Victorian Home Decor
The art your Victorian home
has always deserved.
For forty years, Jerry and Joan Hawk have collected and sold original 19th-century paintings. Their 1889 National Register mansion in Bedford, Pennsylvania is proof that nothing finishes a historic home like authentic period art.
Why original art belongs in your Victorian home.
Authenticity that no reproduction can match
Victorian families hung original oil paintings, landscapes, portraits, genre scenes. Reproductions are beautiful imitations. Original works are the real thing.
Why originality matters →Expert guidance from forty years of collecting
Jerry and Joan have spent four decades selecting 19th-century paintings. That experience means every piece in the gallery belongs in a Victorian interior.
About the gallery →Room-by-room decorating advice, free
From parlor to dining room to bedchamber, this site guides you through how Victorian families actually decorated, and how to do it authentically today.
Browse decorating guides →Original 19th-century paintings, available now.
Bedford Fine Art Gallery specializes exclusively in original Victorian-era paintings, the very works that hung in homes like yours when they were new. Landscapes, genre scenes, portraits, and still lifes in period frames.
The one detail that separates a restored Victorian home from a truly finished one is almost always the art.
Browse the current collection to discuss what would be right for your rooms.
Visit Bedford Fine Art Gallery →
Explore our content. Choose your path.
How to bring original art into your Victorian rooms.
The "Painted Lady": Research-Backed Strategies for Exterior Multi-Color Paint Jobs
Discover research-backed strategies for your Victorian "Painted Lady" exterior paint job. Learn how original 19th-century paintings ensure historical accuracy.
Read the guide →
How Victorian Homeowners Displayed Fine Art — And Why the Picture Rail System Still Works Beautifully Today
Discover the art of Victorian picture rails and salon hanging. Learn how to authentically display art in your historic home with practical tips and insights.
Read the guide →
Cultivating the Past: Landscaping History and Garden Designs of the 1880s
Transform your Victorian home with authentic 1880s garden designs. Discover key plants and landscaping tips to create a stunning, cohesive outdoor space.
Read the guide →
The Hidden Lifeline of Your Victorian: A Guide to Box and Yankee Gutters
Preserve your Victorian home's charm with expert tips on maintaining box and Yankee gutters. Learn essential maintenance and restoration techniques to prevent water damage.
Read the guide →
The most honest art gallery
in the world.
Original 19th-century fine art, hand-selected by Joan & Jerry Hawk. Open daily, Sundays by appointment, in Bedford, Pennsylvania.
We don't just write about Victorian home décor — we live it.
Welcome to VictorianHomeDecor.com. We're Jerry and Joan Hawk, and this site is the natural extension of a life we've been building together since the 1980s — a life steeped in the beauty, craftsmanship, and character of the Victorian era.
We own and live in an 1889 Victorian home in Bedford, Pennsylvania — a home so historically significant it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also home to our fine art gallery, Bedford Fine Art Gallery. Every room is a working expression of our passion: authentically decorated, thoughtfully curated, and deeply personal.
Since 1987, we have been actively collecting antique Victorian home décor — furniture, decorative arts, textiles, lighting, and original fine art — not for a magazine shoot, but because this is genuinely how we live. What we share in our articles comes from decades of hands-on experience sourcing, placing, and caring for authentic Victorian pieces.
Why trust us.
We live the subject
We have lived in an authentic 1889 National Register Victorian home since the late 1980s. Every decorating decision — wallpapers, period furnishings, lighting, art placement — has been made in a real Victorian home, not a test room or a design studio.
35+ years of collecting
We began collecting antique Victorian home décor in 1987. We have sourced pieces from reputable dealers, auction houses, and private estates across the United States and internationally. We know how to authenticate, date, condition-assess, and place Victorian pieces correctly.
Recognized publicly
Our home and gallery have been featured in regional and national newspapers and magazines. Bedford Fine Art Gallery has guided hundreds of customers — many of them owners of outstanding Victorian homes — in placing original fine art.
Proven track record
Bedford Fine Art Gallery has earned hundreds of five-star testimonials from clients across the United States, Canada, and internationally. Our gallery is housed in a property on the National Register of Historic Places, and we are affiliated with respected institutions including the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art.
A record built over four decades.
- ❖ Owners of an 1889 Victorian home on the National Register of Historic Places
- ❖ Active Victorian antique collectors since 1987
- ❖ Featured in regional and national newspapers and magazines
- ❖ Guided hundreds of Victorian homeowners in selecting and placing original fine art
- ❖ Affiliated with the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art (SAMA)
- ❖ Proprietors of Bedford Fine Art Gallery — one of the region's premier 19th-century art destinations
- ❖ Hundreds of verified five-star customer testimonials
- ❖ Bedford Fine Art Gallery est. 1984
Our home is our classroom.
Imagine decorating your Victorian home with guidance from someone who actually wakes up every morning inside one. Our 1889 Bedford home is not a museum piece — it is a working, inhabited, constantly evolving expression of Victorian domestic life. Every article we write about Victorian wallpaper, period furniture, ornate mirrors, gas-style lighting, and decorative accessories is grounded in decisions we have personally wrestled with in our own rooms.
The home also houses Bedford Fine Art Gallery, where we have spent decades advising collectors, interior designers, and Victorian homeowners on how original 19th-century paintings transform a room. A well-chosen Victorian painting is not merely decoration — it is the soul of a period-correct interior.
"A visit to Bedford Fine Art Gallery is a rare opportunity to see American nineteenth-century landscape, portrait, and still life paintings in a house-turned-gallery of the same era."
— Ellen C., Gallery Visitor
Over the years, our home, gallery, and expertise have been featured in a range of newspapers and magazines. We are also proud of our long association with the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, where we have helped support children's education programs, services for veterans, and community enrichment throughout southwestern Pennsylvania.
Please visit bedfordfineartgallery.com to see the full list of publications that have featured our gallery and the work we do.
We'd love to hear from you.
Victorian home décor is not a niche hobby for us — it is our daily life, our home, our business, and our joy. We are deeply committed to sharing everything we have learned so that you can bring the warmth, character, and beauty of the Victorian era into your own home.
If you have questions, ideas for articles, or simply want to talk about Victorian antiques and interiors, we welcome you. And if you are ready to discover how original 19th-century fine art can transform your Victorian home, we invite you to explore our gallery — the same paintings that hang on the walls of our own 1889 home.
— Jerry & Joan Hawk, Bedford, Pennsylvania
A few of our favorite furnishings.
