How to make a low ceiling look higher

Jun 4

Not every room is blessed with tall ceilings, particularly in cottages, some period properties and especially in loft rooms. Sloping ceilings and overall low ceiling heights can prove a design challenge, but there are some techniques you can use to help a low ceiling appear visually higher.

Hang the curtains as high as you can

This is a well known tip which I’m sure I’ve mentioned before on this blog, but hanging curtains as high as possible creates the illusion of a higher ceiling. You can even use a ceiling mounted track to get the maximum height for your curtains. And as always - they should hang all the way to the floor.

Use vertical stripes

When we look at vertical stripes, our eyes naturally follow the upwards and downwards directions of the lines, which creates an elongating effect and makes the object that we’re looking at appear taller than it actually is. This is handy in interiors - either by taking this very literally and using a striped wallpaper or using a more subtle technique such as wall panelling. The result is the illusion of a taller wall and therefore a higher ceiling.

Colour drench

This feels like quite a brave design choice, and the default thinking is to paint a low ceiling (or a small room) as bright as possible. But by colour drenching, which is where all walls, woodwork and the ceiling are painted in the same colour, it can give the illusion of a larger room. This is because it’s harder for our eyes to immediately see the boundaries of the room, making it feel more expansive than it is.

Avoid overhead lighting

In a room with a lower ceiling, we’re naturally closer to any light source which is on the ceiling. Pendant lights might hang too low, and depending on the room spotlights can be obnoxious (for example in a room where you want to relax, like a bedroom). An alternative to ceiling lights is to use wall lights, or even LED coving which gives a subtle glow around the perimeter or the space.

Use large art and lamps, and shorter furniture

The proportions in a room with a low ceiling are important to get right. By placing shorter furniture, it creates a larger proportion of vertical space above it, and the increased amount of visible wall space makes the ceilings look higher. Taller lamps and wall art then act as a vertical line, bringing your eye upwards to focus on the larger expanse above.

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