Decorating living rooms with high ceilings – top tips
Decorating residing rooms with substantial ceilings can be pretty an daunting activity. With all that wall space, you happen to be at threat of developing a dwelling space that can sense chilly and stark. But interior designers are on hand to present up their prime strategies for filling out all that wall area or embracing it in its entirety and inviting website visitors to halt in their tracks and glance up.
For Houston-dependent inside designer, Nina Magon, the obvious alternative is to attract the eye and go huge and bold. ‘A fantastic way to structure a well balanced superior-ceiling interior is to include much larger much more eye-catching pieces like furniture, artwork, and decor vs lots of small products that can clutter your area,’ she states.
From wall art to clever crown molding, and statement lights to attractive shelving, these inside style concepts can effortlessly change the area.
1. Get inventive with shelving
(Impression credit: Jayne Amelia Larson. Design and style: Scrafano Architects)
If your residing area has significant ceilings and you’re on the lookout to crack up that wall room with decor, just one intelligent way is to set up residing place shelves. Engage in around with the architectural options of your area – if you have a chimney breast, shelving that flanks either side of the breast will reliably glimpse terrific.
Maintain things symmetrical the place possible, and do not be fearful to go substantial, you can fill the house with attractive pieces that bring fascination to your partitions, continue to keep the house comprehensive of character and identity, and attract the eye upwards.
Think about developing your extremely individual vignette – go for ceramics, sculpture, hanging indoor vegetation, and stylishly and purposefully placed coffee desk publications, but resist the urge to overfill and embrace the detrimental place. Far too a lot clutter can just search untidy. Light your shelves from higher than if you want to make even a lot more of a highlight on the shelving. In this example from Scrafano Architects (opens in new tab), the shelves go all the way from the dwelling room up to the ceiling for a elegant storage answer.
2. Embrace the architectural characteristics
(Graphic credit rating: Nina Magon)
Alternatively of striving to desperately fill the white space, embrace it and make a characteristic out of it with crown molding and cornicing information. This stops the room from appearing two-dimensional, presents some texture and brings desire to the walls, with vertical lines drawing the eye upwards.
‘When designing a substantial-ceiling interior, I like to always think about equilibrium,’ states Nina, who designed this living space in a residential community of Piney Level, Houston, Texas. ‘One way to increase a great equilibrium to the higher ceilings is to add architectural details, this sort of as trim, to the walls and ceiling. This enables you to add depth and curiosity to the walls without having more than-cluttering.’
Crown molding is the embellishment on the wall, normally where it junctions with the ceiling. It arrives in a assortment of models and hailing from distinctive intervals, this means it truly is not so uncomplicated when choosing to incorporate crown molding to your dwelling. If you happen to be working with a time period property, glimpse to architectural record to decide how you may possibly want to embellish your wall – some are extra decorative than other folks, which includes crown roses and floral motifs, while plain molding is witnessed in additional modern-day areas.
3. Go daring with statement lights
(Image credit history: Ernest Theofilus Ditho Sitompoel. Layout: Bitte Style Studio)
In some cases, it really is about filling the void of area that exists amongst the ground and the ceiling, and for superior-ceilinged rooms, this can build a place that feels much much too ethereal and not conducive to relaxation. A fantastic living area statement lighting fixture can do the trick and aid fill the room.
‘For this living home, we wanted to make it additional roomy and linked to the major stage by making a big void. It also makes it possible for the air circulation and organic light-weight to get within the area,’ clarifies Agatha Carolina of Jakarta-centered agency, Bitte Style and design Studio (opens in new tab). The lighting will help produce a vacation spot to aim the eye. ‘We positioned pendants light to make a scale of intimacy,’ says Agatha.
4. Use pure light to your edge
(Picture credit history: Matt Garcia Design and style. Pemberton Place)
Natural light-weight is your ideal mate when operating with tall ceilings and white partitions. Even in the airiest of areas, if there are no windows, even if there is sufficient area, a place can experience cavernous. Attempt and eradicate this by making it possible for gentle in the place achievable, hunting to your residing space windows, and operating with daylight as found below exactly where a slither of light will come in through the clerestory home windows. ‘This dwelling area is the first place you stroll into from the entry,’ says Matt Garcia, architect and designer at modernist residential design firm, Matt Garcia Style (opens in new tab). ‘The purchasers wished it to be remarkable and full of pure gentle.’
‘The clerestory home windows do two fantastic matters. They bring in light from two sides and the horizontal break retains the art wall from experience as well tall. You get peeks of the tree tops and sky from diverse viewpoints which attracts the eye up. We needed to showcase the normal lighting on the wall surfaces as considerably as probable.’
5. Go daring with coloration
(Graphic credit history: Regan Baker Style and design)
Consider major and do not shy absent from bold colors that will support you fill the place with relieve. Decorate the wall with just one massive piece of artwork, or maybe a gallery wall. This living location by San Fransisco-based mostly Regan Baker Layouts (opens in new tab) prioritizes decorating a white wall with bursts of color. Wall art about the fire is a kaleidoscope of color and that sunshine-yellow staircase is a joyful addition to the place.
6. Test a log hearth with flu
(Image credit: Regan Baker Style)
Draw the eye upwards by producing a characteristic out of a log fireplace and its flue. This layout from Regan Baker Design and style in Tahoe qualified prospects the eye all the way to the ceiling and directs the eye in the direction of the wonderful picket ceiling and emphasizes the rustic farmhouse type. a real aspect of the lovely picket ceiling. The result is a pleasing mix of present-day and cabin-design, the great modern rustic residing space.
7. Paint the ceiling
(Graphic credit: File Underneath Pop)
Referred to as the ‘fifth wall’ by designers, the residing room ceiling so usually will get ignored. But there are unlimited paint solutions that can aid you make a element of the living home ceiling as a substitute of likely for exact same white paint you always do. the ceiling to attract the eye upwards. If you’re working with a higher ceiling and seeking to make the place come to feel extra cozy, offering oneself a darkish ceiling creates a cocooning roof-like truly feel in the room. Feel carefully about the shade you go for. ‘Dark ceilings can be bold statements, primarily with contrasting white walls,’ says Jennifer Morris of JMorris Design and style (opens in new tab). ‘It can add unanticipated drama to an place in the room that is often underrated.’ Alternatively, go for a tone from the same family members as your wall paint to develop harmony in the place.
8. Develop a feature wall
(Impression credit rating: Ellen Mcdermott. Design: OAD Interiors)
Go for a daring lick of paint to generate a residing place accent wall. A dim accent wall might even make a space search bigger and feel broader, even if it is a slim space. This is all down to the way the eye perceives shade and light. Dark shades recede from the viewer, so the accent wall visually enlarges the house and creates distinction which will make a place feel brighter.
In this case in point from OAD Interiors, a black wall was utilised to make the space look bigger. ‘We needed to emphasize the peak of the room so we selected to have the fireplace in black to give distinction and a wow element,’ claims Melissa Anderson of Brooklyn-dependent OAD Interiors (opens in new tab).