This article features a residence in Williamsburg with a bathroom that has had its original tin-panelled ceiling design restored and exquisite 19th-century plasterwork placed within a contemporary flat.
Mouldings are ornamental architectural components that are utilised as focal points in interior spaces, such as ceiling roses, cornices, architraves, and coving.
These pieces are often very ornamental and ornately finished, with continuous patterns generated by reliefs and recesses over their surfaces.
Mouldings and decorative plasterworks are commonly linked with the Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian eras, and were inspired by classicism as well as ancient Greek and Egyptian architecture.
Architectural features were frequently made of plaster and wood, but by the twentieth century, people were looking for more lasting and cost-effective finishes.
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1. Bakers House, Sweden, by Färg & Blanche
The inside of this home, which has been in the family of Färg & Blanche co-founder Emma Marga Blanche for four generations, is both conventional and extravagantly elaborate. The residence used to house a typical Swedish crispbread bakery in the back of the building, but it is currently mostly used to hold events.
Decorative ceiling mouldings and ornamentation complement the home’s intricately designed furnishings, such as carved-wood-trimmed couches and gilded photo frames. The ceiling elements in each room are painted in bright colours and contain fresco-style artwork.
2. Young Family House, Lithuania, by ŠA Atelier
The inside of this once derelict 19th-century flat in Vilnius, Lithuania, was rebuilt by the Lithuanian architecture company A Atelier. Set within an 1862 townhouse, the apartment has a minimalist finish with some of its original elements maintained as focus points throughout.
Plasterwork mouldings and ceiling roses span the home’s ceiling designs, while parquet wood flooring has a neutral, light tone.
3. Montreal Home, Canada, by Vives St-Laurent
Vives St-Laurent, a Canadian interior design company, refurbished and redesigned a family house in Montreal to accentuate its original architectural aspects. The studio attempted to retain as much of the home’s original 20th-century features as possible, including the plaster mouldings.
Coving informally separates the dining room from the kitchen in the home’s open-plan kitchen and diner, while a ceiling rose supports a pendant light above a light wood dining table and four Marcel Breuer Cesca chairs.
4. Historic Schoolhouse, US, by White Arrow
Keren and Thomas Richter of Brooklyn-based interior design business White Arrow converted this landmarked property in Williamsburg into a bright and spacious residence while keeping some of its original characteristics.
The interior design team located the original ornamental tin ceiling tiles in one of the home’s bathrooms and reinstalled them across the vanity area. Tin ceiling tiles for a ceiling design are an American invention that was developed to be a less expensive and more lasting alternative to intricate plasterwork.
5. Napoléon Apartment, France, Freaks
Freaks, a French design firm, restored this Paris flat. It kept the original mouldings, ceiling design and architectural details but added modern accents like fluorescent lighting and freestanding geometric forms.
“One of the key interventions was to open the new kitchen towards the dining room while taking charge to employ a modern architectural language,” the studio explained.
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