Ceiling Color
The lightest and whitest colors work best at making a low ceiling appear taller. A bright white or a slightly gray white color are the optimal ceiling colors. Avoid using a color in a different hue on the ceiling if possible, as it will appear darker on the ceiling and not reflect as much light.
Can you make ceilings higher? Yes, you can make ceilings higher. You'll need to find out what kind of roof you have.
What Is Considered Low Ceiling Height? For residential rooms such as bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, hallways, or offices, anything less than eight feet is low. A seven-foot-high ceiling makes the space feel cramped and crowded.
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.
When lighting a room with low ceilings, the trick is to aim for an even spread of light and avoid any dark corners or areas of high contrast. By using a variety of light sources, at different heights and levels, you can help to draw attention away from the ceiling and emphasise the wider space.
Homes built before the advent of efficient heating systems and proper insulation often used fireplaces both as a source of heat and a place to cook. Lower ceilings and smaller rooms were much easier to heat with fireplaces, therefore many period farmhouses were built with a seven-foot or so ceiling height.
If you use crown molding that is the appropriate width and the same color as or a lighter color than the room, it will generally make the room seem taller and larger. Crown molding is a decorative feature that runs along the perimeter of the room and is installed at the junction between the walls and the ceiling.
Paint the ceiling spaces between the beams white or a light color for contrast with darker wood. The eye sees an area higher than the beams and automatically perceives the actual ceiling as farther away, adding to the illusion of height.
Generally speaking, a low ceiling requires a thin, simple crown molding, while a high ceiling requires a broad and fully entablature crown to make a visual impact in the room.
Considerations. Except for tearing out a dropped ceiling grid, raising ceiling height is not a do-it-yourself project. The new supporting beams and rafters must be in place before removing any of the existing ceiling structure.
Nowadays, Architects and engineers keep the floor-to-ceiling height about 10 feet in most cases. Again let's understand this fact also. So, the standard height of the ceiling is 10 ft for a normal residential house. The standard ceiling height from the floor is about 10 feet.
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+.
While high ceilings tend to support abstract thinking and creativity, lower ceilings can help to boost one's productivity, which is especially helpful for those who work out of a home office, in which case low ceilings can often equal a more productive day of work.
In those days, most houses were utilitarian structures and homebuilders knew that lower ceilings meant less space to heat in winter and, therefore, less wood chopping to fit into a day already bursting with physical activity.
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.
It typically involves removing horizontal beams called joists and installing a new ceiling. If you don't have sufficient space above the room, then a contractor has to raise the roof in order to elevate the ceiling. They make the surrounding walls taller, often by adding taller support beams.
There are many alterations one can make to a house. Moving walls,doorways,adding fireplaces,etc,and so on.To raise the second floor ceilings,you would need to remove the roof. There is no way to raise the first floor ceilings without removing the second floor.
Crown molding can certainly be used to make ceilings look even higher. If you paint over the trim in the same color as the walls, the ceiling will seem to blend into the wall, and you won't notice the height as much. Thin trim can also make the ceiling line appear further away.
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.