Inside Steampunk: Immersive Interior Design

Real fans of the Steampunk genre, or just those that have a love for the aesthetic and the quirkiness of it, may find that changing your wardrobe is simply not enough. Whether you want to live immersed in the feeling of Captain's Nemo's submarine, or you want to extend the Victorian visage to your home as well as your person, there are a few simple tips and tricks you can use to give your home or office a masterful, new-modern makeover.
First, choose your theme. Maybe you just want to recreate the feeling of a Victorian sitting room, which is by far the easiest to do. However a study of theme might lead you to create something with the air of Frankenstein's lab, or the interior of an air ship. Whatever you choose keep in mind your budget and that an aesthetic can be teased and made simpler with more modern tricks (which may gall some purists, but there it is).
Begin with your furniture. Keep in mind that Steampunk draws on almost exclusively Gilded Age designs, which means that most everything was dark, rich and covered in designs of some sort. Furniture styles like wing back chairs and day beds rather than recliners and sofas are a good start. If you can find chairs or tables that have heavy balls on the feet, or even better have clawed feet, then you are well on your way to a proper aesthetic. Invest in some side tables with attractive cloths (lace is the standard, but not required) and some proper lamps with attractive shades and brass bodies, and you're getting even closer. 
Next, your walls and floors. Plain walls, or even painted ones, simply won't do more often than not. Wall paper, typically in dark colors and often with vertical stripes, is a Victorian staple. Alternatively you could put cloths up over your walls, providing a sheet of deep red that hides an entire section of a wall. Other design tricks include curtains, the tasseled sort, and you can put them over more than windows if you want to add accents to walls, or even a balcony door. On the floor try and use hardwood or hardwood panels, but for those who live in an apartment look for some rugs and runners you can put down. Enough detail can often underscore and add to the feeling of an anachronistic living space.
...



