Unfortunately, not all of us are blessed with tall ceilings (or average ceilings for that matter). To help out with this small slight of space, we've come up with five tricks on how to make your ceiling seem higher...
Paint your ceiling with a high-gloss or semi-gloss paint--it will give off a great reflective sheen and make the ceiling go on for days (which makes it seem less claustrophobic).
Low slung or low profile furniture gives your ceiling extra miles because of the open space it creates. Also, try to pick low profile furniture with clean vertical lines.
Mount drapery and rods as close to the ceiling as possible and let the drapes extend to the floor. Visually you're creating an elongated vertical line that draws your eyes upward--creating height to the room.
Delineate the walls from the ceiling by painting the trim a contrasting color. By painting a bold color on the trim, you're forcing the viewer to notice the color of the trim, not the ceiling height.
Stay away from ceiling fans and overhead lighting that draws your eye to the center of a low ceiling. Instead, hang a few wall sconces that keep your eyes flowing throughout the space.
What are your tricks to make your ceiling seem higher?
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One thing I've done is that when I'm painting a room in my height-challended house, I also paint about an inch or two further up onto the ceiling. It gives the illusion of a bit more height while also making the line between the wall (which I usually do in bright color) and the ceiling (bright white) more defined and straight.
I also read that painting the walls and baseboard and crown mouldings the same color also gives the illusion of higher ceilings. I've seen that done in european decor magazines; not so much in american ones, where baseboard and crown mouldings are painted in a bright white, in contrast to the wall color.
BIMZ, what do you mean? Do you paint the wall color on the outside inch or two of the cieling perimeter? I'm looking for ideas that would work in my low-cielinged house, and I'm not sure I understood your suggestion. Thanks!
Same principle i suppose for making high ceilings really stand out.
bimz -- thanks for your idea. i think that would look sharp on smooth ceilings of any height. unfortunately, i've got popcorn overhead so just painted it white and try not to look up.
RE your tip about painting trim a contrasting color --- does this apply to crown moulding too? It seems to me that if crown moulding was a contrasting color it would actually make the ceiling seem lower by calling attention to the point where the ceiling meets the wall.
biscuits&grits: That's exactly what I do. :) Just go up an inch or two from the wall with the paint. Even with the low ceilings in my house, it takes looking right at it to notice the paint on the ceiling. I really like bold colors and my ceilings are all white so it stands out nicely.
holland: too bad about the popcorn ceilings. My ceilings have a swirl pattern on them but (lucky for me) the outside edges are bordered with what looks like a 3" straight brush-stroke which allows me to get a nice line.
I've always enjoyed crown moulding painted a contrasting color - usually white. It makes the ceiling seem to float above the walls
We installed a bookshelf about 10-12 inches below the ceiling -- it's too high for most to reach and that makes the books (and thus the ceiling) seem really far away.
My ceiling was brought down from the origninal plaster ceiling 22" Therefore the large 5 ' windows seem dwarfed. The ceiling is now only 2" from the top of the original window molding! I tried to paint the existing quarter round molding the same color as the contrasting wall and that seemed to work some. Question: What can I do to raise it further; about 2-3" up? I thought of possibly adding another molding above the existing...laying flat on the ceiling??