The Fifth Wall

Dressing Ceilings to Dazzle By Laurie L. Dove

It's an interesting paradox: Room redesigns often ignore ceiling space, yet ceilings are the first place to draw the eye.

For these forgotten spaces, once relinquished to a perfunctory shade of eggshell white, there is a new coming of age. Drab and dreary have been vanquished; color and texture have taken their place.

A tired ceiling can absorb all the warmth and charm of a well-decorated room or it can deepen the effect and add a layer of emotion. "The eye is always drawn to the lightest thing in the room, and often, that's the ceiling," says Vicki Flores, an interior designer in Wichita, Kan. "When they decorate, people are concerned with carpet and fabrics, but then leave a white ceiling. That's a big mistake. You have to think of the ceiling as the fifth wall of the room."

Getting Creative
While walls are now sporting paints of deliciously named hues – persimmon, mango, even sugar cookie – ceilings don't have to be simple variations of white. Ceilings are perfect candidates for faux painting techniques or unique wall coverings. The key is to continue the color of the walls onto the ceiling, says Flores, with a color of the same hue. "The ceiling color may be a shade lighter than the wall color, but continue the trend," she says.

Another option is to add an English wall covering, known as anaglyptic, to the ceiling. The heavy, embossed paper applies to the ceiling using much the same process as affixing wall coverings to walls. The designs include replications of 12-inch squares of tin ceilings or other faux printing techniques, and like most things faux, are more inexpensive than the real deal. Once applied and thoroughly dried, the ceiling coverings can be painted with a variety of faux finishing techniques, from a metallic paint with subtle highlighting to reflect an antiqued tin ceiling look to layers of paint and glaze to match a room's walls.

And, now that many ceilings in new homes are featuring 15-feet or higher ceilings, the difficult to decorate spaces can be part of a dramatic decorating trend. Wall coverings sporting deep reds and golds, or other colors that would overwhelm small spaces, can safely be applied on high ceilings to add character – and a little romance.

For homes without that dramatic space, incorporating the ceiling into the room's color scheme can add height. Without a clear color line separating wall and ceiling, the ceiling feels higher. While wall covering borders and crown moulding are often put at the wall-to-ceiling line, care should be given to blend them with the ceiling using similar color, or the effect could be one of "closing" the space.

Even sprayed ceilings can be rehabilitated. There are specially designed rollers to paint these ceilings, or they can be wettened and troweled and then painted with several light coats of paint.

Where to Get Started
Three rooms in the home that are good candidates for ceiling makeovers are the kitchen, the bathroom and Baby's nursery. Both the kitchen and bathroom have wall space broken up and taken up by cabinets and windows, making ceiling space an optimal focal point. One caution when using wall-coverings on bathroom ceilings: Avoid steamy showers for several days so the adhesive on the coverings can dry completely.

And decorating the ceiling of your baby's nursery is a great way to add an interesting scene – babies spend a lot of time gazing up at the ceiling. Nursery ceilings are the perfect spot for colorful murals. Don't worry that you'll never be a Michelangelo – many companies now create wall coverings that look like hand-painted masterpieces!

Once a ceiling is finished with the desired covering or paint, creative lighting can be used to further enhance the area. Rope lights and fiber optic rope lights are becoming a popular choice. The tube-encased lights can be hidden within a crown moulding to provide soft, ambient light that runs the circumference of a ceiling, and both are a relatively inexpensive way to add another layer of light to a room.

Layered light is the newest way to highlight decorated ceilings. By using, for instance, a lighted ceiling fan, indirect lighting with recessed cans and fiber optic rope lighting, layered lighting can add warmth and dimension not only to a ceiling, but to an entire room.

Want to see more? Clear the Clutter Before Baby Arrives Nursery School: Starting the Baby's Room A Faux Fix: When an Interior Designer Becomes Your Therapist Home Style Today Talk about it!

About the Author: Laurie Dove is a senior associate editor for iParenting Media and the mother of three.