To dress up a room from the top down, consider embellishing your ceiling with any of these:
- Wallpaper. If it’s heavily embossed, it can add an Old World look and feel to your room. Grasscloth and silk are becoming popular for ceiling coverings. Just be aware of how hard it will be to get that wallpaper off of the ceiling should you want to later.
- Tin tiles. You can get them in real metal or faux, made from recycled paper with an adhesive backing. Choose a tongue-and-groove model that’s easy to install. Get the latest look with copper-colored panels.
- Faux beams. They’re made from polyurethane, but they look remarkably like wood because you never see them close-up. Plus, lightweight faux wood is about one-third the price of real lumber and is easily screwed onto the ceiling without any reinforcements. A tip: Don’t put beams on an eight-foot ceiling. They will make the room feel too small.
- Texture. Just because you got rid of your popcorn ceiling doesn’t mean you won’t like other kinds of textures. At my house, I added silica sand to drywall mud and applied it to the walls and ceiling with a plastering trowel. It looks like old adobe plaster.
- Medallions. Reserve these for the dining room ceiling, and hang your chandelier from the middle so it looks framed. You can create your own by using molding and wood trim to make an oval or rectangle on the ceiling. Paint the inside a shade lighter or darker than the rest of the ceiling.
- Borders. You can have someone paint treetops or scrolls that look like ironwork around the edges of the ceiling. Or just paint a 12-inch border around the edges with the color of your walls, and the leave the rest of the ceiling white or a lighter shade of the wall color.
- Glazes. You can create “clouds” on a bedroom ceiling with pale blue glazes over white paint. Throw in some colors of the sunset, pink, peach and subtle gold.
- Crown molding. Adorn the tops of your walls and the edges of the ceiling with ornate trim. It creates a formal look, so it’s suited for a dining room. If you like contemporary designs, don’t do molding; stick with paint.
- Light fixtures. Recessed cans, hanging pendants and simple chandeliers dress up a ceiling and the whole room.
- Acoustical tiles. They don’t add much ambience, but acoustical ceiling tiles can help soundproof a home theater, bedroom or office to help keep the space quiet.
- Skylights. Windows in the ceiling let more light in and brighten up a space. Add motorized, retractable shades so you can keep the sun out during the hottest part of the day without having to climb up to the ceiling.
