Victorian Wall Tiles

About

Victorian wall tiling was architecture rather than decoration. A tiled dado had a skirting, a field, a moulded band and a cornice, each a separate component, and it is that vocabulary — not the colour — that makes an original wall look like an original wall. We stock the Original Style Victorian range in the full historic palette, from County White and Duchy Pink to Burgundy and the deep greens, together with the mouldings that complete it. The mouldings are the point Astragal, hogarth, omega, sigma, egg-and-dart, plain cornice: each is a different profile, and each does a different job at a different height. A field of plain tiles alone reads as a modern wall in a period colour. Add a moulded band at dado height and a cornice above it, and the same tiles read as Victorian. Work out the height first A traditional tiled dado finishes around 900mm to 1.1m, but the correct height in your house is the one that relates to the door architrave, the window sill and the stair string. Measure those before deciding, then build the tile courses to land on it rather than cutting to reach it. Colour was structural Victorian schemes typically used a light field with a darker band and cornice — the dark line at the top gave the dado a visible edge. A single colour throughout is a modern preference and looks it. If you want restraint, keep the field pale and let the moulding be the only strong colour. Halls, bathrooms and boot rooms A tiled dado belongs where a wall gets knocked: hallways, back kitchens, boot rooms, downstairs cloakrooms. That is what it was for. In a bathroom the same components work, but consider taking the field higher, behind the basin and bath, and using the moulding to finish it. Explore more: all Original Style · Victorian floor tiles · all wall tiles Complete your Victorian wall scheme Plan the field tiles together with dados, skirtings and corners so profiles and colours match. Explore Original Style Artworks and borders, mouldings and skirtings . For a coo