling and bringing home things from their travels. This gradually assimilated into the style as small global influences in decor. This could be in the form of baroque, oriental carpets, Japanese pottery or lacquer work. Be sure to keep them small so they don’t overpower the look.

As you may have realized, this is not an easy style to implement. Particularly since you need your furniture to look a certain way. However, if you do have traditional-looking furniture in dark wood, you could try to bring in some more elements of the Queen Anne decor style to your home. It’ll remind you of an age when people truly lived every moment grandly – and considered their home their castle!

This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Blogging Challenge 2021.