Small Tricks for Apartments with High or Low Ceilings

Opinions about comfort in such apartments are divided: some are satisfied due to height and habit, others are dissatisfied and seek ways to visually raise the ceiling at least.

So, how can you "raise" a low ceiling?

Color of the Ceiling

The lower the ceiling in your apartment, the lighter the paint shade you use to paint it: white, white-gray, barely distinguishable green, sky-blue or gray-blue. The colors should be cool, and the walls much brighter than the ceiling so that the ceiling visually recedes, making the room appear taller.

For a bedroom, a successful approach would be to use the same wallpaper with a sky and cloud pattern on walls and ceiling. The boundary between wall and ceiling becomes barely noticeable. Or choose cool-toned suspended ceilings. They will indeed take up a few centimeters of room height, but provide the effect of infinitely high ceilings.

At the same time, high ceilings create a feeling of a deep well and an empty, cold space. Therefore, you should choose darker colors that suit the overall interior design. The ceiling will then seem closer to the apartment's inhabitants, and the desired coziness will appear.

Room Lighting

In an apartment with low ceilings, a heavy, low chandelier would be a poor choice. Prefer recessed lighting or flat chandeliers. Or place light fixtures only along the perimeter of the ceiling, leaving the center area darkened. The desired effect – a higher ceiling – is achieved.

For high ceilings, large or long chandeliers are trendy. Additionally, it's essential to carefully arrange lighting fixtures, otherwise your electricity bills will not be a pleasant surprise.

Wall Patterns

We won't be opening up America by reminding you that vertical patterns on wallpaper are preferred in apartments with low ceilings. If these are stripes, they should be soft and narrow, and any plant or geometric pattern can also be used.

Another small trick is to apply wallpaper with a slight overlap onto the ceiling. This visually increases the room height.

For high rooms, a large and bright wallpaper pattern, panels, or a contrasting stripe would be appropriate.

Furniture

Furniture can also help adjust the perceived height of a room. With low ceilings, heavy and large furniture will consume much space. Therefore, prefer low and neat pieces of furniture. If you don't have the option to get new furniture and your old one is too heavy for a small room, push it against the back wall to visually make it smaller.

To balance the height and width of a tall room, horizontal surfaces and bright, substantial furniture are used to draw attention away from the imperfect proportions of the room.

Window Treatments

For rooms with low ceilings, use long curtains reaching the floor, in vertical pleats. Hang the drapes right under the ceiling. This is another trick to visually stretch the room vertically.

If you have high ceilings, you can afford large and bright valances, installing a mezzanine under the ceiling, artificial drapes or a canopy over the bed.

Additional tips for decorating rooms with low ceilings:

• buy a bright floor covering that diverts attention from the low ceiling;
• hang vertical pictures on the wall;
• install a tall door.

Using these small tricks, you will enjoy seeing that achieving your goal is much easier with such methods than through a major renovation or apartment reconfiguration.