William Morris, born 1834, died 1896. Designer, poet, printer, weaver, dyer and campaigner. He co-founded the firm that became Morris & Co in 1861 and helped drive the Arts and Crafts Movement, a reaction against the cheap, soulless output of Victorian factories.
His view still lands today. Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
The garden did the designing
Morris didn't invent his patterns at a desk. He looked out of the window. Willow, acanthus, honeysuckle, pomegranate, strawberry. If it grew, he drew it.
Morris designed for printed cotton and wallpaper, all fine hand drawn detail, so keeping the delicacy of a thrush's wing on a rug took a lot of samples and a lot of rejected ones.
We had one non negotiable too. These are rugs for real homes, with real toast, tea and dogs in them. So every rug in the range is machine washable and liquid repellent, so spills sit on the surface and wipe straight away.
Useful and beautiful, with the washing machine doing the heavy lifting. Morris would have approved.
Eight designs, available as standard rugs, runners for hallways and kitchens, and round rugs.