CEILING HEIGHT
Light comes in @45degree angle from a window.
A window in a room with an 8 foot ceiling will only let light in about 6 or 8 feet.
A window in a room with a 10 foot ceiling lets in light to about 8-10 feet… better.
What is glorious, is a corner room with this same 10 foot ceiling, …now the room is bathed in light from 2 sides, just everywhere.
I will not even dream of a room with light on 3 sides….ah….a sunroom….the most glorious room of all.
See, a room needs good ceiling height to provide light into a room of any size.
Sure, if your room is only 10’x10 foot, then an 8 foot ceiling is surprisingly OK.
Once you think about this, it explains why a 10 foot ceiling provides so much more light, that a 8 foot ceiling….provided of course, that your windows are as close to the ceiling as possible….
A low ceiling will not light up a large room..
This is not as arbitrary as you’d think. If you realize the ,the far edges will be dark.
See the beams coming into this train lobby?
HIgh ceilings, 10 foot
The great gift of 10-foot ceilings, is the extra 2 feet of light flowing into the room, …most often with an upper transom above standard window.
The extra 2 feet, opens a room, and makes it feel expansive…YOU are proportionally smaller in such a great room, but you feel sheltered.
OK, If 10 feet is good, why not 12 feet?
I think there are diminishing returns now …things just get out of scale and proportion… (unless you are designing a large entrance hall, ballroom, or great great room.)
Also, It is one thing to walk upstairs an 8 foot staircase, but when you get to 10- and 12-foot stairs, the stairs start to need a breather midway… and pretty soon, you just stop going upstairs…
But, if you are open to such high ceilings, you better also be open to an elevator…. just to get all the furniture, beds, tables, bookcases, boxes, and appliances going up and down these stairs…. This does not just happen on moving day, but in a new house, things are constantly shifting and sorting out.
low ceilings need love too....
It is easy to praise high ceilings…Buy, where are low ceilings appreciated?
Think Old English taverns with a fireplace and low ceiling beams or or a Tavern under the main building, with a few windows UP at street level, as you watch the feet pass by. So in this case, the low ceiling ADDS to the mood.
MIXED CEILINGS, BOTH HI AND LOW...
Here’s a trick, that can be used more often…
Have a slanted ceiling, so you can have both!
A feeling of protection under the lower part of the ceiling, where you have a low seating area, and still have the the joy of great light and views under the 15-foot-tall ceiling/wall in the distance.
A classic prospect and refuge solution to a great room…. It also makes the room more dynamic, have movement instead of a static stale boring shoebox room. Yawn…..
Ceiling ....glass, wood, white?
The absolute last thing I think about in my renovation is my ceiling.
Is it the same color/sheen as the walls?
How about the crown molding? What color is that?
It’s all white? Right? what color of white!?
I just have no opinion, and no idea.
IT’S A CEILING!
Glass ceiling
GLASS CEILING
This sounds fresh and creative…why don’t I see this more often?
Well, they get dirty. Think leaves, moss, mold, black stuff, bird poop, tree pollen. Stuff just comes out of the sky EVERY DAY…. If you have a tile deck, think how often you must blow off the microscopic tree debris that is always falling down…. the seeds, the pollen.
Plus, they leak.
Plus, poor insulation.
No need to say more… use lightly… if at all
wood ceiling
Now, this is something that can be used successfully more often…
It as more dimension and warmth to a room, it lends a good feeling of shelter and protection….it just feels old and stable.
What white drywall ceiling can compare with that?
Plus… it doesn’t cost that much more and goes up easily.
And surprisingly, after 2 or 3 coats of shellac, the wood stops being flat, and begins to pick up the window shine, in a bright and clean look…all the more alive and reflective. Now you are making the room dance… great walls, ceiling and floors. Just add furniture and friends…
And now the mistakes!
The absolute last thing I think about in my renovation is my ceiling.
Is it the same color as the walls?
Same sheen?
How about the crown molding? What color is that?
It’s all white? Right?
But they want to know what color of white!?
I just have no opinion, and no idea.
IT’S A CEILING!
Well, here goes,
- WHAT IS A CEILING vs a WALL?
One of the biggest mistakes seen in a renovation is deciding what is a dormer ceiling vs a dormer wall. Looking at Zillow and Houzz there are some astonishing choices…a lot of them wrong…
Astonishing, right? These people really tried… and some failed… some were confused, and some were just over-the-top joyful in their design. Just saying….it would be good to 3D draw these decisions, and test it on a computer, before committing time and energy and paint to walls.
Also… the architect that designed these dormers…just worked on exterior looks of the house, at the expense of the interior….no one could have said these were “planned” to look this way… This is a lot of malpractice, not an opinion error.
THE GLASS CEILING
Looks good in theory…but in time it is full of leaves, and green scum moss. It needs constant cleaning, and hope it doesn’t leak.
When covered in leaves and green/black moss/mold? it screams deferred maintenance, neglect, and just one more job on the list.
4444 sentinel vw nw