I spent a little over a year living in newer construction home in Florida with cathedral ceilings, and tall tray ceilings in the bedrooms. The expansiveness didn't really sink in until I returned to the midwest and visited my parents' home - a 50's ranch w/standard ceilings that I had lived in during my teen years. The difference was jarring...literally, it made me dizzy. It felt SO small and confining. I felt very disorientated, and it surprised me. Almost akin to someone returning to dry land after months at sea. It took a long time for regular ceiling heights to feel normal to me, and not like I was living in Hobbiton.

The ceilings in our 1900 Chicago bungalow were lowered one foot to a height of 8 ft by previous owners in the 1970's due to the energy crisis (yes, they lowered them by a single foot -- lower ceilings = lower heating bills. Plus, 7 feet is the height of that beautiful wood paneling they put up everywhere). Now that we are in the middle of renovating, we tore down those 70's ceilings (and, of course, the paneling) and it's amazing how much difference a foot can make. It's a whole new space (we also uncovered the original mouldings!)

I grew up with 8's, my first apartment had 9's, my first home had 9's, and now we have 12's downstairs and 10's upstairs. I love how airy and light the rooms feel, especially with the ginormous windows in our 1860's home, and I don't think I could go back to much lower. The higher our ceilings got, the easier it became to inject some really bold colors into our decorating, because they didn't overwhelm the space.

In our apartment (a 1920 Chicago 6-flat) we have standard 8ft ceilings. We're lucky in that we have fantastic light (top floor) so in the warmer weather we open up the shades and flood the space with afternoon light. The space feel large and expansive if in a horizontal way. In the colder months the space feels cozy and safe, protected from the cold and darkness that is Chicago's winter.

While I loved having 11ft ceilings in an old apartment when the weather was nice, it was decidedly vast and empty when I needed it to be safe. And indeed, with a GFA heating system 11ft ceilings just plain suck!

My last apartment had 10 foot ceilings and the house we just moved into has 8 foot ceilings. I didn't really realize the difference until we had our stuff in the house. I long for tall ceilings again!

Laura

With only 734 sq ft of floor space but 12 ft ceilings, the extra volume just felt underused, so I made a 6'6" tall sleeping area above a 7 ft tall walk-in closet (the math works because you don't walk on the bed, and the closet interiors are 5'6").

All of this might seem claustrophobic, but it isn't. The view from the sleeping area down to the rest of the apartment makes the space feel huge. And sleeping in a quiet, light controlled, well-proportioned small bedroom feels secure. So what I'm proposing is that having both high and low ceilings is great - you never forget the value of the height, and you might be able to make use of the intimacy of the low ceiling.

My previous apartment had 10ft ceilings. A nice haussmannian with impeccable mouldings. It made the small rooms look very narrow. It got too hot or too cold. It required more lighting.

It was a great place but the height of the ceilings did nothing for me. I'm sure someone with a large book collection would appreciate the additional storage an extra foot brings. I've seen plenty of homes with bookcase ladders; something that I've only ever previously seen in libraries.

I grew up with the standard 8' ceilings, but as an adult have only had the misfortune of having such low ceilings in one home (it helped that it was on a high floor with a floor to ceiling wall of glass).

I have also had the fortune of having ceilings as high as 13' in my Chicago loft. I used a ceiling fan to keep it from feeling cold in the winter. Currently, my ceilings are a meager 9' but I can deal with that much more comfortably than the old fashioned eight footers most of America is forced to endure.

The difference in cost to increase ceiling heights from 8' to 9' during construction is well worth every penny. There is such a huge difference in just a single foot of height.

My apartment has 103" ceilings -
It's amazing how those few extra 7" make the rooms feel more spacious than 8' ceiling would.

I long for high ceilings in my apartment. I live in a tiny apartment with 8' ceilings, and though I've gotten used to it, I would still love to live somewhere with more height.

Many small/cool winners and finalists have high ceilings, as do most small apartments featured in design books and magazines. I have a number of design books and have only noticed ONE apartment in all of the books with 8' ceilings! The rest have much higher ceilings. It makes all the difference when looking at and living in a small space.

I've grew up with at least 9' ceilings in my homes as a child (thankfully, my 6'4" father insisted on the extra height). After a couple of college apartment with 8' ceilings, I knew I could never go that low in a real home. I bought a 1930s cottage with 9' ceilings and would never go lower, especially as I grew up to be 6' tall.

We owned a house that had 9 foot ceilings on the first floor but only 7 or 7 1/5 foot ceilings (can't remember which) on the second floor. The bedrooms had a snug & cozy feeling and were fine for our family who are 6'1" and shorter. Pretty sure anyone much taller would feel a bit claustrophobic.

It's funny, when I was a kid, and was living in a house with standard 8' ceilings, I found sleeping in places with high ceilings to be very unsettling! I felt like I was sleeping in a bank or a departments store!

After living in NYC for a decade, I cherish high ceilings. Especially in my last tiny studio where the ceilings were higher (11') than the apartment was wide (9').

I've just moved into an attic apartment with ~7-foot ceilings (not including the dormers and eaves, which are of course lower). I'm 5'5", and I can stand on my toes and touch the ceiling anywhere in the apartment. I was afraid I would have to throw out or disassemble and reassemble one of my bookcases because it was too tall to tip up, though I managed this in the end.

My previous place had I think 9' ceilings. I don't really miss the extra height; 7 feet is cozy and comfy. At least it's cozy and comfy for someone who's 5'5"!

I think the "right" ceiling height depends a lot on the space of the room/s. I know rather small townhomes with 2 story living rooms, and I feel the high ceiling is absolutely out of scale. For me, it's a question of proportion. High ceilings are not always better.

I prefer ceilings that are between 9-12 feet. Anything shorter feel squat to me, and anything taller is ridiculously hard to paint, and clean.

My current apartment has 12' ceilings, which is critical to making the 400 sq ft or so feel spacious. I'm moving to an apartment with 10' ceilings, but it's a much bigger apartment, so I think it'll be okay.

I lived in a bizarre warehouse conversion with 20' ceilings in the common areas and 59" ceilings in my space. It has floor-to-ceiling windows facing the common area, and I'm only 5'5", so I could stand just fine. It was strange, and I don't think I would do it again, but it was an interesting design challenge!

I am a 6' tall female, and my son is 6'7". We lived in a small arts and crafts home where my son had to duck through the doorways. Purchasing a bi-level split is a treat, as we both appreciate the vertical space.

My house has a vaulted ceiling that starts at 6' and goes to 10'. It's great. It sounds low, but you don't even notice. It gives the illusion of massive height without the huge volume to heat or cool.

I have low and high right in my very own house!

I rent a little "one and a half story" style house built in the 30s, so the first floor has 10 foot ceilings, while the ceilings in our bedroom on the 2nd floor are about 6.5', and then slope down under the eaves to about 2'.

It's actually kind of nice and cozy, but only because my husband and I are 5'6" and 5'9". Sometimes I scrape my knuckles on the ceiling when I'm taking off a t shirt.

I'm used to 9.5 having always lived in old buildings. Maybe it's because I'm short, but in small rooms I would prefer them lower. I'm sure for someone a foot taller than I the view must be really different.

I hate the new lofts. In lofts created out of old commercial spaces, the ceiling heights and window dimensions are in proportion with the rooms and feel right. The ones they are building now feel all wrong to me, like being at the bottom of a pit. Not to mention a colossal waste of space and heat and how do you ever clean your windows?

after a childhood with german standard ceilings about 8’, i moved to the first flat of my own with 11’ ceilings and art nouveau molding. i thought i could never live with anything else. but with moving town, i ended up in a 1950s building where the ceilings were about 7’ something; and it was ok, as the windows were vast and the proportions ideal.

now we’ve bought a house from the late 17th century, and our kitchen is only 6’9’’ with an entrance of 5’6’’ like in the ‘being john malkovich’ picture! (due to a derelict 19th century door frame we had to keep and cover for monumental protection reason)
we’re both tall guys (i’m 6’ and my partner is even 6’4’’), but guess what – we’re perfectly fine! with the right furniture and lighting, our kitchen is one of the most comfortable places in the house.
in the living room for example, we opened parts of the ceiling as well as a complete wall leaving only the timber framework to add light and space to the room. or on the top floor, the ceiling was left open just to the ridge of the roof with a height of 11’9’’. which adds up to a spectacular 19’ from the lower floor to the crest.
we call it our “baroque loft” with a smile ...

as often, it’s not about height or size, but what you do with it!

We've got an 18' ceiling in the living room (we live in a duplex apartment). Half the apartment is split into two floors and the other is one floor with a lot of wall space and really high ceilings (the living room). We've struggled to come up with a good idea for how to use the wall space (one wall is 14' long and 18' high) and our electricity bill during the summer is stratospheric (takes a lot of air to cool the room), but we like to space. We just don't know what to do with it yet.