One of many questions I get requested greater than nearly some other is: “Wait… your ceilings are solely 8 ft?”
Particularly recently after our lounge fandelier went viral.
The primary remark I maintain seeing is, “Would that work with my 8-foot ceilings?”
The humorous factor is… it already does.
Our home was constructed within the Nineteen Sixties, and each ceiling in our house is the usual 8 ft tall. But many individuals assume they’re 9 and even 10 ft due to a handful of adorning tips we’ve used all through our renovations over time.
So the products information is you don’t have to boost your roofline or knock down partitions to make a room really feel taller. With just a few intentional design selections, you’ll be able to fully change how your eye experiences an area.
These are the precise tips we’ve used all through our residence to make our ceilings really feel a lot taller than they really are.
1. Colour Drench the Complete Room
One among my favourite design traits recently is shade drenching: portray the partitions, trim, doorways, and ceiling all the identical shade.
As a substitute of your eye stopping on the line the place the wall meets the ceiling, the colour continues uninterrupted, creating the phantasm of peak.
We’ve used this method in our major bed room, eating room, and our women’ toilet, and every room immediately felt extra expansive and elevated.
It’s cozy, dramatic, and by some means makes a room really feel each extra intimate and bigger on the similar time.
2. Wallpaper the Ceiling
This one fully shocked me.
After we wallpapered the ceiling in our media room, I anticipated the room to really feel cozier.
As a substitute, it truly felt taller.
The wallpaper reworked the ceiling into an intentional design function as an alternative of one thing your mind robotically ignores. When your eye is of course drawn upward, the room all of the sudden feels extra spacious.
Don’t be afraid to consider your ceiling because the “fifth wall.” Generally it’s the right place so as to add character.
3. Paint the Ceiling a Gentle Accent Colour
White ceilings aren’t your solely choice.
In our youthful lady’s bed room, we painted the ceiling a mushy dusty pink.
Fairly than making the room really feel shorter, the sudden shade truly attracts your eye upward. It turns the ceiling into a phenomenal point of interest as an alternative of letting it disappear into the background.
It’s delicate, whimsical, and makes the room really feel rather more customized.
4. Add Tongue & Groove to the Ceiling
One of many largest transformations we’ve ever made was including tongue and groove planks to our upstairs hallway ceiling.
The ceiling instantly regarded taller and extra architecturally attention-grabbing. (And bonus factors… it made our attic door disappear from view.)
We beloved it a lot that we ultimately put in tongue and groove on our lounge ceiling too.
The lengthy boards naturally information your eye throughout the ceiling, creating a way of motion that makes the room really feel bigger total.
5. Cowl an Ugly Ceiling with Beadboard
Our laundry room ceiling was… let’s simply say it wasn’t precisely enticing.
Fairly than spending days patching and sanding, we coated it with beadboard.
Not solely was it a a lot sooner answer, however the linear texture helped create the phantasm of extra peak.
Generally fixing an eyesore finally ends up changing into certainly one of your favourite design options. (To not point out, it was approach sooner and fewer work than patching drywall.)
6. Grasp Curtains Excessive and Extensive
When you’ve been right here for some time, you’ve in all probability heard me say this earlier than.
All the time dangle your curtain rods near the ceiling and prolong them a number of inches past both sides of the window.
This easy trick makes each your home windows and your ceilings seem a lot bigger.
I truthfully can’t consider a better strategy to make a room really feel taller.
And sure… we do that in each single room of our home.
Associated: The Greatest Luxurious For Much less Amazon Curtains
7. Select Bigger Wall Artwork
Small art work tends to emphasise simply how a lot empty wall surrounds it.
Bigger art work does precisely the other.
As a substitute of filling your partitions with a number of little frames, select one or two outsized items every time potential (like this outdated tapestry I hung above my workplace couch).
The bigger scale creates a stronger vertical presence and makes the proportions of the room really feel a lot grander.
8. Select Decrease-Profile Furnishings
This trick has nothing to do along with your ceiling itself.
It’s all about perspective.
Decrease sofas, beds, and chairs depart extra seen wall above them, making your ceilings seem taller by comparability. Though, that could be robust to do should you or different members of your family are over 6′ tall.
Robert and I are each about 5’7″, so we’ve naturally gravitated towards lower-profile furnishings over time. It’s a type of delicate design selections that makes an enormous distinction.
9. Grasp Tall Mirrors
After we renovated our major toilet, we deliberately selected tall vainness mirrors that almost reached the crown molding.
As a substitute of breaking apart the wall, they emphasised the total peak of the room.
Mirrors already assist mirror gentle and make areas really feel bigger. Selecting taller mirrors amplifies that impact much more.
10. Add Vertical Strains
Vertical stripes don’t simply make individuals seem taller, they work on rooms too.
After we helped makeover two women’ bedrooms for our neighbors, we used vertical striped wallpaper of their bunk room and pretend vertical shiplap within the different bed room.
Each bedrooms immediately felt taller.
Any design aspect that naturally encourages your eye to journey upward helps create the phantasm of peak.
11. Take Cupboards and Bookcases All of the Approach to the Ceiling
One among my largest adorning pet peeves is seeing cupboards or bookcases cease a foot under the ceiling.
That awkward empty area nearly at all times makes ceilings really feel decrease. (And that would have been extra storage!)
After we constructed our IKEA media room built-ins, we prolonged every thing flush to the ceiling.
Not solely does the room really feel taller, however we gained a ton of additional storage.
That’s what I name a win-win.
12. Add Crown Molding
Many individuals assume crown molding makes ceilings really feel shorter.
I’ve truly discovered the other to be true.
Including crown molding offers the room a refined, completed look whereas emphasizing the transition between the partitions and ceiling. It provides architectural curiosity that naturally attracts your eye upward.
Each time we’ve renovated a room that didn’t have crown molding, including it has at all times been definitely worth the effort.
13. Grasp Your Bathe Curtain All of the Approach to the Ceiling
One of many best methods to make a small toilet really feel taller is to hold an additional lengthy bathe curtain a lot increased than the bathe itself.
In our women’ toilet, we put in the curtain rod slightly below the crown molding and used an extra-long bathe curtain that stretches practically from flooring to ceiling.
Identical to hanging curtains excessive over home windows, this trick attracts your eye upward and immediately makes the room really feel taller. As a bonus, it additionally makes a reasonable bathe curtain look rather more customized and opulent.
It’s a small change that has a surprisingly large affect in bogs with customary 8-foot ceilings.
Completely. Our lounge is proof.
The trick isn’t essentially having a taller ceiling. It’s creating the phantasm of peak with every thing surrounding the sunshine fixture.
If you mix a number of of those concepts like excessive curtain rods, outsized art work, tongue and groove ceilings, crown molding, and lower-profile furnishings, your eye perceives the room as a lot taller than it truly is.
That’s why so many individuals are shocked to be taught our ceilings are solely 8 ft.
Remaining Ideas
If your property has customary 8-foot ceilings, don’t let that cease you from creating rooms that really feel spacious and fantastically designed.
Our complete home has 8-foot ceilings, and after greater than a decade of renovating one room at a time, I’ve realized that your eye is surprisingly straightforward to idiot.
You definitely don’t want to make use of each thought on this checklist.
Even incorporating two or three of those tips can fully change how your rooms really feel.
Generally nice design isn’t about altering your property’s structure. It’s about altering the way in which individuals expertise it.
Extra Methods to Trick The Eye in Adorning
