What’s happening on your ceiling, a whole lot of nothing? Do not worry you are not alone. It is the most forgotten and least designed space in the home. We call it the forgotten 6th plane. A room usually has six sides; four walls, a floor and a ceiling. We concentrate on the flooring materials and floor covering and what happens on every wall but other than paint and lighting the ceiling is often left naked.
Well there are many ways to liven up your ceilings. Certainly trimming them with crown molding around the edge helps, if that matches our style, but what about wallpaper, a painted effect, a dramatic color, fabric on the ceiling, wood beams, planks or coffers on the ceiling, or decorative plaster work? These are just some of the treatments we use to help make the ceiling an integral part of the room so that it to feels fully designed and integrated with the rest of the space.
Throughout history and certainly in Europe since the Renaissance the ceilings were very well thought out and often replicated the design on the floor, as a mirroring effect. For instance an oval design on the floor would be reflected as an oval on the ceiling. Visit old castles and palaces in Italy, France, England and other European countries that we look to for design inspiration and you will see great attention paid to ceilings from the 16th to 19th century. These grand ceilings were not for the masses but were at home in the realm of the royals and clergy.
In America, the new country, architects like Robert Adam certainly influenced the ceiling and we are lucky to have one of his ceilings from Lansdowne House, London in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but for the most part our ceilings in America were not as grand as those in Europe for many reasons including funding, changing styles, and availability of cheap artisanal labor. Speaking of Philadelphia ceilings, once of our favorites is in 30th Street Station. It is very elegant and rich yet at the same time chaste and restrained.
We challenge you to look up and check out the ceilings of your favorite spaces. Notice what is or is not going on and also tell us about your favorites.
