His English domestic architecture draws heavily on vernacular rather than academic tradition, influenced by the ideas of Herbert Tudor Buckland (1869–1951) and Augustus Pugin (1812–1852).

The simple elegance of Voysey's furniture from the period 1895–1910 was achieved by relying on the innate beauty of high quality materials, especially unpolished oak, and by eschewing complicated decoration in favour of a careful balance of the vertical and horizontal elements in a design.

Many of Voysey's pattern designs rely for their effect on rhythmically contrasted shapes consisting of areas of flat, clear colour, usually bounded by dark or pale outlines.

[4] He joined the Art-Workers' Guild in 1884, and displayed both printed textiles and wallpapers at the inaugural Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society show at the New Gallery in 1888.

By 1894, Voysey had moved his practice to Melina Place, St John's Wood, London, next door to the influential Arts and Crafts architect Edward Schroeder Prior, resulting in the development of a long term friendship and exchange of ideas between the two men.

Voysey's architectural practice began slowly, with small alterations and surveys; a number of unexecuted designs from these early years were published and reveal the influence of both Seddon and Devey.

Other 19th century architects, including Devey, had built country cottages in a simple vernacular style with whitened roughcast for estate workers, parsons and schoolmasters.

Walnut Tree Farm (1890) at Castlemorton, near Malvern, Worcestershire, and a house at Bedford Park (1891), Chiswick, west London, have certain novel features that became characteristic of Voysey's designs.

At Bedford Park the innovation consisted of very simplified classical or Queen Anne details, a slate roof, and practical metal frames and stone surrounds of the windows.

From then until 1910, Voysey received a steady stream of architectural commissions; most were simple, white country or suburban houses with low, spreading lines, for which he became famous.

He introduced some mannered, even eccentric, classical detailing into two fairly expensive houses in Surrey, designed in 1897: New Place, near Haslemere, and Norney Grange, near Shackleford.

Between 1900 and 1910, Voysey obtained a series of commissions that gave him the opportunity to design complete houses, including every detail of the interiors, not only fixtures, but also movable furniture, carpets, curtains and wall coverings.

Colours in furnishings, tiled fireplaces and wall and floor coverings were soft and light, for example delicate greens and heathery purples, with a few bright accents of red and turquoise.

In 1909, he used a pointed arch in the porch of Brooke End at Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, and in the same year he built a miniature courtyard house in Tudor Gothic style at Combe Down, near Bath.

The two brick-faced terrace houses (1891) that he built in Hans Road, Knightsbridge, London, display great ingenuity in the arrangement of plan and section.

However, for the fitting out of the offices of the Essex and Suffolk Equitable Insurance Company (designed 1906–9), Capel House, New Broad Street, London, he considered a degree of expensive decoration to be appropriate.

[6][7] Examples of his completed architectural works are: Perrycroft, Colwall, Herefordshire 1893; Annesley Lodge, Hampstead, London, 1896; An artist's cottage (14 South Parade), Chiswick, London C.1890; Merlshanger (later Greyfriars), Hog's Back, Puttenham near Guildford, 1896; Norney Grange, Shackleford, 1897; Spade House, Sandgate, Kent (the home of the writer H. G. Wells); Voysey House (a Sanderson wallpaper factory, now offices),[8] Chiswick 1902; The Pastures, North Luffenham, Rutland 1903; The Orchard, Chorleywood, 1900, which he designed for himself;[6][7] Voysey Garden, Emslie Horniman's Pleasance, North Kensington, 1914 is a public garden designed by Voysey.

[10] There are several examples of Voysey's design near Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria, with roughcast walls and massive rendered stacks on sweeping slate roofs.

Architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner greatly admired the Orchard, and identified Broad Leys as Voysey's masterpiece, seeing in them seeds of the modernist movement.

[11]In fact, Voysey himself, who was Master of the Art-Workers Guild in 1924, had a strong dislike of modern architecture, and was irritated by Pevsner's identification of his work with the movement.

He felt that "simplicity in decoration is one of the essential qualities without which no true richness is possible"[3] and often worked in a limited colour palette, "emphasizing outline, eliminating shading, and minimizing detail.