In changing the way we look at our homes,
Morris changed the way we look at the world.
In my designing, I use little-known sources and a love of historic patterns to glorify the ordinary; my mission is to enhance my clients’ joy in their everyday surroundings; I want to restore or renew the Beauty of Life within their home, their most intimate of habitations.
Long ago—back in 1880—William Morris, poet and reformer, delivered that message in a lecture, “The Beauty of Life.” His mission, he told his audience at the Birmingham (England) Society of Arts, was:
“to revive a sense of beauty in home life, to restore the dignity of art to the ordinary household decoration.”
And, as a master craftsman, he did just that, co-founding, in 1861, the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company (later Morris & Co.) for the production of high-quality furnishings.
(24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896)
Morris had a genius for pattern design, whether his material was wallpaper, fabric, furniture, stained glass, tapestry, carpet, or tiles; he created objects of such enduring beauty that they have remained in continuous production for more than 130 years.
Morris’ philosophy (that everyone deserves to live in a beautiful house) fueled his art (the creation of beautiful decorative art for that house). His summer home, Kelmscott Manor, built around 1600 and adjacent to the Thames River is the house most closely associated with Morris and his wife Jane and their two children Jenny and May. Many original wallpapers, textiles, carpets, ceramics, furnishings and pictures are still at the house.
The heart of his work was always good design, with an emphasis on simplicity. In changing the way we look at our homes, Morris changed the way we look at the world.
As an interior designer, my mission, too, is to create beautiful everyday surroundings. I find it delightful that, working in the 21st century, I can adorn homes with the designs of a Victorian-era Englishman whose work sparked the Arts and Crafts movement. (Morris’s successful mission was to re-establish the value of hand-crafted work in the industrial 19th century—to raise taste levels so that the public once again desired ordinary objects that were handsome and well-made.)
This blog, The Beauty of Life, is intended to be an extension of my mission as a designer; I hope to highlight Beauty, as we find it and invite it into our everyday settings. If you should choose to join me in this journey of discovery, as a regular follower or as an occasional visitor, I would be most pleased.
I hope you enjoy these photos of the beautiful Kelmscott Manor!
Kelmscott Manor
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You are really on to something wonderful, bringing beauty into our everyday lives. Something that is needed in these often distressing, turbulent days. Thank you, and please continue to remind and enlighten us of the importance of beauty in our surroundings.