William Morris said that you shouldn’t have anything in your home that “you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”

As a rule for living, I’ve heard worse but as a rule for what you bring into your home, I think it’s one of the best. My house has things in that I think are beautiful. The poison bottles, my bowls, and lots of other things. There are some things that are just useful though.

My draft excluder’s are a case in point. I live a an old house with big gaps between the doors and the floor. Heating is expensive and central heating is really expensive and not terrible efficient. I miss gas fires, Ma has gas fires and her gas bill is much smaller than mine! Anyway, in an attempt to keep the heat in the house I have these.

They aren’t very pretty, I made them both out of scraps and old things that would have been thrown away. The red one is an old duvet cover stuffed with old jumpers, the second a pashmina sewn around a pillow. They keep the draft out. They aren’t really beautiful and half the year they live in a cupboard, they are quick and dirty solutions to a problem but they are free and they do the job so as far as I’m concerned that’s fine.

What about you? Is there stuff in your house that’s useful but not beautiful? Tell me about it!