Last year we started seeing the trend of painting the ceiling appear (apologies if you are way ahead of the game and painted it years ago. You trend setter you!) and I wasn’t sure if it was something I could get on board with. What colour to paint it to begin with? Did you just extend the wall paint, wasn’t that too much? Who wants the added stress of painting the fifth “wall” when you’ve already got enough on your plate with the existing four!
Interior designers will always include the ceiling in their plans, it is very important to a room’s scheme and no surface goes untouched. So, how to choose what design will work best? There are so many exciting options now when it comes to decorating! We can say goodbye to the artexed days of old and hooray to seeing more decorative and inspiring things happening above our heads.
I wrote a blog post about the Interior Trends for 2020 and was surprised to not see decorated ceilings on the list so I thought I’d write my own blog post on it.
The Wallpapered Ceiling
The ceiling is an endless space of design opportunities when thinking about wallpapering, anything goes! You can keep your room plain white with soft hues and then add a bold print. Or you could paint your room dark colours and extend it onto the ceiling with a dark floral wallpaper which will add texture and pattern and create a feature within the room.
If you want a calmer feel to a room, perhaps a bedroom, whimsical scenes like floating clouds or nature inspired landscapes are perfect. Forget counting sheep, your wallpaper could soothe you into slumber.
Putting up wallpaper is not for the faint hearted though! If you feel confident, go for it, but I would suggest using removable wallpaper if possible. It’s not only easier to install, you won’t have the dreaded wallpaper paste dripping on your head! Plus, you can also pull it down easily if you decide it’s too much!
I’ve actually started to enjoy putting up wallpaper, but I would definitely hire a professional to do it, who would probably curse me the minute I explained what I wanted to do!
Painted ceiling
I have a feeling, most people will not fancy dangling from a step ladder arguing with the wallpaper paste bucket, so will go for the easier(ish) option of painting the ceiling. This is a fantastic way of creating a big impact in a room and experimenting with colour.
If you want to be bold with paint in a room, but feel that a bright paint on all four walls may be too much, painting the ceiling instead can really add that wow factor without it being too overwhelming.
If you have a neutral toned room, add some bright art and soft furnishings and pick a colour from these items to colour match the ceiling. Create a contrast by painting the four walls a block colour which finishes a metre below the ceiling and then add a different colour to the last metre and ceiling. If you are lucky enough to live in an old Victorian house with a picture rail, you can use this to create a perfect two-tone room.
I think dark, inky tones create a wonderfully intimate space in a room and are perfect for rooms that have lots of natural light. You can even decide to paint the ceiling when wallpapering a room. Pick the wallpaper first and then choose a colour from the pattern to paint the ceiling, pulling the room together beautifully.
Flat on a Hot Tin Roof
Using tin tiles add wonderful texture to a ceiling and can come in many colours. Metallic hues, calming whites and creams and even a bit of rust here and there can create a beautiful patina on your ceiling, which will also allow light to bounce around your room and create wonderful reflections.
If you are going to use such a bold statement as tin tiles on the ceiling, it is best to keep the rest of the room quite neutral so that your eyes are automatically drawn up.
Wood and timber
A bit like the old open beams in cottages, wood and timber is a timeless way to add character to your fifth wall. If you are blessed with high ceilings, a timber ceiling can provide an amazing contrast to a room, especially if you keep the décor pared back and use natural materials like stone and concrete.
If you really want to make your ceiling a feature of a room, but don’t fancy painting, wallpapering or cladding, leave the ceiling joints exposed which can add texture, height and a rich character to any room.
DIY ceiling
If you’ve read all of the above and thought, “Pah, my ceiling deserves better”, why not try and be experimental and create a ceiling to end all ceilings! Over the last few years we have seen creative decorators come up with new and inspiring ways to decorate their walls, including using frog tape to create geometric prints in their homes, block painting and ombre effect. Why not try this on the ceiling? It would create a wonderful contrast to neutral tones and make you instantly look up!
Either choose your lighting first and come up with a pattern to compliment it, or let your creative juices flow and create a room around it. But, to be fair, if you are indeed a creative talent that can pull something like this off, the last thing you’ll be doing is coming to me for advice! Don’t try this at home kids. Haha.
So, what do you think? Are you going to take your decorating to the next level and introduce some colour and pattern to your ceiling? There’s a few on my hit list in our house at the moment, so watch this space.
Mel x
