of 70results123NextDidn't find what you were looking for?magnifying glass Jean and Andy Knoll have worked hard to keep their Queen Anne Victorian looking original and elegant. When they painted the exterior of their Hartford home, they used six colors to show off its painted lady features, and Andy painstakingly removed dark green paint that covered majolica tiles on their living room fireplace. They also furnished the home mainly with antiques, and they applied period wallpaper on walls and ceilings. But when the holidays near, Jean adds yet another layer of elegance to their home when she decorates. Then, guests are likely to feel as if they've been swept back in time to the late 1880s when the home was built. There are beautifully decorated trees throughout the first floor, and the home's wide doorways, fireplace, stairway, windows, chandeliers and even some of its furniture are decorated with garland, gold beads, silver snowflakes, icicles, berries and ribbons.

Tabletops and walls are covered, too, with holiday pieces she's collected over the years. The largest tree is in the parlor, two tall but thin trees flank a buffet in the dining room, there's a tabletop tree as well as a small accent tree in the living room, and a small tree sits in the foyer ready to greet guests. Each of the trees is decorated differently, yet all of them hold ornaments from the Victorian era or copies of old ornaments, and each tree is topped with a vintage finial. "The tree in the parlor is about 8 feet and has all antique and new glass ornaments," Jean said. "It's full of ornaments in a lot of different colors. I put the smaller ornaments further into the tree and the antique ones at the edges of the branches. "All of my old glass ornaments are kugels. They were made in Germany from 1840 on. Kugel means round ball, but they were also made in the shapes of grapes, animals and Santas. "The tree in the foyer," she continued, "is 4 feet and has all the original pieces I started collecting about 50 years ago.

"The living room tree is a tabletop tree done in all white. chandeliers gumtree durbanI did that because I realized I had a lot of white ornaments, and I also wanted a tabletop tree because they used them in the Victorian era. chandelier cso fait maisonIt's about 4 feet high."crystal chandelier hire brisbane One of the trees in the dining room has a lot of White House ornaments. "I got them from my cousin who lives in D.C.," she said. "They're older but not antique. The other tree has die-cut ornaments made of paper and ribbons that were made years ago, and also glass ornaments in gold and burgundy. Those trees are about 6 and 7 feet," she said. But turning her home into a Victorian Christmas wonderland doesn't happen overnight.

Although Jean says she does get some help from her husband and from her rescued pets — dogs Katie and Allie and Isabella the cat — she enjoys doing the bulk of the work herself. The couple is retired, but at one time Jean worked in interior design. "I typically start before Thanksgiving and I try to be done by the second week in December," she said. "I do it little by little. I do room by room —or sometimes I put up whatever box comes out from upstairs next." She recently talked about how much she loves decorating her home, noting that it will be featured on this year's Hartford Historical Society Christmas Home Tour on Dec. 12. Q.How did you decide on what look to use when you decorated your home? A. I had to go elegant with the woodwork in here, the high ceilings, the old fireplace and the big archways. And this is how they would have done a Queen Anne before the turn of the century. Q.Do you change the look from year to year? A. I always do it the same.

For example the swags on the parlor/living room doorway. I do mirror images on each side, so I have two of everything for that area. A. They are large to small paper ornaments. They are an old style of ornament that was used before glass blowers started making ornaments. Q.Do you use real or artificial trees?I used to use real trees, but I have to get my ornaments perfect on a branch. With these trees you can bend the branches. You also can put more ornaments on them because they can hold more weight. Q.Do you decorate every room in your home?Only the rooms on the first floor. Q.What kind of lights do you use?The big tree has white lights and colored lights and that looks good with all the colored ornaments. All the other trees have white lights. Q.Do you have a favorite piece? A. Yes, the Nativity set in the parlor. It is from my parents, and it brings back memories from when I was a little kid and my dad would read from the Bible and then put baby Jesus out.

Mom and dad taught me to celebrate that part of Christmas, but my mom also introduced me to the magical aspects of Christmas with lights and decoration, Billy the Brownie and Santa. She did a lot of decorating too, but she put all hers out on Christmas Eve. Q.Where do you get your Victorian-era ornaments? A. Antique stores, malls or over the Internet. They cost $1 to $3. But something really special could sell for far higher. Q.What are the main colors you use when you decorate? A. All golds, blues and burgundies for the house as well as my decorations. For the decorations there are no bright reds and greens. I like these colors because they are peaceful. Q.What six colors did you use on your exterior? A. Three shades of green, cream, burgundy and heather, which is a purple/mauve color. Q.How do you store all your pieces? A. I keep them in big boxes in one of the bedrooms. The boxes are all marked for where they go. I have 15 good-size boxes just for the parlor tree.

When I take the ribbons down I undo them all and I roll them up and then the next year I make new bows so that the fabric stays nice. I also take the beads apart and wrap them in tissue paper to preserve them. It takes me about three weeks. Q.Have many changes been made to this house over the years? A. It was turned into a duplex after the war. A previous owner converted it back to a single-family, and we were told that they found the entire staircase enclosed in a wall. The beams on the dining room ceiling were painted black when we moved here in 1983 and it took Andy 10 weeks to sand them down. We also redid the kitchen in 1996. We tried to keep it in character with the age of the house. This house is on the Washington County Historical register and is called the W.R. Amidon House. Q.How is your home laid out and how big is it? A. It's about 2,300 square feet. The first floor has a three-season porch room at the front. The house originally had a large wrap-around porch on the front.