What is Art Deco? The style, its motifs and how to bring it home

Few styles are as instantly recognisable as Art Deco. A sunburst over a doorway, a fan-shaped wall light, a stepped cornice catching the evening light: these shapes still feel glamorous a century after they first appeared. As a designer, it is the style I return to most, because its geometry is so well suited to plaster.

Where the name comes from

Art Deco takes its name from the 1925 Exposition internationale des Arts décoratifs et industriels modernes in Paris, a huge exhibition of modern decorative arts. At the time, designers simply called the work "modern". The shorter name "Art Deco" only became widespread in the 1960s, when a new generation of writers and collectors looked back at the period between the wars.

The style drew on everything that felt new in the 1910s and 1920s: the sharp planes of Cubism, the speed of machines and aeroplanes, and a fashion for ancient Egypt after the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. The result was ornament that felt modern rather than historical.

The motifs that define Art Deco

• The sunburst. Rays fanning out from a central point, used on everything from garden gates to radios and ceilings.
• The fan. A half-sunburst, perfect for wall lights and the tops of doors.
• Stepped forms. Ziggurat-like profiles that step back in layers, borrowed from skyscraper design.
• Chevrons and zigzags. Repeating angles that add rhythm to borders and friezes.
• Symmetry. Art Deco is almost always balanced around a centre line.

Art Deco is geometry with a little glamour: strict lines, softened by light.

Art Deco in buildings you can still visit

In New York, the Chrysler Building (1930) remains the style's most famous landmark, its crown made of stacked stainless-steel sunbursts. In Britain, look at the Hoover Building on London's Western Avenue, the Midland Hotel in Morecambe, and the 1930s interiors at Eltham Palace. Many British cinemas, lidos and seaside pavilions of the 1930s were built in a streamlined version of the style.

Streamline Moderne: Art Deco's later chapter

By the mid-1930s the style had become smoother. Sharp zigzags gave way to long horizontal lines, rounded corners and "speed stripes" inspired by ocean liners and trains. This later phase is often called Streamline Moderne, and it is a lovely fit for wall lights, where a curved, layered profile throws a soft wash of light.

How to bring Art Deco home

The trick with Art Deco is restraint. One strong piece of geometry usually does more than a room full of pattern.

• Start with the ceiling. A sunburst ceiling rose around a simple globe pendant instantly sets the period.
• Use light to show the form. Stepped and fan-shaped wall lights create shadows that change through the evening.
• Pick a confident colour. Deep inky blues, greens and blacks suit the style, with plaster pieces painted to match the wall or picked out in a contrasting tone.
• Repeat a single motif. Echo a fan on the wall light in a switch surround or a mirror.

Every piece in our Art Deco collection is cast by hand to order in Shrewsbury, and arrives as natural plaster ready to leave raw or paint to suit your room.