Decorating gothic means to fill a room with the type of furniture and accessories that were once found in medieval castles. The furniture style back then was heavy, dark, and carved with elaborate designs often shaped in the style of fleur de lis, quatrefoils, or dramatic arches. This dramatic furniture was often paired with tapestries and accented with heavy, metal work such as wall sconces and candelabras.
Recreating your own gothic look is easier and cheaper than you might think. But before venturing into Home Depot for some black spray paint, it helps to get some idea first of what a gothic room really should look like. These links at Marie’smanordecorating.com and Nexttag.com are both great resources for the different styles of Gothic furnishings and room decor. Once you get a feeling for how the furnishings should look and what colors will work for your room, you can start scouring freecycle.com, Craig’s list, and local thrift stores for cheap alternatives that will work.
Medieval castles had stone walls, and creating your own look of stone is an easy tromp’l’oeil technique that will help set the mood of your room. Here’s a great link for one way in which to paint your room using Aquabond paints and stone plaster finish. Look a little too complicated? Try this link instead for a painting technique that may be easier to a beginner to manage.
If both of these techniques are just too much, painting the walls stark white, tan, dark purple, or a crimson red will also work.
Gothic furniture
Back in the 1970s, a faux Mediterranean craze swept the US with clunky pieces of dark furniture that looked like they originated with the Spanish Inquisition. This oversized, ugly furniture had wrought iron accents and if upholstered, was usually covered in either gold, royal blue, or a deep crimson. Thrift stores are filled with these faux Mediterranean pieces that are cheaply priced, and work well in a gothic room with just a few changes.
These changes include such things as:
… darkening down lighter furniture by “washing” it with black paint. With this technique, you use black latex house paint which has been diluted with an equal part of water. Dip a rag into the paint mixture, and apply liberally to the outside of the furniture. Wait a few minutes, then wipe the wet paint off with a clean cloth. This will darken the wood without turning the furniture completely black.
… replace the knobs, hinges, and drawer handles. Home Depot and Lowes carry gothic style furniture hardware at a very affordable price. Simply remove the existing hardware with a screw driver, and replace it with gothic hardware more to your style.
… reupholster the chairs with gothic fabric. Upholstery fabric can be purchased at fabric stores (look for the discount bins!) and is a simple DIY install on upholstered benches and dining room chairs.
… applying fleur-de-lis or quatrefoil decals or stenciling the front face of the furniture in one of these design ideas.
Gothic room accessories
Candles and candle holders are one of the cheapest ways to accessory a room. For candle holders, look again at the thrift stores for candelabra styles that may work. If it’s the wrong color, it can be antiqued to match your room with a can of metallic spray paint, followed by a black paint wash.
For headboards, a room screen, or photo holder, search salvage yards for wrought iron fence sections. Vintage wrought iron fences were usually topped with sharp sword points or fleur-de-lis, which fit in nicely with your goth decor.
Curtain or draperies
When it comes to curtains, velvet fabric is one way to decorate the windows in your room, but lace curtains will also work. Lace fabric comes from the store finished on the side edges (called the selvage) and can be cut to the length you need. Use cafe clips to attach them to the curtain rod, or cut a 7 yard length and try draping it up and over the curtain rod instead.
Target carries a great line of gothic drapery panels called “Trellis Geometric Jacquard” in both crimson and black. A 58″ x 84″ panel is budget priced at $19.99.
Gothic lighting
For gothic lighting ideas, check out this link for an incredible selection of lighting styles.
Cheaper yet, prowl the thrift stores for vintage chandeliers from the 1970s. These ugly things turn up all the time for $20 or so, and look great spray painted black, gold, or silver. While at the thrifts, keep an eye out for those Mediterranean style table lamps which can also be spray painted to match your goth decor.
Gothic bedding
For Gothic style bedding, JC Penney’s has several comforter sets that are fabulous. The “Cannes” comforter set and “Chris Madden Ironwork” comforter set are two styles to check out. Here’s the link to the JC Penney bedding department.
Gothic art work
To finish up, add some framed gothic art prints to your walls. Illusionsgallery.com and Cafe Press are two resources to worth checking out.
