We aren't a huge fan of painting the ceilings and would choose white over a color however... We did wood panels in our home.

I have one painted ceiling and beginning color choices for another. My half bath has a dark purple ceiling. The color comes down 2/3 of the walls to the molding and adds drama to what would have felt like an unfinished room.

My upstairs hallway has no natural light and the light at the far end so I'm looking to add a metallic wallpaper or glittered paint to it.

I almost always paint a color on the ceiling which coordinates with the walls regardless of the height of the ceiling. The ceiling is the 5th wall and should never be ignored. The paint color on the ceiling brings the entire room together and makes for a more harmonious feeling in the room.

As long as you have high enough ceilings, then do whatever pleases you, painted or not. But low ceilings are always better in white or in a very light color.
It mostly depends on the height I guess, not just the matching color, taste or style.

Depending on the room, painted ceilings can be a wonderful addition!

If the paint on the ceiling is offset with the moldings, then yes but, a plain ceiling painted with the wall colour, no.

Yes I do like putting colour on the ceiling! It needs to be done correctly but can really draw the eye up in the case of interesting ceiling features. I also love to add colour to a bathroom or small room ceiling...as the 5th wall it just adds interest!

If painted ceilings are a trend, I must be a trend setter, I have had a pale blue ceiling in my bedroom for 20 years.

Perhaps bluenan, you are a visionary ;) I love painted ceilings!~

Lol!

What a pretty combination!

It depends on the other colors and the light in the room. If there is enough light colored ceilings can be awesome, but when the room is dark and furniture is dark the white ceiling can help to fix it.

We do colored ceiling on a regular basis. Please take a look at our Glace project.

MS - that Glace finish is very cool!

Thank you, it is one our trademark finishes.

Your ceiling should always be viewed as a fifth wall! The opportunity to add a 'pop' of color or wallpaper should never be avoided—just make sure the ceiling color is not the same color as the wall if you are painting. . .

Would it look right to paint the ceiling the same color as an accent wall.

There s no question in my mind... ceilings should ALWAYS have some color regardless of height. There is nothing more boring or "forgotten" than a plain white ceiling...UGH!! I just painted my best friends living & dining room ceilings in Bennie Moore's DaVinci Gold which I have been trying to convince her of for years. She finally gave in & was awe-struck at how much she loved them!!... "wish I had listened to you years ago" was her reply..." it makes such a difference". Her walls were done in an off-white color so the ceiling is dramatic. Like I always say. "it's only paint"..... it's not like a construction job that would be an ordeal to rip apart if you don't like it. By the way, her ceilings are only 8 feet and this is not a light color. Contrary to what folks say about it closing things in is just not true. I have 10 foot ceilings and did my kitchen in white pickled beadboard. After a couple years I couldn't handle the "white" any more. I'd seen a house done in Atlanta in hi-gloss green... beautiful organic color. So I changed my ceiling again. ( I paint for a living).. The darker color "lifted" my ceiling; it did NOT close the room in at all. And recessed lights look great in a ceiling of color. I absolutely love the drama of a painted ceiling, even if walls remain white. Decorators seem to lead us down this path of "neutral".... Every clients house I go in they want neutral walls, neutral ceilings, neutral furniture & draperies. I am so grateful our heavenly Father wasn't "neutral" in His choices for us! I love the beauty that He created for us so much I want to bring as much of that feeling indoors as possible! Off the top of my head I can't picture any room that "needs" to have a stark white ceiling. Every room in my home has a painted ceiling & everyone that comes in "ooohs & aahs" over them.... and mind you I don't live in a "gated community" or anything of the sort, but they all say my house should be in a magazine. Most of my friends are in the decorating business in one way or another & are amazed how I have turned this home into a "Decorators Delight" while defying all the "Decorating rules.

Our retirement home is small, and the rooms here are extremely tiny. When we moved in, our bedroom walls were dark green, and the attached master bath (that you can barely turn around in) had both brown walls and a brown ceiling. I painted all of the walls a brilliant white, then painted the ceilings in both rooms a sky blue. It was a great way to make small rooms feel larger, but still give them color.

The guest bathroom is even tinier. It has white tiles from floor to ceiling, so I was struggling to find a way to put color in there. I painted the ceiling and raised panels on the back of the door and medicine cabinet a very pale, mint green. I added a few other touches of pale green where I could in there.

I love painted ceilings. I considered painting the living room's, but it's a bit on the vaulted side, and I really don't relish the thought of climbing on a ladder to change it as I get older. I'm hoping I'm done with ladders for quite some time.

I don't have color on my ceiling, however it's textured white with exposed wood beams. I'd love to have a ceiling with a sky on it in my bedroom (as pictured by a poster here).

I recently turned a bedroom into a "sitting room" with white walls, white furniture and navy accent pieces, and I painted the ceiling a pale shade of blue. It's absolutely beautiful and adds just the right amount of interest to the room.

Suggestions for an accent wall in the living room. My ceiling is olive green. My dining room is cranberry and kitchen is mustard. My space is an open floor plan.

years ago I had a very small bedroom with a very high ceiling and to bring the ceiling down and make the room seem larger I painted the walls white and the ceiling navy blue. It worked beautifully.

karinkress - why not post some pictures?

I have done several colored ceilings in our house. The kitchen had orange colored knotty pine paneling we were stuck with for several years. We painted the ceiling Kelly green. The den is a dark turquoise with a light turquoise ceiling. The office is medium blue with a light blue ceiling and the family room is a very light green with a dark green ceiling. Everyone of them is beautiful and sets off the rest of the room.

I have always painted my ceilings, some times the same color as the wall or sometimes I mix white with the wall color.

doctornancy-I guess the green ceiling did not prevent you from noticing the swirled rug! LOL ( I noticed it too). Anyway, what I would say when leaving that room is "wow,what a gorgeous coffered ceiling!

I love a painted ceiling especially with crown or other mill work. On a ceiling without mill work I like to use about 5 or 10 % of the wall color. Then it has the same tone as the walls but is not so stark as white. If there is crown, it shows it off just enough without being over whelming.

When we remodeled our 50s CA contemporary home, I wanted a soft blue ceiling in the sun room. In the next phase, we used the same blue ceiling paint in the master bedroom & master bath... we still love it! When other rooms need ceilings painted again, we'll do the same. Thanks for asking.

lake - I used to be a designer, so I usually notice almost everything in a room, even in rooms with vibrant green ceilings! BUT I think the typical person only remembers or notices a few things. I like your 5 - 10% practice, but my clients usually wouldn't go for colored ceilings.

We love our blue ceiling in our bedroom! We took it one step further - we painted stars in invisible paint on the ceiling (and a crescent moon) - they glow in the dark at night! WE LOVE IT! OK, so it's childish, maybe...but at least they're not plastic stars stuck up there with double sided tape!

One of our projects for this next year is to paint our porch ceilings blue as well.

Nancy-that's too bad for them because the ceiling can still appear white but gives so much more definition and it is only paint-easy and inexpensive enough to change. But, as they say, to each his own. That is what makes the world go around!

I really do think it depends on the color and style, and individual tastes. It's one of the most wonderful things about decorating; there are as many styles as there are individuals!

For me, I liked to day dream as a child, (now I call it meditation,) just to lay back and stare at the ceiling and... drift. I feel that if it was a shock of color that it would become visual pollution and all I would end up thinking about is the color. So I think subtlety and a more natural color would work best for me. And honestly, I don't see anything wrong with white walls, but that might get me in trouble...

We have very high tray ceilings in our dining room. It was our decorator who recommended we paint the ceiling the same color as our wall below the chair rail. It came out spectacular!

Virginia-there is nothing wrong with white walls-as ling as they are in your house LOL!!

Of course not every ceiling out there warrants a paint color other than white. The possibilities however for the remaining ones (ceilings) afford an additional dimension of design almost equal to how we treat our floors in my opinion.
Here are before & after shots of one of my more dramatic favorites where we used a Benjamin Moore metallic glaze on the ceiling.

We have a two-storied galleried library with a coffered ceiling. The coffers are stained a rich brown to match the bookcases and the ceiling itself is painted soft aqua. We have a Persian rug in creams, aqua and brown (hunt scenes) and cream-colored sofas. It's one of the highlights of our house. Wish it was possible to post a picture, but I can't get it all in one frame!

In several decades of interior painting for my own rooms and homes, I've never had a white ceiling. White ceilings are so boring. I've sometimes used the wall colour on the ceiling, sometimes lighter, sometimes darker, depending on the feel I'm going for. I've also used contrasting colours for visual punch. I've never understood why folks ignore their ceilings and stick with white only up there.

Painting ceilings is just one option for a different look. We gold leaf ceilings and also use venetian plaster on ceiling. You my want to look at our guiding project and our plaster project

I paint mine

This is our latest glass like ceiling in burnt orange.

I love painted ceilings! Usually people just treat the ceiling like an after thought. They don't realize how much it can transform the entire room!

I painted our ceilings a lighter version of the wall color and the crown molding is a soft white. I'm happy with it. That being said, lighting seems to make or break it.

Absolutely! It really is the 5th wall as far as I'm concerned :)

I had color on ceilings but it felt claustrophobic.

Other than my porch ceiling and kids' bath in my old home I've never painted a ceiling. When we moved last year our new home has tray ceilings. Painting them, a very soft pale blue, really accentuated the molding we spent money on. Why have it if it fades into the ceiling? Pleased with the results we painted the ceilings at our beach condo, lemon chiffon. Very nice way to not only accent the molding but add brightness to a condo that only has two natural light exposures.

To give life to a room without overdoing it...see for yourself:

I got creative with my kids' bedrooms when we bought our house 3 years ago. We still need to replace the light fixtures. Daughter loves pink and I didn't want her room to be too pink. My son loves video games like Mario and Minecraft so I painted clouds on the ceiling and stuck some glow in the dark stars. I took these photos while we were in the process of adding the crown moulding.

Perfect!

MS Colours Inc how do you achieve the glass like ceiling technique? Would very much like to do this in my living room.