The name of Robert Adam is today, as it was among his contemporaries, associated with a sense of style and elegance. Since his death, the term 'Adam style' has been used not only to describe ceilings, doors, and fireplaces but also objects of various kinds, such as the Town Hall in Charleston and a bowl. A student who did not complete his studies, Adam nonetheless made his own academic contribution to the understanding of classical architecture and was also a talented painter.

As a visionary in interior decoration as well as inventive in exterior design, Adam was often responsible for renovating, altering, or completing existing buildings rather than creating entirely new ones. Perhaps best known for his work on large private palaces such as Syon and Kedewen, Osterley and Kedlestone, Saltram and Calzean, Adam was also responsible for churches and tombs, monuments and markets, as well as public commissions such as the Whytelhall Farning Screen and Britain's first public record, the Register House in Edinburgh.