Do Ceilings Have to Be White?

Unify a Long Space

• Paint the ceiling of a long, corridor-like room a brilliant color to soften and unify the space and prevent it from looking like a terminal. Loft apartments benefit from this treatment when the expanse from the front to the back of the loft houses a kitchen and open dining space. The stretch of space is both luxury and challenge, but you can meet the challenge with a can of paint. Use high-gloss purple, teal or rose for high interest that visually “lowers” the distant ceiling and pulls together the space. Keep the rest of the room’s color strictly white or neutral to highlight the dramatic ceiling.

Modern Art Museum in Your Kitchen

• A skinny galley kitchen becomes a modern art installation with bold paint and graphic design. Fill the sides with shiny white cabinets, built-in refrigerator and white and brushed steel appliances. Paint a floor-to-ceiling black and white graphic on the back wall. A single fork, knife or spoon is perfect; a bunch of carrots or spring onions would work. To either side of the white wall that holds the graphic, paint a vertical border of black chalkboard paint that starts at the floor, runs up the wall and covers the entire ceiling. Use white chalk to make grocery lists or menus on the chalkboard and hang a very bright light – a glass chandelier or a white pendant – in the center of the black ceiling.

All That Glitters

• An elegant dining room or salon can be just as interesting at ceiling height as it is at eye-level. Paint all trim in the room blinding white, including the molding around the ceiling. Use a dusky blue or green on the walls with deep teal or golden yellow drapes, lampshades and onyx sculptures. Paint the ceiling a shiny pale copper or blush; a glaze will bounce extra light around the room and make it shimmer. The ceiling medallion should be painted to match the walls. A dangling crystal chandelier will reflect even more light off the gleaming painted ceiling.

Remove the Ceiling

• Sky ceilings are magical in a nursery, child’s room, powder room or formal dining room. They are fairly easy to paint – an expert will create a masterpiece, but a novice can paint a credible fantasy sky without much effort. The ceiling gets two coats of cerulean, pale or bright, depending on the effect desired. For an even softer feeling, colorwash the paint on the ceiling so it is slightly uneven and dreamy. Clouds may be sponged on in white paint or worked in with a brush. Real clouds have colors in them so dab the faintest touches of pinks, blues or grays in the centers of the clouds or around the edges. Use paintings or photographs for ideas of cloud shapes and shading.