15 easy ways to increase your ceiling height

Recommendation points

• 1. Glossy or mirrored ceiling
• 2. We use low upholstered furniture, beds and dressers
• 3. Large windows
• 4. Built-in spotlights
• 5. Wallpaper with vertical stripes or the same pattern created by paint on the wall
• 6. Curtains
• 7. Vertical layout
• 8. Light from below
• 9. Expose the structure of the floors and remove the finish
• 10. Painting the walls diagonally
• 11. Light ceiling and wall of a different color
• 12. Plinth to match the wall color
• 13. Vertical panels
• 14. Door opening increased to the ceiling
• 15. “Run” the wall to the ceiling

In this article, we will talk about what design and architectural techniques can be used to visually raise a low ceiling in an ordinary apartment. All described options are easy to apply in practice and very effective..

A high ceiling makes any room, even the narrowest, more spacious and brighter. It is not for nothing that advertisements for the sale of apartments, as one of the main advantages, must indicate “ceiling height – 3 meters”.

Unfortunately, standard apartments of old buildings and new buildings of “economy class” cannot boast of such height. What to do if the ceiling literally “presses”, which makes the room look squat and uncomfortable? We offer you 15 ways to help you cope with this problem, even if your rooms are only 2.5 meters high..

Agree, there is something special in such rooms, the ceiling of which is at an unimaginable height! How much space, light, air here. It’s a shame that most of us have to settle for ceilings that rise to a maximum of 2.85 meters

1. Glossy or mirrored ceiling

This option can be called one of the most effective and at the same time quite simple. Of course, the purchase and installation of a glossy stretch or mirrored ceiling will cost a substantial amount, but the effect of air, free space, as they say, is immediately evident. Everything below will be reflected on the shiny surface, and as a result, the ceiling will seem to disappear.

Interestingly, the reflective surface does not have to be light to achieve a higher ceiling effect. The dark blue glossy ceiling will also reflect the interior of the room and the effect of additional depth of space will be the same.

In this case, the glossy ceiling was chosen in white to match the rest of the kitchen interior. But darker shiny stretch surfaces will give the same effect of increasing the height of the room.

See how effectively the mirrors were able to visually increase the height of this living room

2. We use low upholstered furniture, beds and dressers

If nothing can be done with the ceiling itself, you can visually increase its height using low furniture. In rooms with a low ceiling, sofas should be installed without legs, squat, no higher than 40 centimeters.

We select the chairs according to the same principle – let them be lower than usual, but at the same time quite comfortable, on strong massive legs or even without them, like a bag chair, for example. Choose a bed with a low headboard, and a chest of drawers for three drawers, no more.

Lower than usual furniture will not “eat up” the vertical space and will visually “raise” the ceiling

3. Large windows

Large windows will give an excellent effect of a higher ceiling. But they should not be increased in width, but up and down. A tall window looks spectacular in itself, making the room brighter and more spacious. Against the background of such windows it will seem that the ceiling has “risen” upward..

In this case, it is not at all necessary to occupy the entire wall with a window – let it be narrow, but necessarily elongated. Even better for a higher ceiling effect..

The windows stretch up almost to the ceiling, making the room brighter and more spacious. Such tall windows are often made arched, but rectangular ones are also fine.

4. Built-in spotlights

A lush hanging chandelier will make your already not too high ceiling very low. Imagine a tall guest clinging to the hanging pendants of a chandelier or a lamp suspended on a long cord above the table.!

Leave such light sources coming down from above for higher rooms, and install built-in, spotlights in your room. Such lighting will visually raise the ceiling and will be much more appropriate in this case..

In a room with a low ceiling, you should abandon a massive chandelier and suspended ceiling lamps. Such small built-in light sources can visually raise the ceiling

5. Wallpaper with vertical stripes or the same pattern created by paint on the wall

All women of fashion know that a vertical striped dress is slimming. The same effect can be used in the case of a low ceiling – a vertical strip will allow, as it were, to lengthen the wall, respectively, the ceiling will seem higher.

You can choose striped wallpaper or draw vertical lines with paint using masking tape – this is not so important. It should be remembered that in a small room, narrow vertical stripes will be more appropriate, and in a sufficiently large room, wide.

You can decorate not all walls of a room with a vertical strip, but only one – the most noticeable

6. Curtains

Curtains can be a good helper in the struggle for a visually higher ceiling. If your ceiling is low, install a curtain rod near the ceiling, or rather hide it behind a strip of drywall or plywood, decorated to match the walls.

The curtains in a room with a low ceiling should flow from the highest point. Moreover, the curtains should also go down to the floor. Only then will the effect of the higher ceiling be maximized. As for the pattern and color, it is better to choose light, light curtains with a vertical stripe or a floral pattern that tends upward..

For a low room, it is better to choose ceiling cornices in order to increase the length of the curtains and, accordingly, visually raise the canvas

You can raise not only ordinary curtains to the ceiling, but also Roman and Japanese curtains. Make it seem like your window is bigger than it really is, and your ceiling is higher

7. Vertical layout

On the principle of vertical stripes on wallpaper or painted walls, you can also use narrow but tall cabinet furniture. For example, choose a narrow, but very high, up to the ceiling, rack, install bookshelves in the same way, order a wall in the living room, consisting of rather narrow, but as high as possible individual parts.

Cabinets in the kitchen can be made the same high, and the wardrobe traditionally occupies the entire space from floor to ceiling. The principle of vertical layout to visually increase the height of the ceiling applies not only to cabinet furniture. So, it is also better to choose pictures elongated in height, and not wide, as usual..

A tall flower in the living room or bedroom is also able to “raise” the ceiling.

The higher the rack or shelves go, the higher your ceiling will look.

Tall flowers, of course, take up a lot of space in the room, but they visually raise the ceiling

8. Light from below

Choose sconces and floor lamps with a shade that throws light upwards onto the ceiling. Such illumination from a lower point will also make the room visually higher. A similar effect is often used by photographers – to make the model’s legs appear longer, shoot and highlight from below..

Look for floor lamps and wall lamps with lampshades that throw light up and down. Such illumination will allow us to achieve the desired effect of a higher ceiling, but, unfortunately, only in the dark.

9. Expose the structure of the floors and remove the finish

If you completely get rid of everything that is applied to the ceiling – plaster, drywall, paint, stretch canvas – the room will not visually, but will actually become higher.

In addition, such a “decor” looks, or rather, its complete absence, is unusual. Of course, the “bare” ceiling is not suitable for all rooms, but it will be quite appropriate when decorating the interior of a room in an industrial or loft style.

Recently, concrete is increasingly turning from construction into a finishing material. Get rid of unnecessary trim on the ceiling and explain to guests that you are following a fashion trend

10. Painting the walls diagonally

Remember how your gaze stretches beyond the thin strips of railway tracks – right to the horizon! This visual effect can also be used in an ordinary apartment – draw a diagonal with paint from the top corner to the floor. In this case, it is better to paint the wall in contrasting colors – as a result, it will seem that the distance between the floor and the ceiling is longer than it actually is.

The diagonal on the wall can be drawn from the top corner to the bottom, or even to the middle of the wall – as you like. In any case, the gaze will stretch precisely behind this line, and the ceiling will seem higher

11. Light ceiling and wall of a different color

Of course, simply painting one of the walls a different color is not enough. But if you leave a strip 10–20 centimeters wide between the wall and the ceiling and paint it in the color of the ceiling, it will become, as it were, part of it and make it visually higher. This effect can be achieved using a variety of shades – the main thing is that the ceiling is a little lighter..

See how the plinth, painted in the color of the ceiling, became its integral part and noticeably “raised” the height of the room

12. Plinth to match the wall color

For some reason, the vast majority of homeowners, when making repairs, traditionally choose a baseboard to match the flooring. However, such a plinth simply “takes” part of the surface from the wall and “gives” it to the floor. As a result, the wall looks shorter, and the ceiling, accordingly, is lower. It is better to choose a plinth to match the wall itself. As a result, it will turn out original and beautiful, the wall will seem longer, and the ceiling, respectively, higher.

Avoid traditional skirting boards to match the floor. Choose this trim piece to match the color of the wall or for painting – then paint it along with the entire surface and make the wall visually longer

13. Vertical panels

The use of wood panels also gives a good effect. In a small room, you can visually raise the ceiling with the help of panels, which, reaching the middle of the walls, will sort of “push” them apart.

However, in a large room, where the perspectives are wider, the use of different materials for finishing the upper and lower parts of the wall, on the contrary, will divide it horizontally and “lower” the ceiling. In this case, at least one wall should be faced with panels from top to bottom. In general, the effect of wood panels can be compared to the possibilities of a vertical strip on the wall..

Full-height wood panels will act in much the same way as striped wallpaper or vertical stripes painted with masking tape and paint – “raise” the ceiling

14. Door opening increased to the ceiling

In the same way as a window increased in height, a high door also gives the effect of a “raised” ceiling. Extend your doorway to the ceiling or replace it with a tall arch – the room will look taller and more unusual.

Such high doors will make your room not only taller, but also brighter. And they look unusual, immediately attracting attention and making the interior more original and interesting

High arched openings are also able to visually “raise” the ceiling. Moreover, both narrow and wide arches can cope with this task.

15. “Run” the wall to the ceiling

We have already proposed an option where a strip from the upper edge of the wall, thanks to the same shade of paint, became part of the ceiling. You can use another option – literally wrap the wallpaper on the ceiling by 5 centimeters. Or paint over a strip of the same width with paint of the same color as the wall. The larger the room, the wider the strip can be “selected” from the ceiling. But this option will not work in tiny rooms, for example, in the kitchen..

In this case, the vertical strip simply “crawled” to the ceiling, significantly increasing the length of the wall

“Fighting” with a low ceiling does not necessarily require sacrifices and substantial expenses. Often, just one tall flower or the correct color of the wall can make a room taller and brighter. All the options proposed in this article have been repeatedly tested in practice and are often used by professional designers when decorating interiors of low rooms..