Painting Tips for Rooms with High Ceilings
Here in the San Francisco Bay area, many of our historic houses have high ceilings. While this may make it more challenging to dust away the cobwebs, it also gives you some unique decorating opportunities! Interior painting with high ceilings can give you exciting prospects for individualizing your home.
Painting your ceiling is a simple way to use a high ceiling, but we'll also discuss some ideas for what you can do with the room if you have some additional trim.
Painting a High Ceiling
When you paint a ceiling, it has a dramatic impact on the look and feel of the room. If you choose a color that is lighter than the walls, it makes the room feel taller. In rooms with a tall ceiling, it may be preferable to use a darker color on the ceiling, so that it feels a little more cozy and comfortable.
One color option for painting your ceiling is to use a lighter or darker shade of the color on your walls. Another idea is to use a bright, bold color that is used somewhere else in the room. For example, you could use bright yellow or strong blue, matching with a piece of artwork or a set of throw pillows in the same room (such as the yellow towel above).
Using Trim with a High Ceiling
Many historic and stylish homes with high ceilings also have thick, ornate moldings. If you paint these white, they set off your wall and ceiling colors nicely. Alternatively, they could be painted a darker neutral color (gray, brown, or even black) for a striking effect.
If you add a single line of simple trim around the perimeter of the room, 8 to 12 inches below the crown molding, it adds another place to use color with your high ceiling. The trim should be the same color as your crown, probably, but you could use another color on the wall space above the trim.
One example of this could be that you have a light tan on the walls, a medium brown above the trim, and a dark brown on the ceiling.
Another way to visually lower the ceiling is if you use the ceiling color on the space between the trim and the crown.
One final idea for using trim to increase your color options is to put a simple border of trim on the ceiling, following the perimeter of the room. This gives you two separate spaces to paint on your ceiling. The outer portion (closer to the walls) is typically painted the same color as the walls, while the inner portion is painted white, or a separate color.
Expert Interior Painting and Color Help in the San Francisco Bay Area
If you have high ceilings and you are not sure how best to use paint on them, a painting contractor is a great resource. Because we see hundreds of homes each year, we can help you generate ideas (when you're feeling stuck) or narrow down ideas (when you feel overwhelmed).
MB Jessee is a reputable, high-quality painting contractor serving the San Francisco Bay area. Based in Oakland, we also serve Hillsborough, Piedmont, Pacific Heights, Oakland Hills, and the greater San Francisco region. In addition to interior painting, we offer exterior painting, kitchen cabinet painting, faux finishing, wallpaper removal, and more!
