Ceiling Design Tips
Creating Illusions
Many large rooms with high ceilings in apartment buildings have been divided into smaller rooms, creating awkward proportions. Rooms feel most comfortable when they are squares or large rectangles. A tall ceiling in a small space makes you feel as though you're in an elevator shaft.
Ceiling ornamentation that borders the ceiling trim - sharp architectural detail that draws the eye down from the ceiling.
- Painting your ceiling a darker color also has the effect of bringing the ceiling down and making a room feel cozier.
- Blue ceiling, because of their association with the sky, will always make you feel as though you are looking up to infinity. Painting clouds on the ceiling evokes the ancient Chinese meaning of wisdom and heavenly blessings.
- Chinese silver or gold-leaf rice paper installed in squares in a small for small room warms the ceiling, so it shines like the sun to warm you emotionally.
- There's nothing more effective in bringing a ceiling down than a shimmering crystal chandelier, brass chandeliers or lanterns. In a small room with a fourteen-foot ceiling, a chandelier can become the sky, the sunset, and the spirit of place.
Some ceilings feel oppressively low, especially to tall people, to people accustomed to being outdoors, or to those living in older, classical architecture.
- By painting ceiling a soft glaze of blues and white, an Impressionist cloud illusion, joy will feel lifted up, expansive, and cheered.
- By keeping the height of the furniture low, the ceiling appears higher.
In the eighteenth century, small rooms with low ceiling were easier to heat. The same applies today. New England has severe winters, and heating bills are high enough. Small rooms with a low ceiling in old houses have an exclusive charm and atmosphere. Built to accommodate the local climate, these small rooms make you feel cozy, not cramped. Even for tall people, these small rooms seem inviting when the colors are cheerful, there's good lighting, and the taste and style reflect the owner.
Several architectural elements create vertical "orders" on the walls and help add height to a low-ceiling space.
- Pediments and pilasters will bring your eye upward creating the illusion of ceiling height.
Just as a crown molding can bring a high ceiling down visually because of its architectural projection, a substantial crown molding can also draw the eye to the height of the room. Keep in mind the eye wants to be pleased by ceiling decor.
- By adding attractive details that enhance the scale and proportion, you are satisfying the eye.
To literally gain height in a room, in some cases it is possible to cut out a ceiling, opening up your room to the roof height. This way, you may also gain another window from the attic. The "great rooms" that now omit formal living rooms incorporate the idea of openness and light.
You can add alluring dimension to any ceiling with elegant architectural embellishments and sophisticated lighting fixtures. Visually these decorative ceiling adornments can add rhythm and balance to any space. A simple application of the ceiling dome and molding for indirect lighting can alleviate the vast scale and empty celling. With quality ceiling decor products, it's easy to enhance the interior's sense of space by adding exquisite decorative elements.