The tall ceilings that create such breathtaking interior vistas in sites such as The 1892 Bishop's Palace also serve a practical purpose: Hot air rises, ensuring the lower parts of the room keep cooler. “Victorian houses in general have ceilings between 10 and 14 feet high,” says Bourgeois.
Looks aside, building homes with these high, vaulted ceilings helped move hot air upward, keeping rooms and gathering areas cooler and less stuffy. Not the most mysterious old home feature, but definitely one that looks good and works.
Sense of Space
Higher ceilings can create a more spacious and luxurious atmosphere, as they allow for more vertical space and openness. See the above statement – anybody working or spending quality time will feel far more at ease than if they're in a more cramped space.
Victorian Homes (1837-1901)
Ceiling heights of 2.4 to 2.7 metres are common. Victorian rooms were spacious with higher windows, requiring taller ceilings. Ornate decor like rose ceiling medallions further drove ceilings upward. Public rooms and master bedrooms had the highest ceilings, around 2.7 metres.
High ceilings in the summer, with mostly wood construction, in the southern states allowed heat to rise and the bottom section would be cooler. Upper windows could vent that heat. These older homes were built off grade so air would come through the floors as well.
On the minimum ceiling heights the IRC requires habitable spaces and corridors to be a minimum of 7′-6″ and bathrooms, kitchens, storage areas and laundry areas can have ceilings at 7′-0″ minimum.
Several tests have shown that the feeling of higher ceilings promote abstract thinking, freedom, and creativity; whereas lower ceilings brings on confined thinking.
Homes in that time were multipurpose. They were large. Not for the sake of large rooms, but for the sake of having space for entertaining and working. It's so easy for us to forget how much harder things were in the past to travel, work, entertain, to just live!
Rooms were rented to whole families or perhaps several families. If there was no rooms to rent, people stayed in lodging houses.
In antique homes of the 1700s, ceilings were typically just 7′ tall. Low ceilings and small rooms in these homes were designed so they could be easily heated by a central fireplace.
According to the National Building Code (NBC), the standard ceiling height is ninety-six inches, or eight feet; for suspended ceilings; the minimum height is ninety inches, or seven and a half feet. But nine- and ten-foot ceilings are now common, not only in living rooms and kitchens, but also in bedrooms.
Modern dropped ceilings were initially created to hide the building infrastructure, including piping, wiring, and/or ductwork, by creating a plenum space above the dropped ceiling, while allowing access for repairs and inspections. Drop ceilings may also be used to hide problems, such as structural damage.
When it comes to interior decor, white ceilings have long been considered the safe and traditional choice. They give a sense of height and brightness to a room, making it seem more spacious and airy.
High ceilings bring a certain look to a room or home, and for some, that's a major draw. They make the room look and feel bigger. High ceilings also allow you more room for chandeliers and ceiling lights, wall art, and more. The more room you have vertically, the larger your wall art and decor can be.
Understanding the Closet
This kind of closet was indeed rare 200+ years ago for two reasons: 1) People really did not have as many clothes as we do today. 2) People generally stored their clothing in pieces of furniture, such as chests or clothes presses.
The average size home in the US is 2,355 square feet and in 1950 it was 983 square feet…. Yet our homes are more cluttered than ever.
Established houses are built to last, and many aspects of the construction cannot be reproduced today. Older homes might be built with wood made from old-growth trees (trees that attained great age by not being significantly disturbed) and therefore more resistant to rot and warping.
Then there were the phobias: batophobia (a fear of tall buildings) and altocelarophobia (a fear of high ceilings).
In most houses, I recommend a ceiling height of ten feet on the main level and nine feet on upper floors. When a bit more drama or grandeur is desired, setting the ceiling height at twelve feet creates an elegant scale that is still comfortable visually.
Bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens don't require much overhead space, so if the ceiling is installed in one of these rooms, 8 to 9 feet is the standard. However, living and dining rooms may require a higher ceiling depending on the ceiling architecture and home aesthetic.
The minimum ceiling height for bathrooms and toilet rooms is 6 feet, 8 inches (2032mm). There are exceptions, including a sloping ceiling over the toilet if the minimum ceiling height of 6 feet, 8 inches (2032mm) is maintained over the front clearance area.
A shower or tub equipped with a showerhead shall have a ceiling height of not less than 6 feet 8 inches (2032 mm) above an area of not less than 30 inches (762 mm) by 30 inches (762 mm) at the showerhead.
Any ceiling over 10 feet is considered a high ceiling, Shipp says. “Sometimes ceiling height can vary within one home to make some rooms seem cozier or more grand. In two-story homes. the second story is often a foot or so shorter than the bottom floor,” she adds.