By Rita St. Clair

Home Decor - Ceilings Do Not Always Have to be White. A tiled and coffered ceiling is a dramatic look and perhaps over the top for some and but it serves to delineate space

Today's ceilings are perhaps the most ignored of all the surfaces in a room.

One reason, I am sure, is because during the last decades of the 20th century, for reasons of cost control as well as style, the average ceiling seldom achieved a height of over 8 feet. The popular color for such a low ceiling was and still is white because of the incorrect assumption that no matter what the color of the walls, white on the ceiling will make it look higher.

In fact, a white ceiling only appears higher if the color of the walls is the same or a shade darker.

Question:

We have just moved into a new home that has a wonderfully convenient open space called the great room, consisting of a kitchen/eating and family room. The cabinets are all in walnut, as is the stain of the wood floor. The ceiling is 9 feet high except over the kitchen area, where it was dropped to 8 feet due to ductwork. We would like to reinforce the separation between the kitchen and the rest of the space. Any ideas that don't involve building partitions or cabinetry?

Answer:

Of course you could use color. Color changes the visual perception of space, and it is also the least expensive method to achieve this type of separation. Whatever wall space, bulkheads or ceiling areas that occur in the kitchen, I would suggest that you consider painting them in a different color from the rest of the space. Another possibility is to install colorful and decorative tile above the counter tops. To see how a ceiling can change the perception of a room for better or worse, look at the coffered and tile design shown in the photograph, which is taken from "Roots of Home" by Russell Versaci (Taunton Press).

I use this example to show how an important design can overtake the entire space. This type of over-the-top look may not be an acceptable solution to most for such a functional space with a low ceiling. However, if used in the higher portion of a ceiling of a great room with or without the tiles, a coffered design using wood stained in the color of the other wood elements of the room would not only be decorative but would also delineate the spaces you described.

 

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Home Decor & Interior Design - Ceilings Do Not Always Have to be White