The Green Dining Room

The Green Dining Room in Victoria and Albert museum (Art & Craft)


A bit of a story to gain knowledge:

In 1866, William Morris had the idea and goal to design a interior in the museum Victoria and Albert museum. However, Morris did not like to achieve three dimensional projects due to the industry link it has with it. But here, thanks to its love towards the museum and the poetry he achieved a unique piece of art has we could call it. According to his poem, Morris envisioned the space as a place of enchantment, where the visitors would have the feeling of entering a mysterious green countryside house or a hidden room in an enchanted castle.

The Green Dining Room

What do I think about it?

As we could see on the picture below, the space has few design on its furniture but a lot of ornaments surrounding it. The walls are the most important objects of the space, we could even say that they are everything in the space. Wallpapers, plaster ornaments or even paintings are what Morris is attached to, therefore, it is obvious to see his spaces gravitating around them. 

Furthermore, in the top picture, we can see two main gradient of colors, green and yellow.

Why? 

To begin with, Morris wanted to transmit the idea of being in the nature and surrounded by it, therefore, green was the perfect color for it. He used different ton of green to give to the space a dynamic approach and to make it more interesting. On the way he used what he created before, such as his pieces of wallpaper or textile. 

Second of all, he used yellow to stimulate the eye, however, he did not use different tones of yellow such as with the green but only one type, gold. I would say gold to refer to the raw material, to the essence of all. He probably sees gold as the most precious and the purest metal that could exist on earth and that is not linked with the industrialization.