Interior Decorating Ideas to Raise Ceilings, How to Increase Height with Decor

Decluttering is an excellent tool for visually raising the ceiling. The more items you have in a room, the more boxed it feels. Small spaces can be tough to keep organized and tidy, but creative storage solutions help maintain a neat appearance in a small room. A decluttered and organized room appears larger, and the ceiling feels higher.

There are other ways to visually increase the room’s height. Lushome staging tips can help to stretch your small room dimensions, raise the ceiling, and balance the room’s design. Creating vertical lines can do wonders, and you can find inexpensive and practical room decorating ideas to achieve a more spacious, bright, and appealing look.

Interior design ideas to visually raise ceilings in small spaces

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exposed ceiling beams bedroom design — Spacious bedroom design with large glass doors and exposed ceiling beams

Color design and painting ideas

Light-colored paints are suitable for all interiors. White paint colors are known for their lightening and lifting qualities. Generally, if you opt for wall colors that are darker than the ceiling paint color, your interior design will appear to stretch vertically.

white paint minimalist decor — Decluttered, minimalist interior design, low furniture, open ceiling beams, and white painting ideas

Gloss and semi-gloss ceiling paints are excellent options for reflecting light and balancing the room’s dimensions. A matte finish paint is a better choice for the opposite effect. Additionally, allowing the ceiling to extend a few extra inches beyond the wall can balance the geometry and psychologically increase the perceived ceiling height.

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Vertical or diagonal elements in room design

It is incredible how vertical or diagonal stripes help to elongate the form and balance a room’s dimensions. Painted vertical stripes or diagonal lines on the wall, vertical wallpaper patterns, tall furnishings, vertically placed mirrors, and even vertical artwork arrangements can lift the ceiling and take the room to the next level of appeal. Grouping small picture frames or decorative artworks in vertical arrangements elongates the wall and visually increases small spaces. Strategic shelf decoration, keeping the vertical lines in mind, is also helpful.

red paint color door decoration — Adding vertical elements by painting a door a bright red color and building vertical storage with oversized doors

Low and tall furnishings

Low furniture creates more space to the ceiling, while tall furnishings lift the ceiling. Both methods increase the room height. Hanging window curtains close to the ceiling stretches a room vertically, because it tricks the mind into thinking the window is taller than it is, thereby increasing the perceived wall height.

low furniture small room — Low furniture pieces in a small room

For example, replacing some furniture with low, horizontal pieces maximizes the room’s apparent height. Additionally, it creates a wider window view and increases the amount of natural light, resulting in a more spacious look. Tall, narrow bookshelves or built-in shelving that runs close to the ceiling is another way to trick the eye into looking up. Creating a vertical line of books and accessories on the shelves increases the visual effect.

tall shelving unit — White decorating, tall shelving

Light

If you can compromise on privacy, remove your window treatments to let in as much natural light as possible. Light gives the room a more spacious look.

Vertical mirrors and decor accessories

Adding mirrors or other reflective items to a room’s decoration increases the amount of reflected light and visually expands the space. You can hang decorative mirrors or lean them against the wall to create the illusion of a bigger room. Using tall decor accessories helps a lot. You can draw the eye upward with tall, floor vases filled with dry or blossoming branches, hang a long tapestry, or decorate a room corner with a cascading or tall indoor plant.

vertical elements bedroom decorating — Elegant tapestry, small bedroom decorating ideas to raise the ceiling

Useful distractions

Distraction also works to draw attention away from a low ceiling. Ceiling decorations and narrow moldings draw attention, distracting from the perception of a low ceiling. On the contrary, adding a bold, patterned area rug and keeping room furniture and accessories simple, or decorating an open coffee table shelf, also helps create a more spacious look and visually raise the ceiling.