Wall Paneling & Wainscoting · Arts & Crafts / Craftsman
Drawing Room at Red House, Bexleyheath (William Morris and Philip Webb)
The drawing room of Red House in Bexleyheath, the home Philip Webb designed for William Morris in 1859–60, with its painted built-in settle and cupboard and open timber details.
Design characteristics
Red House is often called the birthplace of the Arts and Crafts movement. Morris and his friends decorated it themselves, and the drawing room's centerpiece is a massive settle with a cupboard and gallery above, painted with decoration in the medieval spirit Morris loved. It shows the movement's core ideas in one room: furniture built into the architecture, honest construction, and decoration made by hand. A painted built-in settle or window seat with a cupboard above is still one of the most characterful additions to a living room or reading nook.
Classification
- Category
- Wall Paneling & Wainscoting
- Material
- Painted wood
- Motifs
- Painted panel, Settle
- Photograph
- 2014
- Photographer
- Ethan Doyle White
- Evidence
- Photograph of a documented interior or object
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons
Architectural context
Honest materials, visible joinery and woodwork built into the room. Britain and the United States · c. 1880–1930.
