The background and lay-out of Huyze Herkert

Because the furniture and accessories I already owned were Victorian in style, I decided to situate Huyze Herkert in that period. I love history, I love interior design, and above all, I've always loved literature from that era. So I started reading about the Victorian era and digging into the habits, the furniture styles, the architecture et cetera.


The Herkerts, a British upper-class family, live most of the time at their country estate, but Huyze Herkert is their London home, where they spend The London Season. The time in which I place their story is 1890. At that time, there was (limited) running water in London, which gives me more options for the kitchen and bathroom, but there was no electricity yet (I love candles).

In the nineteenth century, segregation of each function of the house became of high importance. The layout of the house is as follows:

This immediately illustrates why I still find the house too small: there is no basement, so the kitchen has to be placed on the ground floor and there is no room for a scullery, nor a larder or butler’s pantry. (Which is a pity, since these would be fun rooms to create.) On the other hand, I am happy that the public spaces designed for receiving visitors – the dining room, the morning room, the music and the drawing room –  are logically situated in relation to each other. So are the private spaces that were for family members only – the library / study, the bedrooms and the bathroom. I pretend there is an entrance to the attic where the servants' quarters are located, as would have been the case in reality.

The plan is to work on one room at a time and to not start another room before the previous one is as good as finished. (That doesn’t mean I cannot make plans and start collecting pieces for the other rooms of course!) My goal is to design and make as much furniture and accessories as possible from scratch.

I will be starting with the morning room, since I have quite a clear vision of it in my head.

(To be honest, I started with this room a couple of months ago, and I can tell you this: the clear vision I thought I had turned out not to be so clear after all, so there have already been quite a few changes 😊.)


Reacties

  1. Daydreamer18 april 2026 om 19:53

    Hi Sofie! I love history too (as you have probably realized from your perusal of my blog...) and I Love it to pieces when a blogger feels the need for the "story line" of the house! These places (and their families) do tend to take on a life of their own...! I am really looking forward to seeing your progress on this Victorian Home and the people who live there. I am not sure when gas lighting became available in London, but it was probably there in some neighborhoods by the 1890's. This would expand your lighting options. Also many places in the world used oil "lamps" (we called them "kerosene lanterns" over here, and earlier they burned whale oil in them too.) And as you probably know I am a believer in dollhouses needing the stairs! :):)

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