- Anu Isoaho
- Aug 31, 2025
- 5 min read
More Morris, please!
Although less is more
The English polymath (textile artist, graphic artist, type designer, designer, poet, prose writer, translator, activist and socialist) William Morris (1834–1896) was born into a wealthy family in Walthamstow, northeast London. Morris had a happy and balanced childhood, and he inherited his father's interest in the Middle Ages. In addition, nature and its beauty inspired Morris, who later became one of the leading figures of the Arts and Crafts movement. Morris is best known for his printing work and for the wallpapers and textiles he designed, some of which are still in production.
While studying at Exeter College, Oxford, Morris met, among others, Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Philip Webb, as well as his future wife Jane Burden. The writings of the art critic John Ruskin made the young men interested in art.
When Morris married Burden in 1859, the couple asked Philip Webb to design a house for them in Bexleyheath. To make the house their own, they did the interior decoration themselves with the help of friends. The walls were decorated with decorative paintings and windows and medieval furniture were built. In 1861, a group of friends founded the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company, and its most notable commission was the decoration of the chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge with stained glass and ceiling paintings. In 1874, Morris began negotiations to change the ownership of the company, and in 1875 a new company, Morris & Co., was formed, with Morris as its director.
Apart from the desire to produce beautiful things, the leading passion of my life has been and is hatred of modern civilization.
Morris and his friends became famous for the Pre-Raphaelite art movement. The Pre-Raphaelite idealized the Middle Ages and sought to elevate the value of craftsmanship. Morris's vision of art arose from opposition to Victorian art. In his opinion, the quality of English art and architecture at that time was decadent and impersonal due to industrialization and mass production. Morris believed that art should be made by people for each other, and that this would be achieved by restoring the value of medieval craftsmanship.
Morris published the successful romantic story The Life and Death of Jason in 1867. Morris wrote his major work The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs (1876) after studying the original sagas written in Old Norse, and Morris's works have been considered to have influenced the work of both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Morris's utopia News from Nowhere has been translated into Finnish as Ihannemaa (1900) and Huomispäivän uutisia (2008).
In addition to all his other work, Morris wanted to produce books that were beautiful and easy to read in terms of typography, which is why he founded his own printing house, Kelmscott Press, in 1891. He used books printed in the 15th century and the typefaces of the Venetian printer Nicolaus Jenson as his models. Morris also designed the Golden, Chaucer and Troy typefaces for his printing house.
If you want a golden rule that fits everything, it is this: keep nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or that you do not think to be beautiful.
Morris believed that objects should be useful and pleasing to the eye. He thought that mass produced goods were often aesthetically ugly and poorly made, and his goal was to promote craftsmanship, quality, and beauty in everyday objects.
I dare myself to think what Morris would think of today. Mass production has come so far since Morris' time that even fashion is ultra, and I don't think anyone can truly say that they need everything they find at home. Even if you live ecologically, you can still end up with too much stuff. For example, I have been using natural and organic cosmetics for over 20 years, but over the years my cabinets have overflowed. If I have had five face creams and seven serums and seven cleansers, I have no way of justifying their necessity to myself, and not all of the products have even been good for my skin.
So what is practical and beautiful in terms of skin care? That is what I have asked myself and that is why one of the sections of the About Beautiful Things is dedicated to natural and organic cosmetics. I think that skincare and beauty are part of holistic wellbeing. Using face cream is not only about using face cream; it is also about touch, warmth, taking into account the needs of the skin because the skin is our largest organ (your skin's needs = your needs), health and joy, among many other things. You can make beauty care a minimalist, meaningful ritual for yourself that helps you calm down in the evenings and refresh in the mornings, as long as the products used are carefully selected with your skin's needs in mind.
In the Home and Garden section, we put ourselves and our home on the line. What are we building and doing so that everything in our home supports the everyday life we want? We look for beautiful objects that have a story, and we plan a garden and vegetable patch, from which we get useful plants, vegetables and berries for our family. We decorate in a way that the wishes of all family members are taken into account and the important things are visible and easily accessible. We use old and high-quality pieces and buy newly manufactured items only after careful consideration.
Literature and art are our passions. Air to breathe, love for beautiful things and that track. We have a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf at home and walls full of paintings and pictures. Museum cards in our pockets and an endless list of art museums around the world that we have yet to see. Humans were created to create and if they can surround themselves and their family with beauty, why not do so. We often hear the saying "my home is my castle", but is it really so? Does a home reflect the people who live in it or does it reflect the changing trends of interior design magazines?
The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.
How far can Morris's idea be stretched in today's world and in everyday life? That's what we're investigating here. Why? We want to live a meaningful life for ourselves and our family. A life that inspires and delights, that helps us grow as people and as a couple. To do work that has a broader meaning to us and that, I hope, inspires others to challenge their usual ways of thinking. Could things be done differently than the mainstream says?
Morris's statement is a call to explore the world and human life. We want to show that a different kind of everyday life is possible. We consciously build a home where we can live the way we want. A life that we ourselves find meaningful, in a beautiful environment where we feel comfortable. We want to inspire and help. Follow, read, and ask, send a message and let's chat. We want to learn new things, and learning doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's wonderful to think that we could create a meaningful community around this site.
Welcome to beautiful things!
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