Your Home is Your Castle: Interiors Inspiration from The Crown
by Max Birkin for House of Henley
As if Netflix had predicted the second lockdown, series four of The Crown was ‘dropped’ a few days ago to alleviate the crushing boredom we have all been feeling. According to some fervent Royalists - ie. Telegraph journalists – the latest series is awash with historical inaccuracies and the show’s creators have been playing hard and fast with the truth, but unless you are a close personal friend of an HRH this is unlikely to put you off. It has arguably the most sumptuous and visually appealing interiors of any show, even if your personal style doesn’t involve Persian rugs and walnut commodes. What the show is brilliant for is providing broader inspiration that can be translated into our modern lives. By all means emulate the Royal style, but do not ape the sets of The Crown unless you have a family pile to rival Lady Diana’s. Take inspiration from the interior theories behind their creation and interpret them in a less extravagant fashion: admire the incredible wall-hangings but buy a tapestry cushion; marvel at the chandeliers but buy a pendant from Jamb. A deep sofa and a little bit of polished wood goes a long way, but gilt furniture is likely to look amiss in the average UK home and if you aren’t too careful you’ll be informing friends that your surname is actually pronounced ‘Bouquet’.
Seating Arrangements
Photo credit: Lisette Voute Designs
If there is one thing we might pity the Royals for, it is the sheer size of the reception rooms in their various residences. It is widely accepted that furnishing an abnormally large space is trickier than furnishing a room with average dimensions; furniture can look out of proportion, the abundance of wall space can be hard to fill and sourcing sizeable rugs is an expensive challenge. The solution to this is zoning – creating groups of furniture to mark out a specific area, say for playing cards or taking tea. Whilst furnishing a room anything more than twenty metres long is unlikely to be a problem for many of us, we can still learn from the zoning seen in The Crown. You’ll notice that the arrangement of the Royal sofas and armchairs is (broadly speaking) circular; guests face each other, and the placement is intended to aid conversation. Entertaining may currently feel like a rather alien concept, but with Christmas fast approaching, it is a timely opportunity to rearrange your sitting room furniture to encourage discussion between your family and/or illegal guests. Try the classic combination of two sofas facing one another, or a more relaxed set-up involving a large sofa and two different pairs of armchairs. Bring in upholstered ottomans or floor cushions so that you can put your feet up still and be sure to have little side tables to place your drink on (gin and Dubonnet?). You can keep your television in the room – you aren’t actually a Royal – but try to make it a secondary focal point, and avoid centring furniture around it unless you have a particular wish to replicate an Odeon.
Art
Photo Credit: Turner Pocock
If you tear your eyes away from Gillian Anderson’s rather uncanny interpretation of Margaret Thatcher, you will notice that the sets of The Crown have rather a lot of wall space. However, it is rare that a wall is ever bare – it is either covered in a silk-print wallpaper, bear an enormous gilt mirror, or be hung with countless, moody oil paintings. They are the original ‘gallery walls’ that are now so prevalent on Instagram and TikTok bedroom makeovers, and an excellent antidote to the blank plastered edifices many homes seem to suffer from. The thing to remember here is that art is democratic – you do not have to be Charles Saatchi to buy paintings or sculptures. The art you hang on your wall need not be priceless originals by court painters of yore or RA legends – the only real rule when it comes to art is to buy what you love. Take inspiration from how the Royals hang their collection as opposed to what they hang. Try hanging a larger picture above a smaller picture, flanking each side of a large print with two smaller, related prints, or ranging photographs up the wall of the staircase. Even film posters, postcards or prints will look brilliant when neatly framed and hung in a pleasingly eclectic arrangement. Frames are easily sourced – IKEA is, as ever, the best provider of affordable, contemporary frames, but for a look more in-keeping with The Crown, find suitable frames in charity shops and go to your local framer for white borders to fill in any gaps between picture and frame edge. However, there is something rather captivating about a gloomy gouache of a long-dead relative or a dark satanic mill. Paintings ‘in the style of’ the greats can be picked up at auction for joyously little, and give a more balanced feel to a modern home (try leaving them out of the frame) or lend an unexpected but welcome grandeur to box rooms and downstairs loos.
Real wood
Photo Credit: House & Garden
The importance of wooden furniture in any home has been touched on before on this site but given The Crown’s pleonastic approach to wood of any kind, it seems right to discuss it further. Put simply, wooden furniture – real, not laminated and without a sickly orangey lacquer – is unbeatable for adding tactility, warmth and depth to any room of any period. Pine is sadly excluded from this. If you are cursed with heavy pine furniture from companies like Ducal, paint it in a well-chosen shade from Rust-O-Leum’s excellent range, wax it and consider swapping the handles for metal cups or ceramic knobs. Either that or chop it up and use it for firewood this winter. Replace it with furniture in oak, beech, walnut or mahogany from auction houses, antique shops or online auction sites. A chest of drawers from one of these sources is genuinely usually half the price of a set of Malm drawers from our old faithful, IKEA, but looks ten times better. Wooden wardrobes bought at auction for a few hundred pounds have already demonstrated their longevity by existing for about two hundred years already, and they really do seem to swallow clothes in a manner that a Sharps imitation does not. There is then also the satisfaction of turning an iron key in a lock, hearing the firm click of a door or stroking the grain of a material far older than yourself or, most likely, your granny. As with anything, wooden furniture is best in moderation – think Princess Margaret’s Mustique home, not Prince Phillip’s study – and it ought to be tempered by more contemporary pieces, or neutral materials. Don’t be too precious about any of this furniture either– avoid ‘proper’ antiques (broadly – and informally – classed as anything costing more than a low, three-figure sum) and be relaxed about chips and scratches. Wood ages far better than humans.
Thankfully, most of us will be spared the indignity of having our temper tantrums re-enacted by Tobias Menzies, but we can still draw rather useful interior design ideas from the homes of Her Majesty and family. You don’t need to be Royal to buy art, the sofa set-up of the Queen’s sitting room in The Crown is easily and productively imitable and there is no address that an oaken chest of drawers will not suit. Luckily for the vast majority of us, rearranging our furniture and hanging some pictures won’t cost a fortune or involve a professional curator, so when you settle down on your newly re-positioned sofa for some Royal escapism, perhaps be a little glad you aren’t the one who had to decorate Sandringham.
Follow House of Henley on Instagram by clicking here.
Subscribe to receive House of Henley blog posts straight to your inbox.
Check out House of Henley’s Official Amazon Page - Please note, these products are affiliate links and we may receive commission from qualifying purchases.