
This article is part of our series exploring how Victorian interior design and cool interior design influenced the way we design our homes and apartments.
It looks at the design of Victorias cool interior decor.
The Cool Interior design of Victorian homes was first introduced in the late 1800s.
It was popularised by architect and designer Henry James, who called it a “monochromatically” design that sought to capture the “freshness and energy of a room” through a “cool and light” look.
It is a term that is usually associated with early Victorian Victorian design, but James was also responsible for the design that became known as the “coolest interior”.
James described his style as being “the most modern of all styles”.
“A cool interior should be a very cool room,” James said.
“The whole room should be cool, but not too cool for the eye, for the eyes, for anyone.
A room should never be too cool to the eye.”
As well as being cool, James believed the cool interior was also an opportunity to create a “warm atmosphere”.
The first home James designed, a mansion at Mount Hope, was called a “chill” house because it had a fireplace, a “natural” fireplace, and natural light.
In contrast, James’s “cool interior” designs were much more sophisticated, and they were meant to have a “fresh, airy atmosphere”.
James also believed in using the sun as a symbol of the “snowy” atmosphere in his designs.
The cool interior also featured an “open-plan” design in which windows and doors were open.
James also liked to use large “pile” style windows, and “laid-back” open-plan windows, which allowed the windows to be “open and spacious” and also “open up” for a “thick and rich” natural light atmosphere.
Victorian architecture was a place where “the living room, dining room and kitchen were all built on a grand scale”, according to James, and he wanted his homes to “be the centre of a large garden”.
James’s style was “the greatest and most elegant of all” of the cool styles, according to one historian.
It was a style that “changed the face of architecture for decades”, according Toorak Architectural historian, Michael Kinsley.
Although it was not fashionable at the time, James was considered one of the architects of the 20th century.
One of his most notable homes, the Georgian mansion at Dingle, was the first Victorian home to be built in Victoria, and it was designed by James himself.
At Dingle house, James designed a mansion for himself, and his housewife Mary, and their two sons, William and William and Mary and John.
Mary was married to James for nine years.
James had also planned a “living room” that was “big enough for two people”, and had “a great view of the garden”.
James’s style also had a “garden-like” feel to it, according the historian, adding that it was the “most modern house in Victoria”.
After James’s death in 1889, his son Henry James became the “king of cool” in Victoria.
But in his final years, James felt his designs needed to be updated, and in 1896 he published a new book that included a new set of designs for homes, called The Cool Homes of Victoria.