Ceiling design ideas: dark, tented, painted and papered

The palette

Painting a ceiling dark

A dark ceiling doesn't make a room feel smaller — it blurs the edges and makes the room feel enveloping, especially at night. It works best in rooms used in the evening: dining rooms, snugs, bedrooms and studies.

Use the same dark colour on the cornice, or carry the ceiling colour down to a picture rail, to avoid a hard line. Pair with warm lamp light rather than bright downlights.

A boarded timber ceiling — proof that the fifth wall can be the most interesting one.

Colour-drenching

Painting walls, woodwork and ceiling in one colour — or in tonal shades of the same colour — makes a room feel calm and cocooning. In a low-ceilinged cottage it disguises awkward angles and beams; in a tall Georgian room it adds intimacy.

Tented and fabric ceilings

A tented ceiling — fabric gathered to a central point or stretched in soft swags — is pure romance. It suits bedrooms, dressing rooms and garden rooms, and it softens acoustics, too. Choose a lightweight cotton or linen, use a flame-retardant treatment and fix battens around the perimeter so the fabric can be removed for cleaning.

For a simpler version, stretch fabric flat across a panelled ceiling, or upholster the panels of a coffered ceiling.

Wallpapered and patterned ceilings

A wallpapered ceiling gives a room an instant sense of craft. Small repeating prints, stars, stripes and trellis designs are easiest on the eye overhead. In a bedroom, pattern on the ceiling is what you see when you lie down — choose something you love.

Painted details are another option: a stencilled border, a contrasting band around the edge, or a painted ceiling rose picked out in a colour from the room.

Look up. Most rooms have a second chance hiding above them.

Making a low ceiling feel taller

• Paint the ceiling a shade or two lighter than the walls, in a slight sheen to bounce light.
• Run vertical stripes or tall panelling up the walls.
• Hang curtains from just below the ceiling, not just above the window.
• Keep furniture low and use uplighters to wash light across the ceiling.

Frequently asked questions