Yes, you can make ceilings higher. You'll need to find out what kind of roof you have. There are two types: Stick-framed roof.
In an effort to stem heating/cooling costs, houses were constructed with less interior space by shortening ceilings. Home insulation and heating/cooling systems have vastly improved since then, and eight-foot ceilings are now considered outmoded.
Before modern times, 8 feet was typically regarded as the standard height for ceilings. Today, however, not uncommonly, most ceilings are 9 or even 10 feet in height.
A general rule of thumb for your baseboards is the 7 percent rule — they should equal 7 percent of the overall height of your room. So, if you have 8-foot ceilings, your baseboards will look best at around 7 inches high.
In order for a fan to be considered to be OK to use on an 8 foot ceiling, the bottom of the blades of the fan must be 7 feet off the floor when the fan is installed. The fan bodies themselves may extend slightly below the blades but will not affect the fan's ability to be mounted on an 8 foot ceiling.
The standard ceiling height is around 10 ft for different types of buildings and the average ceiling height for a residential building should be at least 9 ft. 6 inches for any habitable room.
However, there are expected standard heights if you want to avoid smashing your head on low ceilings or hope to sell your home in future. A floor to ceiling height of 2.2m is minimum, 2.4m is standard and 2.6m is considered good.
In an existing home, however, raising the ceiling in the living room, or anywhere else, is a complicated process. Yes, it's doable, but if it involves changing the roof structure, a structural engineer is necessary.
If you see a complicated framework of 2x4s held together with perforated metal plates, your roof is framed with trusses. You'll have to remove the entire roof structure to vault the ceilings. But if it's framed traditionally with big lumber rafters, the roof can stay in place.
Lots of people think 8 feet is the minimum ceiling height because that's a common height in most homes, but it's actually 7 feet according to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI Z765). Technically ANSI says it's okay to have a ceiling height at 6'4″ under beams though.
Be sure to measure how high your ceilings are before considering bunk or loft beds. It is essential to have 33 to 36 inches of space between the top of the mattress and your ceiling, which means your ceiling should be about 100 inches high, four inches more than a traditional 8-foot ceiling.
A 7 ½-foot Christmas tree is the perfect size for 9-foot ceilings. You can be sure the tree won't hug the ceiling, and you'll have plenty of space to top the tree with a shining star.
Unfortunately, due to building codes and safety concerns, not all ceilings can handle conventional standard mount fans. The blades of a ceiling fan should be no less than 7 feet from the floor, and if your ceiling is 8 feet high or less, then a standard mount fan won't work for you.
Blades that are mounted closer to the ceiling reduce air volume, so they won't provide the same level of breeziness as those that are mounted 8 or more inches below the ceiling. For this reason, hugger fans may work harder than standard mount fans and may be less efficient.
In short, a low-profile fan is any fan that can be mounted and hang below 12 inches.
For an 8 foot ceiling height the recommended crown size is 2-1/2″ to 6″ tall with no picture mold. Use the square footage and level of formality of the room to choose an appropriate crown size and style in that range.
For normal swinging doors a 7 ft height would allow both the doors and the room heights to feel generous without making a feature of the doors. Taller doors can become narrow features that can detract from the room height.
Here is a great rule of thumb: A standard 8-foot wall typically has a baseboard 3 to 5 inches tall, while a 10-foot ceiling calls for 5 to 7 inches. As a designer, I love adding height for drama. And the taller baseboards create a modern yet elegant finished look.
A typical ceiling height in an apartment is 8 feet, but newer construction (built after 1995), can have ceilings 8.5 to 9 feet+. If you live in a historical building (i.e. pre 1940s) that was converted into apartments (such as an old warehouse or school), you can see ceiling heights of 14 feet+.
1. Habitable Rooms. The minimum height from the surface of the floor to the ceiling or bottom of slab should be not less than 2.75m. For air-conditioned rooms, a height of not less than 2.4 m measured from the top of the floor to the lowest point of the air-conditioning duct or the false ceiling should be provided.
It is absolutely more desirable to haveif you 9' ceilings, and will more than pay for itself in value added to the home. Consider choosing more economical finishes like counters and bathroom floors that can be upgraded down the road, ceiling height is forever.