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30 |ARTS & CRAFTS HOMES Winter 2017 LANNY PROVO (MIDDLE)

BRINGING IT BACK&

BEAM TALK

border A narrow band of ornament,

as along ceiling beams.

box beam “Faux” decorative beam

built up from joined boards, as opposed

to a solid structural beam. Wires were

sometimes run in the boxes for beam

lights. Multiple transecting beams lend

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edge that has been beveled or angled

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ceiling is one with a grid of sunken and

raised areas, in plaster, stone, or wood;

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stencil Repeating ornament

applied in paint through a design

cut out of a template.

LEFT Decorated

beams and panels

crown a Southwestern

Mission Revival dining

room. BOTTOM LEFT

Ceiling borders, frieze

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are a suite of Arts

& Crafts patterns

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LEFT Beam lights

were similar to these

short pendants from

Rejuvenation. RIGHT

Mission perimeter-

beam bracket from

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in dining rooms (along with a high wain-

scot), in libraries, and in living rooms.

These were decorative rather than struc-

tural, alluding to ancient construction

methods and low-ceilinged intimacy. The

beams are not timbers but rather boards

rabbeted together, leaving a hollow space.

So-called box (or boxed) beams had many

variations—in size, intersection plans,

wood and fi nish, and details—but most

were relatively simple and could be or-

dered from catalogs.

Some people have homes with

original box beams intact, but for the

rest, modern technology makes it easy

to get the look. Evoba Wood Ceilings has

systems made of grids of wooden panels

and beams (available in nearly any fi n-

ish to match existing woodwork). Barron

Designs can help you make your own

box beams. They supply faux-grained,

high-density polyurethane beams as well

as the real McCoy: wooden box beams

made of reclaimed lumber.

Your fi nish carpenter can build hol-

low beams to match the scale and any de-

tails already in the room.

BETWEEN THE BEAMSChamfers were

highlighted in a complementary paint

color during the Victorian period, less of-

ten after 1910. Stenciling was common as

a subtle border along beams, in stylized

nature motifs: irises, a Glasgow rose,

oak leaves and acorns, done in the blue-

greys and browns of fi eldstone, sum-

mer-squash yellow or zucchini green.

Deeper tones included crimson, moss

green, ochre, terra cotta, Pompeiian red,

and indigo. Dining rooms had the most

elaborate stencils.

When crossing beams create re-

cessed panels, these may be shadowed

or bordered at the edges—or hung with

gilded burlap. Bradbury & Bradbury has

a gilded faux-burlap paper for this pur-

pose. In the 1910s, recesses were dark; by

1920, a lighter effect was in vogue. a

FOR SOURCES, see p. 71.