William Morris and the Arts & Crafts Home

‘Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.’

— William Morris

William Morris was an artist, a visionary, and a radical. He spearheaded the ‘Arts & Crafts’ movement, vehemently objecting to the machine-dominated mass production of the Industrial Revolution, which he believed to be ‘dishonest’.

Morris instead championed craftsmanship, the revival of traditional skills, and handmade production. He, and his firm ‘Morris & Co’, developed products with an ethos of simplicity, integrity, and useful beauty. These included designs for wallpapers, fabrics, furniture and stained glass.

Morris believed in an ‘art for the people’ – ‘What business have we with art at all unless all can share it?’. His radical socialist beliefs, and his wonderful natural designs continue to exert a powerful influence today.