thanks newenglandbuilder.. Have you ever actually done this? What about added/taking away value from the house? What do you think buyers would prefer?

A cathedral for a bedroom? Depends on where you are located? Would I change a Cathedral in an existing bedroom for energy efficiency & lowering bills? It depends on how high it is to begin with...I have seen some 30 ft high. How high is yours? Will it esthetically change the house? I have seen some Log Homes designed with a Cathedral in mind but they generally are well insulated homes.

Still looking for those who have changed a ceiling from high to low - are you happy with the results?

Just bumping this up. Hope someone has actually changed their existing cathedral to a tray or somehow lowered their ceiling.

I know this is old but did you end up going for this? I have cathedral ceilings in my open concept living room and hate it. We've discussed doing 10' flat ceilings and putting in crown molding. It would make it feel more "people sized". I've only seen people have a negative response to this because cathedral ceilings are so beautiful but they aren't living with it, the echo, the heating/cooling, etc.

10’ ceilings are still really high. Look at the pictures in Sarah Susanna’s book “Home by Design”. You will find many examples of how to make high ceilings “people sized”.

Thanks BobH. I've actually read that book. It's not super possible to do a lot of her suggestions with the way my house is laid out. I wish it were. I'm after a cozy feeling for my living room instead of the exposed feeling it currently has. The only thing that is possible for our layout is to paint the ceiling dark but I'm too scared to do that because of all the trouble and expense if I don't end up liking it.

Hi! Miss courtnie- did you end up changing to a tray? I’m thinking of changing a cathedral to a tray.

Actually, we moved. Our new house has 8ft ceilings (yay! probably not the common sentiment but it's so much more comfortable than our last house). We do have a living room with an 11ft cathedral ceiling but the house was built in 1976 house so it was complete with beams and wood paneling (that we removed) but it closed off from the rest of the house (also love). The living room doesn't feel as cavernous as the cathedral ceiling in my last house. It would have been crazy expensive to change to a tray in our last house but it needed something since it was open concept and was lacking coziness. Before we moved we did a lot of stuff that helped with the feel of the room. Adding lamps and a variety of lighting at different levels and warm colors and textures made a big difference. It didn't fix it but it was better. I think it would have been cheaper to add some faux beams and/or tongue and groove than to create a tray and might have helped more. To simulate painting the ceiling dark, we taped garbage bags to the ceiling (weird way to test painting but it worked). It was terrible in a dark color. It makes me wonder if the lower ceiling would have achieved what I was hoping for. I don't mind the beams in this house. I would go for that before you do something expensive like a tray. Maybe tape some cardboard to the ceiling and simulate it. Good luck!

We went from an 8’-11’ cathedral to a flat 10’ ceiling in our family room. It was easier/cheaper to do than extending the cathedral into the kitchen ( we opened up and connected family and kitchen).