5 Tips For Decorating A Room With High Ceilings
High ceilings in your home can be exciting when you think about all the ways you could decorate those big blank walls. A few options could be building shelving units, hanging family photos, or adding a mirror to give your space some charm. High ceilings can also be intimidating, though. Left empty, they'll make a room feel rather hollow, but they have their perks, such as allowing in a lot of natural light from the massive windows that usually go with them, and instantly making your home feel more spacious, according to Zameen.
Where low ceilings can make a room feel tight with furniture that looks cramped together, high ceilings add height and dimension, making the overall space feel large and airy. Even though high ceilings have the potential to make your home look luxurious, it can be stressful to decorate the walls if you're unsure on which area to focus. Addicted 2 Decorating suggests concentrating on the middle part of the wall, or where shelves and cabinets meet the lowest part of the ceiling if you have high ceilings in your kitchen. You want to draw the eye upward instead of just to the lower part, so that the wall won't be left with a large amount of space at the top. We know decorating a room with high ceilings can be difficult, so we rounded up some tips to help your project run smoothly.
Create a bookcase with shelves
Using shelves to decorate your wall can clear up awkward empty spaces. For example, situating the shelves around hanging pictures or above a dresser makes them a great location for smaller décor such as plants and records, or your wine bottle collection along with matching stemware. If you enjoy reading, try getting creative by using various floating shelves to store your books. Design a floor-to-ceiling bookcase without having to buy a pre-made bookcase. This allows you to decide how long and tall you want your shelves. Sparingly adding bookends can give texture without overwhelming the look. Amy Kartheiser Design suggests painting the frames a bright color such as red, blue, or green; or picking out appealing wallpaper to use as a backdrop.
If you're not a big book fan, fill the shelves with things that inspire you like artwork, music, animal figurines, or photography, to add your personal touch. When arranging it all, think about different ways to layer your items. Amy Kartheiser explains that grouping short and medium-sized pieces adds depth and interest to your shelves, while allowing larger objects to stand alone. In addition, integrating vertical and horizontal items on your shelves can add contrast. Try stacking a few books horizontally on a shelf and placing a couple of books vertically on either side of the stack.
Hang a light fixture
You can use light fixtures to make the ceiling appear lower. There are eclectic ways to style a larger light fixture and make it your focal point by choosing one with a bit of sparkle or LED lighting. Lamps Expo suggests using the rule of thirds to divide your space into three sections to figure out the best way to introduce lighting and make your area feel more intimate. Hanging light fixtures are used for the top level, which centers around the ceiling; for example, a dangling crystal chandelier to make your space look elegant or multiple pendants for a chic appearance. Spread out the light fixtures to brighten up the entire room or hang one over a table to create a focal point with ambient lighting.
Using light fixtures in the middle of your wall creates a balance between the ceiling and the floor. Styling the wall with sconces that emit light from both ends will irradiate the entire room, instead of just the ceiling, according to Lamps Expo. If you don't like the look of wall fixtures, a great substitute is to use floor lamps and place a couple around the room or just one in a corner you want to make stand out. Floor lamps cover the last level of the room where it meets the height of furniture such as couches or dressers. You can use table lamps instead of tall floor lamps to illuminate the furniture rather than the walls.
Hang art closer to the ceiling
Utilize artwork on vast empty spaces on the upper half of the wall. The artwork draws the eye upward to the ceiling. Surrounding a medium-sized painting with other smaller pieces of art will make a unique gallery wall. Prairie Brooke suggests measuring the space you intend to cover before buying anything. It'll give you a clear idea of what size pieces you need to make everything fit. There are a couple of techniques to remember when hanging the art. Setting it at eye level will make the room feel intimate, whereas, if you hang it above eye level, you'll put focus on the large size of the room.
According to Prairie Brooke, using paper templates to figure out how your frames should be arranged will help. When it's time to make a purchase, gear towards vertically oriented artwork for a particularly high ceiling. Then, pair the frame with smaller vertical art pieces to fill the space around it, or buy a larger frame to take up the entire area. If there are pieces with more delicate detailing, try displaying them on the lower level of the wall for folks to see them closer rather than straining to see them from a far away.
Add an accent wall
Accent walls are a great way to decorate a room with high ceilings for a simple yet creative look. There are different ways to spruce up a dull wall, such as painting it a different color from the rest of your walls to make it pop. If you have a brick fireplace, you could opt to extend the brick to the ceiling to continue with the texture. Horizon Italian Tile suggests bold, contrasting designs that include metallics, patterns, and geometrics to give your room personality. For example, you could create a textured wall with copper pieces to give your space an earthy feel.
An accent wall is also perfect for sectioning a room with high ceilings, per Horizon Italian. Incorporate texture with a paneled wall to add depth and dimension to your space. If you enjoy reflective visuals, use a large mirror or various smaller mirrors as an accent wall to reflect the room's interior. The mirrors make the room appear brighter when natural light hits them, so your high ceilings will feel spacious and illuminating.
Give your ceiling a makeover
If you prefer the look of a minimalistic interior but feel that your ceiling is too plain, opt to give your ceiling a makeover. Painting high ceilings can make them feel lower while still accentuating their expansive features. A subdued shade of green, for example, can make your room feel calm. It's highly versatile since it fits with most architectural aspects, especially wood, according to Precision Painting Plus. Gray or beige are two other cooler options that can work well with any interior, and they're easy on the eyes.
Consider how you want the room to feel and look because it can help you decide which color you want to paint your walls, which will make it easier to figure out the best paint color for your ceiling. If you choose a darker color for your walls, then going two shades darker for your ceiling will make your room look more sophisticated, per Precision Painting Plus. For a classic look that will accentuate the height of the ceilings, go two or three shades lighter than your wall color.