Throughout design history, strapwork can be found in a myriad of examples from Elizabethan and Jacobean fireplace mantels to the fiercely elegant decorations across the transoms of British Man-Of-War ships.

The straps themselves used the design metaphor of ribon-like forms to represent leather straps or parchment and were interwoven to create locking geometric patterns, oftentimes with piercings and embellished with ornament.

But the use of strapwork in design did not reach its zenith until Jean Berain, master court designer to Louis XIV, brought this motif to Versailles, specifically with his creations of the palace’s glorious ceilings.

From the commencement of the Sun King’s great palace to today, the strapwork motif has established a role of prominence in ceiling design. This brings up something of an axiom adhered to by accomplished designers: form must be perfect in itself and should not resort to applied decoration in order to conceal defects and incompleteness.

That is to say the forms of the strapwork within the ceiling oftentimes require no ornamentation to achieve a sublime design effect. However, when decorative ornament does become part of the ceiling design, it must always work in concert with the design flow.

Our Senior Designer Stephanie Croce is ever cognizant of this whenever she approaches this type of composition. Notice how the scrollwork and linears are always subjugated with artistic temperament, and never serve as mere symmetrical repetition.

The ability to achieve this delicate balance is the fruit of decades of experience, and an obvious passion for the work.

Strapwork ceilings are a marvelous direction in one’s design journey for a given project, and hearken distant artistic voices ranging from the Renaissance to Arabesque. If you’ve been entertaining the thought of this approach with your project, we would love to discuss. Please reach out.