Craftsman Bungalows and Morris Art: An American Pairing

Why the pairing works

A Craftsman bungalow gives a print a good setting without asking much of it. The rooms tend to be built around wood, plain surfaces and visible construction, so a patterned print on the wall becomes a focal point rather than one more competing element. You do not need to add much else for the pairing to read as deliberate.

That is also why restraint matters here. In a room with built-in joinery, a fireplace and dark trim, one well-placed print usually does more than a wall of them. If you want the wider method behind that instinct, the room-by-room guide to decorating with Morris prints sets out how to plan each space before you buy anything.

The broader look, with its emphasis on natural materials and handwork, is covered properly in the guide to Arts and Crafts interiors in detail. This page stays practical: what to buy, what size, which format, and where it goes.

Measure first, then choose the size

The single most useful step happens before any browsing. Measure the wall, note the width of the furniture below it, and pick a print size that leaves some space around the print. In a bungalow, where walls are often interrupted by windows, casings and built-ins, that margin is what keeps the print from feeling wedged in.

Sizes also depend on where you shop from. William Morris Art Prints shows sizes in inches to customers in the US and Canada, while everyone else sees sizes in centimeters, so double-check the unit before you commit to a size for a specific wall.

A practical rule of thumb: hold a sheet of newspaper or cardboard cut to the print's dimensions against the wall and stand back. If the edges crowd the window trim or the picture rail, drop a size. You can browse the full collection once you know the measurements you are working with.

Picking a format for a bungalow room

Three formats cover most bungalow situations, and each behaves differently in a room with a lot of wood. The table below sets out what each one is and what arrives with it.

Colour and pattern without clutter

Craftsman rooms carry a lot of mid-tone colour already: wood floors, oak trim, leather or canvas upholstery. A print with a busy ground can disappear into that, so look at the dominant background colour of the design and pick a wall that contrasts with it rather than matches it.

One caution on colour: printed colours will be very close to the screen but not exactly the same, because screens show colour differently and matte paper and canvas reflect light more softly than a backlit screen. If you are matching a print to paint or stain samples, allow for that slight softening rather than expecting a screen-exact match.

If you want to run two patterns in the same room, say a print and a cushion or a rug, the rules for doing it well are set out in the guide to mixing Morris patterns in detail. The short version for a bungalow: keep one pattern large and one small, and let the woodwork be the neutral that separates them.

Where to hang it (and where not to)

Care is simple. Dust the surface with a soft, dry cloth, and never use water or cleaning spray on the paper or canvas. The matte paper itself has a pH above 7, so it resists yellowing over time, which matters if the print will live above a fireplace for years.

Good candidates: the wall above a sideboard or bookcase, the chimney breast beside (not over) the fire, or the stair landing where light is gentler. If the only good wall gets strong afternoon sun, look for a spot where the light is less direct, since no print should hang in full sun all day.

A simple scheme to try

Here is one worked scheme for a typical living room with a fireplace and built-in bookcases. Measure the chimney breast beside the fire, allow a hand's width of clear wall on each side of the print, and choose a size that respects that margin.

For the format, take a canvas, which is printed on canvas and stretched over a wooden frame, with no glass and no mount. Hang it at eye level, out of the sun's path, and leave the rest of the wall bare.

That single print, one piece of furniture and the existing joinery is a complete scheme. If you would rather compare several designs against your measurements, the collection of Morris prints is the place to start.