Tips for Decorating a House with High Ceilings

High ceilings offer so much potential and, above all, make rooms feel incredibly spacious.
Tips for Decorating a House with High Ceilings

Last update: 01 October, 2018

From a decorative point of view, houses with high ceilings are particularly striking. They have so much potential, and what’s more, they create a sense of spaciousness that you don’t find in other houses. Because of that, however, creating a warm and inviting space can prove a difficult task.

If your house has high ceilings, or you’re thinking of moving into one that does, then keep reading – you may need our advice.

The furniture

Having the right layout for your furniture can help to create a sense of cohesion and harmony.

If your house has high ceilings, you’ll need taller furniture, in proportion with the height of the walls. You might want to put up bookcases and shelves to help decorate the walls and prevent them from looking bare.

Smaller furniture will spoil the aesthetic and won’t make as big an impact as it should. It’s a good idea to group the furniture according to the different areas and functions: dining room, living room, office… This will give the rooms a greater feeling of warmth and order.

It’s not just important to choose bigger, more robust furniture – you need to know how best to organize it within the space.

The walls

The first thing you need to consider is the proportions. To do this, you’ll need to understand certain laws of proportion, like the rule of thirds. This involves dividing the wall into three, so that there is a sense of balance in the way it’s decorated.

One technique is to give more prominence to the central third – without going too over the top, of course – making sure to put more visual “weight” into this section.

You might also want to decorate the ceiling with moldings. This will create the illusion that the ceiling is lower, and therefore more welcoming. These can also be painted in different colors. If you use darker colors, it will make the ceiling seem  lower. If you use white on the other hand, it will make the room seem brighter, and more spacious.

Bookshelves, rugs and hanging lampshades can all help to make a room with high ceilings more welcoming.

Rugs

Adding rugs or carpets to your room will help to visually decrease the height of the ceiling. In fact, if you’ve got a good eye for fabrics, you could use mosaics to create an almost Arabian feel, which will give your room a great sense of character and style.

Paintings

Wide paintings look great in rooms with high ceilings, giving a sense of balance to the walls.

Creating a sort of collage using a selection of different sized paintings is a technique often seen in home decor magazines at the moment. But as with all decor ideas, it is a question of personal taste. You can arrange the paintings according to your own sense of style, so that they best suit your taste. There really is no set rule on how best to do it.

Another idea is to combine the color of the walls with the color scheme used in the paintings, so as to create a sense of contrast. Don’t be afraid to be daring when it comes to colors!

Mirrors

If you want to make your rooms look wider and give them more depth, you might want to add some mirrors. When combined with large windows, they will help bring a sense of brightness, counteracting the height of the room.

The lighting

It will probably come as no surprise that lighting is really important when it comes to decorating a house with high ceilings, so it’s important to pay special attention to this aspect.

The higher the roof the more artificial lighting you’ll need. This is because with higher ceilings, the less concentrated the natural light.

Adding extra artificial lighting will therefore add a greater sense of warmth and comfort. Lamps, candles, fairy lights and candelabras are perfect for this type of house. They’ll make the room feel warmer, creating a pleasant and welcoming atmosphere.

If your house has high ceilings, hanging lampshades help to decrease the distance between them and the floor.

Lampshades

The first thing you need to remember is that you should choose a lampshade that matches the scale of the room. If it’s a particularly large room, look for a large chandelier; a small chandelier will only make the room look bigger.

We recommend that you choose a hanging lampshade, as it will visually decrease the distance between the floor and the ceiling. The walls will lose that sense of vastness, and the space will regain a more “human” dimension. You might want to go for a more modern or a more classical style lampshade, depending on the decorative style of your house. Thankfully, there are thousands of different types to choose from.

Colors

As we’ve already mentioned, high ceilings can make a room seem cold and unwelcoming. This is where colors come into play.

One way to counteract this problem is to paint the walls in darker shades, as they can help to make a room seem smaller. You could also hang painted wallpaper, or wallpaper with large, bold prints. If you decide to paint the walls white, it will have the opposite effect. The rooms will look even colder and larger.

So, if you don’t want to lose this sense of harmony, we recommend that you paint the ceiling and the walls the same color. 

In a room with high ceilings, warm colors will make it seem more welcoming.

High ceilings offer us the chance to give free rein to our imaginations and try out some different decorating techniques. Higher walls mean you can also install larger windows and get to enjoy a room filled with natural light.