William Morris Bird Prints: Which Ones to Choose and How to Hang Them

If you've started searching for Morris birds, you've probably already hit the wall: there are at least five distinct designs, they look nothing like each other, and most shops sell them without telling you which is which. This guide fixes that. We'll walk through each design, what colours it brings into a room, what size to buy, and how to frame it without the busy pattern fighting back.

Morris's fascination with birds: why they keep appearing in his patterns

Morris was a gardener long before he was a textile designer, and the wildlife around his homes kept finding its way into his work. At Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire, he watched thrushes raid his strawberry beds every summer. At Red House in Bexleyheath, his garden was structured around rose trellises that attracted small birds.

Rather than treat these creatures as decoration, Morris built entire patterns around them. Birds in his designs aren't perched neatly in corners. They're nesting, feeding, half-hidden in foliage, or facing each other in pairs across a repeat. That sense of observed life is part of why the patterns still feel warm 150 years later.

It also explains why his bird designs sit so comfortably in modern homes. They aren't formal heraldic motifs. They're closer to a snapshot of an English garden in late spring, which is a mood most rooms can absorb without much effort.

The main bird designs and what sets each one apart

There are five Morris designs you'll see most often when shopping for William Morris bird prints. Each one has a distinct personality, and choosing between them is mostly a question of how busy you want your wall to feel.

Strawberry Thief (1883)

The famous one. Pairs of thrushes facing each other, stealing strawberries from a tangle of foliage. It's symmetrical, dense, and uses Morris's labour-intensive indigo discharge printing process, which is why the colours have such depth. Strawberry Thief is the most decorative and the most demanding of the five. It rewards a large size and a calm wall.

Bird (1878)

A woven wool design Morris made for the drawing room at Kelmscott House. Larger pairs of birds face each other across stylised foliage, but the scale is bigger and the palette is more muted than Strawberry Thief. Bird feels more medieval, more tapestry-like. It's the one to choose if you want presence without colour overload.

Bird and Anemone (1882)

One of only three monochrome patterns Morris designed. Birds tucked among anemone flowers, usually printed in a single colour on a pale ground. This is the calm option. If Strawberry Thief feels too much, Bird and Anemone gives you the same garden feeling with a fraction of the visual noise.

Trellis (1862)

Morris's very first wallpaper. Climbing roses on a wooden trellis, with small birds perched between the stems. The birds here were actually drawn by Philip Webb, the architect of Red House, not by Morris himself. Trellis is lighter and airier than the later designs, with more white space and a hand-drawn quality.

Woodpecker (1885)

A tapestry design featuring a single woodpecker in a fruit tree, with a Latin inscription running around the border. It's the most graphic and the most folk-tale-like of the bird designs. Vertical, narrative, and ideal for a tall narrow wall.

Colour palettes: matching Morris bird prints to your existing room

Morris palettes are specific, and getting them wrong is the main reason a print ends up clashing with a sofa. Here's what each design actually contains.

Strawberry Thief runs on indigo blue as its base, with terracotta reds, dusty pinks, sage greens, and cream highlights. It sits beautifully against off-white walls, warm neutrals, and natural wood. It fights with cool greys and anything in a clean modern palette.

Bird is more subdued: deep teal, ochre, brick red, and parchment. It works in rooms with darker paint colours (forest green, navy, ink blue) and looks at home above wood panelling or near antique furniture.

Bird and Anemone, being monochrome, is the most flexible. You'll find it in indigo on cream, sage on cream, or charcoal on cream. It slips into almost any room, including modern interiors where the busier Morris patterns would feel out of place.

Trellis uses muted rose pink, soft green, and warm cream. It's a gentle palette and pairs naturally with bedrooms, country-style kitchens, and anywhere you want a romantic rather than dramatic feel.

Woodpecker is the boldest: deep greens, mustard yellow, and rust against a near-black ground. It needs a confident room. Put it somewhere with rich paint and warm lighting.

A quick rule: if your room is already loud, choose Bird and Anemone or Trellis. If your room is quiet and you want a focal point, Strawberry Thief, Bird, or Woodpecker will do the job.

Size guide: the right dimensions for different wall spaces

The single most common mistake with Morris bird prints is going too small. These patterns are dense, and at A4 or A3 you lose the detail that makes them worth buying in the first place. As a rule, go one size bigger than you think.

Above a sofa or sideboard: 70x100cm framed, or a 100x150cm canvas if you want it to dominate. The print should be roughly two-thirds the width of the furniture below it. Going smaller leaves the wall looking unbalanced.

Above a bed: 60x80cm works above a double, 70x100cm above a king. Centre it on the headboard, not on the wall.

In a hallway or narrow space: Woodpecker is perfect here at 50x70cm or 60x80cm because of its vertical proportions. Trellis also suits narrower walls.

For a gallery wall: Mix 30x40cm and 40x50cm prints. Don't try to use Strawberry Thief at this size, the pattern needs room to breathe. Bird and Anemone and Trellis hold up better when smaller because they have more negative space.

As a statement above a fireplace or in a dining room: Go large. 70x100cm framed is the minimum we'd suggest, and a 100x150cm canvas in Strawberry Thief or Bird makes a genuinely room-defining piece.

Our framed prints go up to 70x100cm, and our canvas prints go up to 100x150cm, which gives you a real statement option if you need one.

Framed vs. unframed vs. canvas: which finish suits bird prints best

Morris patterns are detail-heavy, and the finish you choose changes how much of that detail you actually see.

Framed prints are the most flattering option for Strawberry Thief and Bird. The matte paper holds the indigo depth without glare, and a thin frame contains the pattern so it reads as a single composition rather than spilling outward. Our framed prints use solid FSC-certified wood (no MDF or veneer) and a UV-protective acrylic glaze rather than glass, so they're lighter to hang and the colours won't fade in sunlight.

Unframed prints suit Bird and Anemone and Trellis particularly well. The lighter, airier designs don't need containing in the same way, and an unframed print pinned or clipped to the wall gives a more relaxed studio feel.

Canvas is the right call when you want scale without weight. A 100x150cm framed print is heavy. A canvas the same size is much lighter, and our canvas uses a mirrored edge wrap so none of the pattern gets cropped at the sides. Canvas also handles humidity better, which matters if you're hanging in a kitchen or a bathroom.

On frame colour: natural oak or warm wood almost always works with Morris birds. Black frames suit Woodpecker and Bird. Avoid white frames with Strawberry Thief, they make the indigo look stranded. Avoid ornate gold frames with anything, they fight the pattern.

One thing worth flagging. The biggest complaint people have with Morris prints from other shops is poor framing: frames shipped separately, warped mounts, prints not properly fitted. Our frames ship pre-fitted with the print, in one box, ready to hang. It sounds basic, but it isn't standard across the category.

Pairing bird prints with botanical Morris designs for a gallery wall

A single Morris bird print can absolutely stand alone, but if you want to build a gallery wall, the birds pair brilliantly with his botanical patterns. The trick is balance: one bird design as the anchor, two or three botanicals as support.

Good combinations we've seen work:

• Strawberry Thief (anchor, 60x80cm) with Pimpernel and Willow Bough either side at 30x40cm. Keeps the indigo as the visual centre.
• Bird and Anemone (anchor) with Honeysuckle and Acanthus. All monochrome or near-monochrome, very calm.
• Trellis (anchor) with Fruit and Daisy. All early Morris designs, all with that hand-drawn quality.

Hang in a tight grid (5cm gaps) rather than loose and scattered. Morris patterns are already busy, and a scattered layout amplifies the chaos. A grid frames them.

You can browse all the botanicals in our William Morris art prints collection if you want to mix and match. Stick to one printing palette across the group: all indigo-based, all earth-toned, or all monochrome. Mixing palettes is where gallery walls usually fall apart.

Our recommendations: the three best Morris bird prints to start with

If you're stuck between options, these are the three we'd point a friend toward depending on the kind of room they're working with.

1. Strawberry Thief, 70x100cm framed

The default answer if you have a sofa, sideboard, or fireplace wall and want one piece to carry it. Go large, frame it in natural oak, and let it be the focal point. Don't hang anything else on the same wall.

2. Bird and Anemone, 60x80cm framed or unframed

The thinking person's choice. If you want Morris without the visual weight, this is the one. Works in modern interiors, works in bedrooms, works in spaces where you've already got a lot going on. The monochrome palette means you can hang it almost anywhere.

3. Woodpecker, 50x70cm framed in black

For a hallway, a stairwell, a narrow wall between two doorways. The vertical composition makes it a problem-solver for awkward spaces, and the rich palette gives presence without taking up much wall.

If you're building toward something bigger, both of the first two pair well with botanicals from the same period, and Woodpecker holds its own as a single statement.

A note on authenticity. Morris's original designs are out of copyright, which means anyone can reproduce them, but the quality varies wildly. AI-generated "Morris-inspired" prints have started appearing on marketplace sites and they're often subtly wrong: the repeat doesn't align, the birds look generic, the colours are too bright. Buying from a shop that reproduces the original designs faithfully, on proper matte paper with archival inks, is the difference between a print that looks like Morris and one that just gestures at him.

You can see the full range across our bird art prints and broader animal art prints collections if you want to compare Morris's work against other approaches to the same subject.

Where to start

Pick the design that matches your room's energy, not the one you've seen most often. Strawberry Thief is famous for a reason, but Bird and Anemone might be the print that actually works on your wall. Buy bigger than feels safe, frame in natural wood unless your room is dark, and give the pattern space to be looked at. That's most of the job done.