Morris was born in east London in 1834 into great wealth. From Woodford Hall, his family’s house in Essex, he was raised amongst nature and literature, indulging his imagination. His father’s success as a broker meant Morris’ inheritance promised he would never need to work.

Instead, he worked indeed out of desire.

This early contact with the natural world would prove formative. Picture the winding vines and symmetrical florals of his iconic prints (pictured below) and think of Morris’ childhood amongst the gorgeous English countryside. His inspiration is clear.

In the 1850s, William Morris attended Oxford. He intended to join the clergy but instead veered quickly towards art and architecture. There, he met Edward Burne-Jones and fell into the brotherhood of the Birmingham Set. These young creatives bonded medieval romanticism, Arthurian legend, and a rebuke of the Industrial Revolution’s permanent effect on modern life.

It was here that Morris began to see how he could live a life of beauty and utility in harmony rather than at odds. 

Despite Morris’ contemporary reputation as a visual artist, the Set’s fascination was largely literary. They read Tennyson, Shelley, Keats, Thackeray, and Dickens before Morris and Burne-Jones discovered Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin.

Not yet the textile designer he would become, Morris apprenticed to the Gothic revivalist George Edmund Street after his graduation from Oxford. This work focused him largely on architectural drawing and he worked from January 1856 under the supervision of Philip Webb. Webb would become a lifelong influence and a close friend. 

By August 1856, however, Morris had moved to London, “the spreading sore,” though he lived in an apartment in the avant-garde Bloomsbury in the West End. 

In 1857, William Morris’ met Jane Burden, the daughter of a local stableman, at the theatre. He was struck by her beauty and he consciously broke the ‘rules’ of class and married her in 1859. Burden, who conducted many affairs in private and in public, would later admit she never loved Morris.

In 1859, after his marriage to Burden, Morris commissioned Philip Webb to design the exteriors of his new family home: Red House in Bexleyheath, now owned by The National Trust. Morris designed the interiors and here began to design his floral embroideries throughout the rooms of Red House.

“Mediaeval in spirit,” expensive, and unusual by virtue of its L-shape, Red House was nevertheless, “the beautifullest place on Earth,” according to Burne-Jones.

Charles Faulkner, another member of the Birmingham Set, would eventually go into business with Morris and Burne-Jones and others in 1861, founding the decorative arts firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. over which Morris would eventually gain sole control.

“The Firm” hoped to reinstate decoration as one of the fine arts. 

By 1862, after the Firm’s initial success, Morris was focusing on designing wallpaper patterns. Trellis, the first of these designs, is very much a prototype of the works for which Morris’ legacy would most prominently endure. 

Works like Trellis weren’t just feats of design but of production. They were hand-dyed, naturally sourced, and endlessly repeatable. From silk dyer Thomas Wardle, Morris would learn the process of textile dyeing. By the late 1870s, Morris had turned his evolving attention to weaving. 

While his aesthetic was deeply romantic, Morris' impact was very real. He believed that good design should be available to all, not just the elite, and sought to make beauty accessible through functional, affordable objects. 

He rejected synthetic aniline dyes in favour of organic pigments. He invested in Merton Abbey Mills, a working factory where he could oversee the entire production process. For Morris, the artist wasn’t separate from the worker. They were one and the same. 

He believed the process of making something beautiful was itself ennobling, a path to personal and social transformation.

Morris’ influence was also ideological. Through lectures, essays, and tireless advocacy, he promoted a vision of society where art, work, and life were inseparable. He advocated for the rights of workers and envisioned a society where all could participate meaningfully in the production of art and life. His utopian novel, "News from Nowhere," imagines a future free from exploitation — a pastoral society where beauty and equality reign.

Today, William Morris is remembered as much for his legacy as for his life. His patterns have become timeless but remain true to their origin: a resistance to ugliness, a celebration of craft, and a love of nature.

Museums like the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow and institutions like the Art Gallery of South Australia continue to honour his work, the latter housing the most significant collection of Morris & Co. furnishings outside of the UK.

In a world of fast fashion and planned obsolescence, his belief in longevity, integrity, and beauty feels more urgent than ever. He didn’t just make things that looked nice.

His work endures not only in museum collections and design archives but in the values of a new generation of artists, designers, and thinkers who see creativity as a form of resistance.

Bring home long-lasting, premium wall art prints of William Morris’ artwork from Inka Arthouse.