NATURE’S BOUNTY

TREES

he writer, conservationist, designer and socialist William Morris is possibly best-known for his wallpaper designs. He created more than 50 patterns, and most were of flowers and trees that grew wild in the countryside. Patterns should always retain an ‘unmistakable suggestion of gardens and fields’, he wrote. One of the most recognisable of all his designs is Willow Bough (1887), based on drawings of willow branches that he made at his country home, Kelmscott Manor. Most wallpaper companies these days will have at least one design depicting trees and leaves in their collection. House of Hackney went a step further this year with the launch of Plantasia, a wallpaper ‘painted with mighty and majestic trees untouched by man’. For each roll sold, they will donate to Friends of the Earth’s campaign to double the tree cover in the UK by 2045. Swedish wallpaper companies Sandberg, Boråstapeter and