THE nineteenth century artist and writer William Morris brought immense beauty to Victorian homes. His designs continue to inspire decorators. “It helps the healthiness both of body and soul to live among beautiful things,” he wrote. His wallpapers, such as this Blue Fruit Wallpaper, were in middle class Victorian homes, as well as great estates. Other examples can be found here. Morris wrote that any decoration is “futile if it does not remind you of something beyond itself, craftsmanship involving not only the mastery of technique, but the evocation of spiritual qualities of breadth, imagination, and order.”

Unfortunately, Morris was a socialist and thus incongruously promoted ideas that would lead to an assault of ugliness, domestic and otherwise.

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