High ceiling dilemma

 

The other day, I was visiting with my friend Beth, who just happens to be knee-deep in the middle of remodeling. Even so, Beth and her family continue to entertain with apparent ease on a grand scale. I admire those few who can continue with their daily lives without even a hiccup, even though most of us mortals come to a screeching halt when one little thing is out of order.

As Beth gave a tour through the new living areas, one thing that drew immediate attention was the wonderfully high 12-foot ceilings in the new rooms. Well, apparently this has become a furnishing and accessorizing issue for Beth. It can be challenging to decorate when you have more vertical than horizontal wall space with which to work.

 

Beth asked me to give her some ideas for her bedroom walls. Since higher ceilings are becoming more popular in today’s newer homes, I am thinking that Beth is probably not the only homeowner with design questions on this topic. I have compiled a few tips that should make your decorating easier.

One common mistake that people make when decorating a room with high ceilings is not working with the scale of the room. You need to use furniture and accessories that are the correct size for the space. If you place short furniture and small accessories in a very tall room you will get a funhouse effect, as if the room is all in miniature. The trick is to know what size of furniture will work in your space. If you look at a room with an eight-foot ceiling you can see how most chair backs, at 32 to 36 inches high, are approximately a third of the overall ceiling height. This furniture size was designed to be in scale with standard room sizes and heights. To make a room look in proportion with a 12-foot ceiling, you would want to have a chair with a back height of approximately 46 inches. But since most of us are not going to have custom chairs made with high backs to fit the proportion of a room, you will need to create the illusion of size with color, lighting and accessories. It is all about tricking the eye into believing one thing when actually another thing is happening.

 

The color of paint you choose for your room can make it feel larger or smaller. Darker colors tend to create a warmer attitude and are less reflective, so they keep the room from feeling too stark and open. Cooler colors are more reflective and can actually make a room feel larger. By painting the ceiling the same color as the walls you will eliminate any breaks in color and lose the line where the ceiling starts and the walls end. Depending on what colors you use, this can make a room feel vast or intimate. If you want to accentuate your high ceilings even more, use molding and paint it a contrasting color from your walls.

Lighting in a tall room also is very important for making the scale of the room translate correctly. You will want to direct the lighting down onto the living space if you want to minimize the look of your high ceilings. Use your high ceilings to your advantage and mount a large chandelier in the center of your room, making sure to drop it down far enough so you can use the light. Not only will this create drama, it will keep the eye from wandering upward. Wall sconces placed at eye level with light directed across the room or downwards will give the illusion of lower ceilings because your eye is not drawn above the light.

 

If you want to accent your high ceilings with light, then direct some of your lighting up. Wall sconces with up lights, floor torchières and pendants mounted closer to the ceiling all draw the eye upward. If you do decide to mount a fixture closer to your ceiling, make sure it is large enough to work with the height and scale of the room. Using small light fixtures will throw you off scale and be useless as a light source.

 

Accessorizing is the most important aspect of decorating a room with high ceilings. Artwork should be “supersized” to accommodate your wall space. If you don’t have large artwork you can create the illusion of it by placing several pieces of coordinating artwork in a collage, spacing the frames about four to six inches apart. If you want to get creative, make your own artwork by building large box frames and covering them with decorative fabrics or painting freehand directly onto a canvas.

Vertical artwork will draw the eye up. Be careful using mirrors, as they can make your room feel cavernous. Try to stay clear of small accessories, for they will just disappear in the room. Place larger vases and other larger and taller accessory items on credenzas and bookcases for additional height to work back to the scale of the room. Use a tree instead of a bush in a corner of the room to emphasize the height of your room. If you are decorating a bedroom, try to find or make a headboard that is dramatically taller than the bed. This design will actually make the room feel cozier and more grounded. Don’t forget to make your windows a focal point. By taking advantage of the added wall height, you can mount draperies much higher on the wall, creating the look of a larger window. Have your draperies fall all the way to the floor for more impact.