William Morris has long been one of my favorite designers, and it was only a matter of time before I drew on him for Christmas inspiration… come see how I styled our Christmas bedroom this year inspired by the legend, himself!

I started off this year by decorating our entire bedroom for Christmas with an Edwardian and William Morris theme in mind.

But before I get into all the details of the room, I feel like we have to talk at least a little bit about what made Morris such a fantastic designer…

William Morris Appreciation

I’ll make this a short history lesson, but if you’d like to learn more in-depth about the history of interior design, you’ll love my Elite Decorating Academy!

William Morris came on the scene in the mid 1800’s and brought about some changes that were contrary to everything else that was going on in the Victorian era of his time. Instead of falling in line with the idea of the industrial processes which he claimed were “dehumanizing”, he wanted to usher back in a craft-based, even medieval style of creating and distributing designed goods.

His appreciation for handcrafted designs using age-old processes resulted in beautiful creations such as “The Red House” in London and the many wall paper and fabric designs that I’m sure you’re familiar with.

It was Morris’ inspiration and the Arts & Crafts movement that also brought about what we know of as “Craftsman” style homes.

I could go on and on about the things I love about William Morris, but we’ll have to settle at this – he was a very influential and creative designer who set interior design on the trajectory that we’re enjoying and participating in now.

You can join my Elite Decorating Academy if you would like to hear more about him and other great designers that have inspired me!

William Morris Resources: Wikipedia | Victoria & Albert Museum

*This post contains affiliate links to products I know &/or love.

Back to my Christmas Bedroom:

Now that we know some of the “why” behind my admiration of William Morris’ designs, we can dive into how to incorporate them into your Christmas decorating!

One of the first things I did when I decided that this was the year I was going to do a William Morris inspired Christmas was order these stockings from Etsy.

I originally got one in the blue (“Brer Rabbit”) and one with the greens and pink (“Strawberry Thief”), but quickly realized that using both, and the coordinating colors within would make the room a bit busier than I was wanting.

So I decided to use just the navy brer rabbit stocking as inspiration with green and gold accents and I got started.

Where to Decorate in your Room for Christmas

If you’re new to the idea of decorating your bedroom for Christmas, I suggest prioritizing the most important/spots. It doesn’t have to be that every inch is covered in order to bring in some of the charm and calm of the season.

For our room, that meant I focused mostly on the following areas:

• Our mantle
• Our bed
• Adding in a tree

I first added a tree in our room a few years ago, and I doubt I’ll ever go back to another Christmas season without it. The soft light brings about a coziness that is unparalleled, especially during the dark days of winter here in the Pacific Northwest.

Decorating our Mantle:

Our tree stands in the corner directly to the side of our mantle, and with how the room is arranged right now, I have a little green dresser (my faux card catalogue) sitting on the opposite side. Because of those two items already providing a lot of green, I chose not to add a greenery garland across the mantle like I’ve done a few times before.

Instead, I chose to layer and drape some ribbons as my garland. I used a thick brown satin as the base layer, then a thinner velvet navy ribbon, followed by a thin brown velvet ribbon that I had hot-glued jingle bells onto as part of my Handmade Holidays series.

If you haven’t already joined, it’s not too late to participate in Handmade Holidays for this year! If you sign up between now and Christmas 2023, you’ll still receive all of the content that has gone out as part of that 6-part series, and some December specials that we’ll be sending out via email in the coming weeks.

I simply taped the ribbons to my mantle with clear scotch tape to secure them, and I anchored both sides of the mantle with brass candlesticks, battery powered tapers from Amazon, and a few sprigs of faux cedar.

On the front of the mantle I hung a thrifted faux fur stocking (similar one here), my William Morris stocking, and topped them off with some faux brass bells that I made out of toilet paper a few years ago!

I found a beautiful dress form for $40 at an antique store (similar one here) and had some ideas about making a garland for her to “wear” out of cedar – it didn’t pan out for this year, but keep your eyes open next year and see if she makes an appearance!

For this year, I chose to put my Mom’s wedding dress back on the form, and a simple “Fa-la-la-la” garland around her neck.

I set a silver thrifted champagne bucket on top of my card catalog dresser, and placed a $10 silver tinsel tree from Target inside. I used simple pins to attach some Christmas postcards that I found on Etsy to the bulletin board I created a few years ago as a Ballard Designs knock-off.

Decorating a William Morris Christmas Tree:

For the tree, I DIY’d two great ornament sets that I’ll share more details about in a coming post.

One was a painted and distressed mercury glass, and another were golden forest animals. I loved how the animals tied into the many animals and nature themes used throughout Morris’ designs.

For our presents under the tree, I used William Morris wrapping paper (this one, and this one) and fabric finished off with velvet ribbon in a contrasting color.

Most of the ribbon I’ve used in my Christmas decor this year has been from May Arts – I highly recommend them!

Decorating & Styling our Bed for Christmas:

We have a chandelier above our bed, and each year for Christmas I’ve enjoyed adding greenery! I’ve found that I can just tuck it in without even needing to wire it – the pieces just tuck in together and hold well throughout the entire season.

I love to rethink my bedding for each season – not just the colors, but also temperature needs for the weather. For my colors this Christmas & winter, I decided on white, gold and greens.

Our rugs (similar) have alot of blue, so I’m letting them coordinate with the pieces I used on the mantle and only adding in touches of green on the bed.

I love how understated the bed looks for this season with just the white and gold blankets and sheets. It’s topped it off with a fur throw to tie in the fur stocking, and both a green plaid throw blanket and a lumbar pillow for the pops of color.

Decorating Details in a Christmas Bedroom:

I found a few new art pieces to add to the walls for this year. One was a poster print of a Christmas Ball, and I loved playing that idea in along with the William Morris inspiration.

To correspond with that, on the small wall near our bed I added a silhouette of a very distinguished gentleman in a top hat that I got from the Lost Gallery Co.

I love how everything turned out, and I appreciate that though the majority of the pieces are homemade and thrifted – you’d never know! I hope that inspires you that you can decorate your bedroom beautifully and professionally, and really enjoy your house and make it special; even with items that have been thrifted or put together with your own hands.

I was on my friend, Lisa’s podcast (Simple Farmhouse Life) recently, and told her that while we want to create things inexpensively when we can, we don’t want them to look inexpensive. That’s the goal!

Before I send you off, here are a few more images from around the room. This is my favorite Christmas bedroom to date!

Related Christmas Blog Posts:

• How to Style an Edwardian Front Porch for Christmas
• How to Decorate your Bedroom for Christmas
• English Cottage Christmas Decorations
• Bohemian Style Christmas Decor & DIY Macaroni Tree
• Christmas Dining Room Tour
• Living Room Christmas Tour

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