Boudoir Musings

Anyone who is a fan of the English Regency and Victorian eras is well acquainted with concept of a boudoir, a somewhat strictly personal internal refuge of a lady's home wherein (at least in certain Regency romances) hastened gentlemen make daring escapes over balconies, ladies plot and plan {amongst other things} and maids curl hair with hot tongs and put away vast Bond St. creations into lavender sached wardrobes. Today, like so many other things of the past the boudoir is becoming in many ways extinct due to the sharing of sleeping quarters, lack of space, and the slow erradication of ways of yore due to the passing of time.
However, if you simply thumb through the pages of such monthly periodicals as Victoria, Architectural Digest, or Cottage Style you still see the much coveted romanticized look of that era brought out into other now less formalized aspects of the home. From Aubusson carpets in the living room to peasant style rag rugs in the bath, the delicate unfurling of cabbage roses painted across a wall, and various vintage tchotcke this particular fashion has also finally reached suburban domestication in recent years via Target's 'Shabby Chic' home decor line.
The style has been one of the few decorating rages from the past couple of centuries that's become more than a passing trend.
Although we may be beyond the stifling social restrictions and prim repression we can still luckily enjoy the beauty in battenberg lace, yet we aren't obliged to drape our pianofortes with it! {For anyone unfamiliar with Victorian customs it was their preference to cover furniture lest it cause improper thoughts.} One must inevitably think that the modern world would cause the Victorians a fit of the vapors at least; the Regency folks with their dampened petticoats, (and pre and post French revolution decadence) perhaps not so much. :)