The ancient vaulted ceilings that used to be the charm of the cathedrals are now seen in the “great rooms” of the modern day homes. In fact, a vaulted ceiling is actually a ceiling that rises on one side to form a slant or both its sides to form a peak like structure in the middle.
Photo by L K DeFrances & Associates – Search living room pictures
Any room with a vaulted ceiling will seem much more spacious than if it had a standard ceiling. This structure actually adds a sort of majestic touch to the room. These imposing rooms featuring ceilings that are usually double the height of a normal room can lend a space a feeling of grandeur.
People who have homes with an antique decor must be familiar with the vaulted ceilings. The light reflected overhead gives an open feeling even to a very small room.
Unfortunately, the tendency is to try to fill up the space with a lot of accessories — hanging plants, lots of small pictures, fake beams, or whatever. This approach usually ends in a cluttered space. Decorating rooms with vaulted ceilings can be one of the toughest challenges that an amateur has to face.
You can use the extra overhead space for large chandeliers, skylights or interesting paint combinations. Also, you can decide if you want to emphasize any special features of a vaulted ceiling, such as cedar beams or timber-frame joists that span the room.
Design:
You don’t necessarily need to paint every vaulted ceiling white or a light neutral color. An excellent way to compliment the vaulted ceiling design is with paint, in a color, which will compliment a particular room in a tone that will subtly contrast with the existing wall colors.
Tip: paint the ceilings a darker color than the walls.
Bedroom with Vaulted Ceiling:
Especially a bedroom with a vaulted ceiling, the instinct is to paint the entire room white or some other neutral color like beige, light tan, cream or gray because these colors on ceiling give the illusion of more space. However don’t pick a rich color for both the ceiling and the walls, because that has a tendency to make the space feel claustrophobic or too dark. Instead of rich colors be wise to pick a softer shade.
However, use white for small rooms. While a huge room with a vaulted ceiling may accommodate brown paint to match woodwork, a small room requires a different approach.
Architectural Detail:
Use of wooden beams is a wonderful concept in vaulted ceiling design. Beams over drywall or open beams can contrast with ceiling paint. Imagine that: vaulted ceiling painted in white and black painted beams for great contrast or vaulted ceiling painted in beige and dark brown beams.
Also, you can use stained wood trim to accent the room’s colors. Whatever colors you use for walls or the vaulted ceiling, you might choose to incorporate stained wood trim to give the room an upscale look.
Care should be taken however as too much added architecture will cause the vaulted ceiling to appear far too heavy and loaded for the specific room.
Incorporate Texture in Vaulted Ceiling:
To incorporate texture in vaulted ceiling design can be obtained in several ways, such as coffers or trays as well as textured paint. You can use venation plaster, sponge and dry brushes with bolder colors, to give depth to the texture of the walls.
Incorporating textured paint to vaulted ceiling design will cause the room to be portrayed as a singular unit as it will draw the vaulted ceiling deep into the design of the room. If for example all the walls in the particular room are light in color, it is wise to paint the high ceiling the same color and add textured paint.
Light Fixtures:
One of the most important factors to take in consideration is to match light fixtures. Use a paint scheme to accent chandeliers. For example, you might paint the main beam running through the center of the ceiling pale gray. Match the gray to a couple of pewter chandeliers in the room.
TIP: Prepare yourself; draw the design in detail using colored pencils to determine if the color scheme is practical before investing in any kind of detailing.
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