apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

A really dramatic mobile.

I like the mobile idea.

Alternately, a grand chandelier.

Or a series of white perspex panels, laser cut with a complicated design, one behind the other, hung as a layered suspended ceiling.

Or a cheaper version of the same concept - cut out a cloud shape from thin fibreboard, paint it white and seal it, then suspend it as a ceiling, giving the illusion of a cloudy sky.

It's a chance to do something unusual and dramatic, so take advantage of that.

I like the idea of some kind of suspended ceiling, but one that lets you see past it or through it so that you don't completely obscure the ceiling height. Some kind of layered, lighted sculptural form would be great.

I'd choose a gigantic vintage pink glass or tole chandelier.

Anthropologie always has really interesting window displays. You could also drape fabric from dowels to create a soft ceiling.

That blue paint really stresses me out.

Paint the ceiling, and the top part of the wall the same color. You could drop in some light fixtures at the paint transition level, I guess too.

You could just paint a giant yellow IKEA down the wall.... NO---Just Jokes!
My first thought (after Ikea) is a huge sparkly chandelier with groovy mini shades in cool fabric.... but that can get expensive...
You could do a 3-d art piece... get butterflies or flowers at the craft store and stick them on the wall- clustered at the top and trickling down to less near eye level.
That could be cool. oooh- it would also be cool with colorful rhinestones in different sizes / colors.
Or, you could paint one of the walls in an ombré effect so it is darker at the top and lighter at the bottom or vice-versa...
Or you could make a mobile out of something cool and shiny - like colored plexi-glass with mirrored parts thrown in for a little sparkle.
You could just paint the walls silver. That alone would make the space captivating.
You could drape a cool fabric tent-like off rods across the space to "drop" the ceiling but add interest above.
You could get a whole mish mash of frames and paint them all the same color and fill them with mirrors to hang high up around the room.
You could find the dorkiest high school yearbook pics from the 80's of people you don't know and hang them high up as an offbeat art installation that gets visitors thinking you're weird but makes you smile when you sit on the can....
Somehow your bathroom has me very inspired.

Since a Dale Chihuly sculpture is probably out, if it were possible I'd use the space for storage (I always need more of that).

Or what about faux skylights with sky, trees, clouds, whatever.

It might be fun to suspend multiples of something at the same level so that they form a false see-through ceiling. Paper lanterns? If you wait until after the holidays you could get bulk ornaments for super cheap.

I'd want to emphasize the height rather than try to hide it... how about a series of randomly spaced tiles mounted up the wall to the ceiling? Painted shapes? You could really play with color, texture and form (I like the blue, btw).

Either way, don't forget that whatever you hang up there will need to be dusted someday, so be sure you can get to it.

If it were mine I'd drop the ceiling to ten feet. You could have a whole extra room. Open up the wall and have a ten foot high reading nook facing into your living area.

Oh, and to be fair to the people who say drop the ceiling, the ceiling in my loft has been dropped to 7 feet by the developers, and I can say I do like it. I just think it's a more expensive option.If it's done right, maybe you could have a storage space over it.

first off, that blue would not be my choice and it's not ideal for skin either I don't think for it can make one look palid.

That said, paint the walls a soft white color but then add a super bright colorful supergraphic (a la the 70's up just above the door's top and go around as much of the room as one can and it need not be super tall, nor go all the way to the ceiling, something more or less horizontal with perhaps a circle or 3 to break it up some. I'd suggest doing the color scheme in a stripe in teh super graphic of either 2-3 colors to add interest.

and if you can, drop a simple glass globe down the center to help illuminate the room.

I think you can see where I"m going with this.

I have that exact same clock in my bathroom!

I dropped a ceiling in a similar space for a friend and the materials including some salvaged hardwood flooring we found on craiglist only cost about three hundred dollars.