Robert Adam: the architect who made ceilings into works of art

If you have ever looked up in a grand Georgian house and seen a ceiling covered in fine garlands, fans and medallions, you have probably met the work of Robert Adam. More than any other architect, he made decorative plaster the star of a room, and his influence on British interiors is still everywhere.

A young Scot on the Grand Tour

Robert Adam was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in 1728, the son of the architect William Adam. Between 1754 and 1758 he travelled through France and Italy on the Grand Tour, studying Roman ruins at first hand. In 1757 he surveyed the ruins of the Emperor Diocletian's palace at Split, on the Dalmatian coast, and published the drawings in 1764. That study gave him a library of real Roman ornament to work from, rather than the copies of copies most architects relied on.

The Adam style

Back in London, Adam and his brother James developed a style that felt lighter and more elegant than the heavy Palladian rooms of the previous generation. Its features are easy to spot:

• Shallow relief. Ornament sits close to the surface, so a ceiling reads as a delicate drawing rather than a carved mass.
• Classical motifs, made graceful. Urns, paterae (round, flower-like discs), anthemion, swags of husks and slender garlands.
• Total design. Adam often designed the ceiling, walls, chimneypiece, furniture and even the carpet to match.
• Soft colour. Pale greens, pinks, lilacs and blues, with the plaster ornament picked out in white.

A Robert Adam ceiling is a whole composition: the rose in the middle is only the beginning.

Houses to visit

Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, Syon House and Osterley Park on the western edge of London, and Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath all contain famous Adam interiors. Much of the fine plasterwork in these houses was carried out by the master plasterer Joseph Rose, whose workshop turned Adam's drawings into crisp, repeating ornament. Adam was also behind the ambitious Adelphi development beside the Thames, most of which was demolished in the 1930s.

Bringing a touch of Adam home

You do not need a stately home to borrow the look. A classical ceiling rose with a ring of leaves or beads, painted the same colour as the ceiling, gives an instant Georgian lift. Keep the walls calm, choose one soft heritage colour, and let a single piece of ornament carry the room. Our Heritage & Classical collection and ceiling roses are a good place to start.