ceiling appears low in a big room!!!

[joshea]

Hi

Have open plan for the kitchen/living
The room in this new build is very big and the ceiling appears to come down lower
Its a standard ceiling of ca. 8ft or so

Has anyone got advise on how this could be solved (other than the obvious costly way raising the actual ceiling)

I am not sure how much this would cost, its a bungalow so I guess the space is up there, but I would prefer not.

Regards

 

[tvcabinet]

Has the ceiling been stippled or is it a flat finish?
If it has been stippled it will look closer than it is but if you plaster over it and paint it with a matt paint it won't look so close

 

[GreenQueen]

Some quick ideas for you.
Make your coving smaller or do away with it.
Likewise for your skirting boards.
Hang full length curtains - floor to ceiling - even if you don't have full length windows. It makes the room seem taller.
Hang your light fittings as close to the ceiling as possible.

Any of those help you?

 

[sydthebeat]

semi divide the space with wing walls and arches....

people seem to forget proportion when designing up large open plan spaces....

 

[sparkeee]

cut the chair/table legs down,this will give the illusuion of the ceiling being higher.

 

[dubgem]

cut the chair/table legs down,this will give the illusuion of the ceiling being higher.

Actually I would advise against this, I think if your furniture is too low the whole room will look "squashed down".

I also think using smaller than average-sized coving, as suggested by someone else, will make the height of the room look squashed. Coving in fact will give the illusion that your ceiling is higher, although that effect is mostly at the edges of a room and if yours is very large that effect might be lessened.

TBH I think the ceiling is probably looking low to you because the room is unfurnished, so when you look at the space the ceiling is acting as a false focal point. Once you have furniture in it your attention will be more drawn to the bottom (floor) half of the room and it won't seem so low-ceilinged. You say it is standard height so there's no reason to treat it as less than standard height.

I think if you use your furniture to define two seperate (dining / lounge) areas within the room, rather than each area being a through-way to the other area, then this will also visually break up the length of the room and will make it look less long-and-low.

You can do this and still keep the open-plan feel you planned: for example you can have a sofa with it's back to the dining area, with a console table or low bookcase behind it which will divide the space but without any barrier much higher than waist height, so you'll keep the open-plan feel.

Basically I think don't panic, it's an illusion, it'll all work out okay

 

[Rois]

cut the chair/table legs down,this will give the illusuion of the ceiling being higher.

Don't do this.

Try not to use any coving or low lighting, or if you can put in a couple of uplighters also.

Keep the ceiling white, any other colour will make it seem lower than it is.

You could also consider a low small sofa if you have room - I have one and it's stylish and cosy, even though it's at least 8" lower than a normal sofa.

As previous poster said, don't worry, the height is fine, it's just that you're not looking at the finished product yet.

 

[joshea]

Cheers to all, this is the best advise ever.
I have to say my wife and I got a good laugh from the idea of "cutting the chair/table legs down,to give an the illusuion of the ceiling being higher".

Thanks for that sparkee!!!

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Could your try getting a smaller wife and children?

 

[TreeTiger]

You could paint the ceiling in a soft sheen which would add some reflective qualities that may make the room seem higher. I wouldn't advise gloss paint though, I reckon it would be too much. Just had an idea though, if you put mirrors up you could create an illusion that the room is twice its height! On second thoughts the idea of mirrors coming crashing down around you would be a bit offputting

 

[dubgem]

I was just looking at the Ikea catalogue and I realised large open plan rooms that accommodate different areas (dining, sitting, office, etc) are they kind of thing they do a lot of. Not suggesting you use all their furniture or anything, but it might give you some layout ideas. You can view it online here [broken link removed]