Bruce Bradbury (http://www.bradbury.com),who is said to have been attracted to the Victorian Era by the “unabashed celebration of colour and ornament”, had the following to say about plain, white walls: “Whenever I walk into a Victorian and see a plain white room, I feel that something is terribly wrong. It’s as if all the colour, all the magic, all the warmth and vitality of the original had been slowly stripped away over the years – leaving only a bleached skeleton.”
In the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7A7oq-jKcI, you get hints on how to use clues in the room around you to be a detective into the history of colour and design in your room – Stained glass, fireplace tiles, remaining wallpaper, door hardware, and woodwork motifs can all help to guide you. Just be warned that not only will any remnants of original wallpaper be covered in the grime and soot of more than a century, but the original colours will have drastically faded. Mr. Bradbury says that many are merely “chromatic ghosts” of their former selves, and that this is the main reason that Victorian interiors have the undeserved reputation of being gloomy.