Creating dramatic & evocative ceilings

By pocyline karani

The ceiling, the fifth wall of the living space, has for ages been ignored. It plays a critical role in helping you achieve that elaborate finish to a room.

Often, many think nobody looks up there, but maybe that’s because there is nothing to see. The right ceiling colour and dÈcor can make your room seem larger, or make it seem cosier. It can be original and creative, colourful and inspiring.

When holding parties, the ceiling can lend the occasion elegance and a festive mood. Ceiling murals, architectural accents like beams and creatively spaced crown moulding, popcorn textures in various colours or other ceiling enhancements are finding their way into the upward focus of decorators and designers alike. Here are some hot new trends in ceiling dÈcor.

A unique trend that is expected to be part of 2011 home decorating styles is the use of gypsum ceiling. Decorators and designers have begun using this formerly blank canvas as yet another place to create definitive style, helping bring together the furniture, window treatments, accessories and details in a room with complimentary colours and designs.

Gypsum boards can be creatively manipulated to achieve any one’s imagination. They can be layered to achieve any geometric forms and design and offer indirect lighting into the home.

Textured ceiling such as popcorn ceiling is another way of infusing texture to your ceiling. Although many regard this an old-fashioned out of date dÈcor style, it is a spray-on or paint-on ceiling treatment used from the late 1950s into the 1980s. The result is popcorn look alike texture on your roof. Textured ceiling is best left white.

Bold colours

Using a bold colour on your ceiling is another option for altering the look of your fifth wall. For those living in houses with large rooms, painting the ceiling the same colour as the walls will make the room seem smaller and cosier.

Painting it in the same colour family but in a lighter shade helps enlarge and brighten the room.

For average or low in height, use a tint of the wall paint for a unified enhanced look. Painting a beamed and panelled ceiling can be striking.

Paint the panels in a semi gloss pastel and then paint the beams in a contrasting and coordinated colour. Stenciling is another interesting option of painting offering a wide selection of designs. Try combining scrolls and curlicues stenciled in the corners and centre of your ceiling for that flowing, artistic look.

Murals

Similarly, the ceiling can be painted to look like the night sky or even inside of a carousal using trompe l’oeil (fool the eye). Murals create dramatic evocative ceilings. For instance a blue sky with puffy white clouds can do magic to a baby’s room.

Or cherubs flying around the ceiling or a delicate floral wreath on a circular mural above your chandelier can change the look of your room.