How good lighting can help you make the most of your ceiling

When designing or remodelling your home, floors and walls often take priority, while ceilings remain an afterthought. This is a shame, because attractive ceilings make powerful aesthetic statements, and provide backdrops that elevate any interior concept.

At Milan Design Week this year, brightly coloured and patterned ceilings were on trend.

“Bold colours are hot at the moment, and so are contemporary gypsum or wooden mouldings. We are also seeing a revival in fabric designs depicting hand-painted landscapes, elegant chinoiserie or toile de Jouy designs. These wallpapers look unique and are easy to apply to ceilings,” says Jen McCombie, head of marketing at designer furniture brand Indigo Living.

According to Dan Lee, co-founder of furniture and interior design brand Ovo Group, adding coving with concealed LED lights or uplit cornices with organic, layered forms – such as those made popular by the interior projects of the late architect Zaha Hadid – is a smart way to make a grand gesture.

“Statement ceilings can enhance the spatial hierarchy of a room, and make it feel more voluminous and sophisticated,” says Lee. “Leaving wood or metal ceiling beams exposed is another way to create eye-catching ceilings,” adds Crystel See, retail operation manager at furniture brand Organic Modernism.

Homes with high ceilings can be elegant and luxurious, but because a good amount of wall space often remains unused past the eight-feet mark, it can sometimes feel cold, and unconnected to the floor area, so it’s important to keep warmth and cosiness in mind.

To better connect the lower and upper sections of such spaces, See suggests decorating one or two walls all the way up to the ceiling with paintings or ornaments. “Take advantage of this large blank canvas by adding colour, texture and design details in the upper part of the room. This will draw eyes upwards to appreciate the loftiness of the space,” she says. Tall shelving solutions, fabric wall hangings, decorative masks, baskets, fans, or faux antler heads are some items you can use to enliven dead ceiling space.