Wrapping up in warm jumpers and coats and beginning to don our hats and scarves, Autumn is finally here! It’s such a transitional season, moving from the beautiful summer we’ve had into the colder festive months. With the changing nature here in Yorkshire providing us with some beautiful scenes, it’s hard not to feel inspired by this season and we always seem to reflect that in our homes. We’re huge advocates for up-cycling old pieces of furniture to create beautiful new pieces that are more in keeping with your current style. These can either be your own furniture items or something you find in a charity/antique shop that you can see potential in.

However, there’s also so much you can do within your own space without having to do too many changes just by changing out your textiles. In summer, we gravitate towards lighter patterns with brighter colours and as we get to the later months in the year, we automatically reach out for darker and warmer colours; those that reflect the outside world and bring a comforting feel to the room. The burnt orange within William Morris Compton for example reminds us of an Autumn fire, standing round the bonfire eating honeycomb and toffee. The deeper colours of can really alter a room and make it feel that touch cosier and in keeping with the season.

The main plus of it all is that you don’t need to alter much! Just by swapping out key pieces and adding hints of colour throughout. Think about the main fabrics in your home; take the kitchen for example. The tablecloth, the placemats and the napkins; all easily interchangeable

Also; your curtains, easily switched out to be another fabric and these can make a huge difference especially since overall we spend much longer with the curtains drawn on longer winter nights so you’ve got to spend more time looking at them! We sell our William Morris fabric by the half metre so whatever the size of your window, you can get some fabric to fit to the nearest half metre. If you measure your window and purchase your fabric, there’s lots of talented seamstresses all over the United Kingdom that can sew your curtains for you if you’re not confident doing it yourself.

Fabric wise, we have cotton, cotton drill and heavyweight fabrics – not including our pvc fabric and bias binding. The three cotton fabrics have all been used by our customers to make curtains – they’re different weights so depends if you’re going to line them or not and the weight you want as it does alter the way they hang. If you’d like a sample of each in your desired design to see them more clearly and be able to make your own decision just get in touch and we’d be more than happy to send you a sample!

But we digress! We couldn’t finish a blog without picking out a few of our favourite Autumn (or fall if you’re reading this as one of our friends in America!) William Morris designs:

William Morris Compton

As mentioned, Compton is one of our favourites this time of year. With the warm colours within it and the overall beautiful designs, it’s just a wonderful design. Compton is actually the last design Morris did before he passed away and was a commission for Compton Hall in Wolverhampton.

William Morris Brother Rabbit

In both blue and in red, Brother Rabbit is such a sweet pattern that looks wonderful in both colours; we can never quite decide which we love more! With our own bunny rabbit hopping around the house, we’re very biased towards how adorable this design is but we also love the insight into Morris’ life through the design. The Brother Rabbit (also known as Brer Rabbit) design was named after a character in Uncle Remus, His song and sayings by J.C.Harris (1881) which William Morris would read to his daughters Jenny and May at their home, Kelmscott Manor. The birds within Brother Rabbit were designed by Philip Webb, Morris’ lifelong friend and colleague.

William Morris Eyebright

Eyebright is a stunning design first designed by William Morris in 1883, with it’s first use to be for a lining fabric; of course, it was much too beautiful to be hidden! The fabric was initially printed using the indigo dye technique that Morris pioneered, which took days to complete.

That’s just a very small selection of our Autumn designs, so make sure to have a look at our entire collection!

Our products are both printed and manufactured in the United Kingdom, are licensed designs by William Morris, and are printed both size and colour-wise to our own specifications to best suit our products. If you’d like a sample of any of our fabrics, please contact us and we’d be happy to send one to you.