The patterns that never went out of date
Strawberry Thief came about in 1881, Willow Bough in 1887. More than a century later they hang on walls in Stockholm, and they do not look old — they look inevitable.
That is unusual. Most patterns belong to their decade. Morris does not, and the reason is that he never drew decoration. He drew plants he had seen: the willow branches by the Thames outside Kelmscott, the strawberries in the kitchen garden, the thrushes that stole them. The patterns still work today because the nature they are built on has not changed.
At Brittfurn you will find Morris & Co in the original — wallpapers and fabrics printed by the same company Morris founded in 1861, with access to the original woodblocks and colour recipes.
Where to begin
There are around 150 Morris wallpapers and as many fabrics in the range. That is too much to browse without direction, so here are the three ways in.
By pattern. If you already know what you want — Strawberry Thief, Pimpernel, Marigold — go straight there. Every pattern comes in several colourways, and they differ more than you might think. Golden Lily in Indigo is an entirely different room from Golden Lily in Pale Biscuit.
By colour. Green is Morris's signature and the most sought after, but the archive holds everything from muted indigo blues to warm terracotta. The filter above sorts the entire range by colour.
By room. Large-scale patterns such as Bullerswood or Acanthus carry a room on their own and work best where you do not spend the whole day — hallway, dining room, guest room. Smaller repeats such as Willow Bough or Daisy can be lived with day in, day out.
Wallpaper or fabric — or both
Most of the well-known patterns are available in both materials. That opens up a possibility that is hard to achieve with other brands: wallpaper on one wall and the same pattern in curtains or upholstery, in a different scale or colourway.
The rule is not to repeat the pattern in the same scale in the same room. Willow Bough as wallpaper and Willow Bough Minor as cushions works. The same pattern in the same size on both wall and sofa becomes too much.
The fabrics come in several qualities per pattern. The same Marigold can be ordered as printed cotton, as outdoor fabric in Outdoor Performance, or as a woven version in Queen Square. The difference in abrasion resistance is considerable — see the Martindale rating on each product page, and get in touch if you are unsure which quality a project calls for.
Arts and Crafts, in brief
Morris was 27 when he founded his firm, and he was on a mission. Industrial manufacturing had made furnishings cheap and, in his view, soulless. The answer was the Arts and Crafts movement: craftsmanship over mass production, natural materials, patterns drawn by people who knew the plants they depicted.
He was a pedant. Woodblock printing instead of machines, plant-based dyes instead of the new aniline colours, and an unwillingness to compromise that made the products expensive even then. It is also why they are still here. A Morris pattern is drawn to last for generations, not seasons.
The movement spread to Sweden and left its mark on what later became Swedish handicraft and National Romanticism. That explains why Morris feels at home in a Swedish flat in a way that other Victorian interiors do not — the kinship is already there.
After Morris
Several of the patterns sold under the Morris name today were not drawn by him. Golden Lily, one of the house's most sought after, dates from 1899 and was made by John Henry Dearle — Morris's apprentice, who became the company's chief designer after his death in 1896.
That does not make them any less genuine. Dearle worked in the workshop for twenty years, learned the craft from Morris himself and carried the tradition forward. But it is worth knowing what you are buying.
The collections
Morris & Co continually releases new collections from the archive, often in colourways Morris himself never saw.
The archive series — Archive IV and its predecessors — sit closest to the originals in both pattern and colour.
Pure Morris strips the patterns back to white, linen and grey, with texture in place of colour. It works in interiors where a full-colour Morris pattern would be too much.
Bedford Park, Melsetter and Simply Morris interpret the archive in new colourways — often bolder than the originals.
Outdoor Performance is the patterns in hard-wearing outdoor qualities, for conservatories and furniture that will stand outside.
See the wallpaper in your room first
Printed colours behave differently on a wall than on a screen. We always recommend seeing the pattern in your own room via the visualisation on the product page before you decide — you need to be logged in to use it.
Photograph the wall in question at three times of day — morning light, daylight and evening lighting — and compare the pattern on each image. Morris's greens shift particularly between daylight and lamplight.
Come and see us
The full Morris range is there to see and touch in the showroom at Sturegatan 20 in Östermalm. We help with quantity calculations, match wallpaper to fabric and go through what works in your particular room.
You can drop in any time during opening hours, or book an appointment if you would like someone to go through the project with you.
