Trust pays £2m for Red House, William Morris home that inspired arts and crafts movement

The National Trust has bought into Britain's Red revolution. Red House, an otherwise anonymous home built in suburban Bexleyheath, south-east London, in 1859, was the stylistic time-bomb that launched the arts and crafts movement and ruptured the more grandiose certainties of Victorian architecture. Now, the National Trust has secured the £2m building for posterity and will open it this summer, after restoration.

Red House was designed by the founders of the left-leaning arts and crafts movement, William Morris and Philip Webb, and its light, space and natural, gently detailed materials set a new architectural agenda for the middle class. Anybody who has covered a wall with Osborne and Little paper, or sported a floral Laura Ashley number, has exhibited arts and crafts tendencies.

The house may not be as beautiful as masterpieces such as Standen, built in Sussex 30 years later, but it set a trend and the National Trust is ecstatic at acquiring it. Linda Parry, the president of the William Morris Society, said: "It's one of the most important and influential of all 19th-century British buildings."

The house was William Morris's first marital home with Jane Burden, the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood's model and muse, when he was 25. Morris, working with the Brotherhood's heavy mob, notably Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones, decorated Red House in a medieval manner. This led to a furniture-making and decorating company that had a powerful influence on interior design, and encouraged Victorian architects to reconsider the importance of vernacular design.

The acquisition of Red House required a considerable team effort involving English Heritage, Bexley council, the Victorian Societyand many other organisations. It was bought from the Hollamby family, who lived there from 1952 until last year. The late Edward Hollamby, a former Greater London Council architect, allowed limited public access to Red House.

His daughter, Jill Hollamby, said: "Dad and Mum wanted to secure the future of the house. We are especially pleased so many will be able to appreciate their commitment and love for it."

The National Trust plans to open Red House to the public this summer, which allows plenty of time to reinstall the home's original furnishings, now on display in Kelmscott Manor and at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.