Ceiling Height Dilemma

13 years ago

Hi there,
We're in the process of building a new home and are having a hard time deciding between 9 ft versus 10 ft ceilings on the main floor. We are planning to have coffered ceilings in the dining room, family room and office and would like to know, from a design perspective, if it looks better to transition (for ex.) from a 9 ft hallway to 9ft beams and 10 ft boxed inlays in the family room or transition from a 10 ft hallway to 9ft beams and 10 fit inlays on the ceiling. Appreciate your input!

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PRO

Cynthia Taylor-Luce

13 years ago

World Contracting, your photos are excellent. You've done an outstanding job on all this architectural detail.

I have to say, however, that my heart sank when I saw the light fixture and the drapes that the homeowner must have installed. That ceiling deserves a much larger scale fixture, and the drapes should be on beautiful high-quality rods and consist of beautiful fabric, lined and pleated.

This is a case where the homeowner must have been well-intentioned with having you handle the structure, but they didn't follow through with the high standard in the rest of their decor. It makes me want to do an emergency visit to help them! LOL

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Comments (6)

PRO
Cynthia Taylor-Luce
13 years ago
I like the idea of 9 foot hallways and 10 foot rooms with 9 foot high boxed beams. Then when you come into a room from the hall, you'll be impressed by the step-up in ceiling height as well as the detail of the boxed beams. This sounds like a WONDERFUL house! Lucky you.
Architectrunnerguy
13 years ago
last modified: 13 years ago
Have you thought about stepping up part of the second floor thus allowing you to have 9' ceilings in part of the first floor and higher ceilings in other parts?

Ceiling height change also can be a critical way of defining spaces. Both floors have to be thought of simultaniously however, kinda like riding a bike while juggling so it requires some skill to pull it off.

At the risk of having the plans here be too small, in the attached examples parts of the first floor of each has a 9' ceiling while other parts has a 10'6" ceiling accomplished by stepping up portions of the second floor. I do it normally with 6" risers and I also like to go with 16" or even 18" treads so it really doesn't feel like "steps" it's so gradual.

In the first example the master bedroom and bathroom are stepped up so to allow a 10'6" ceiling in the kitchen and family room at the rear of the house.

In the second example, the two right bedrooms upstairs are stepped up to give us a 10'6" ceiling in the dining room, living room and foyer. This example also shows how a ceiling height change can be used to define space in an open plan. Here it's defining the dining room from the kitchen.
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PRO
World Contracting LLC
13 years ago
We did something similar in an existing home with 9' ceilings and connecting rooms... We built the coffers and once installed gauged the height for the adjacent room off the edge.

for you, i would make it all 10" and have your framer and trimmer collaborate on finished heights or hope that your architect can plan it out!!
Chatham NJ Coffer Ceiling · More Info
PRO
World Contracting LLC
13 years ago
Cynthia,

Your comments are too funny, i shared this page with the owner and she exploded in laughter.

The home is a 1940's craftsman (and a starter home) The light was the only original remaining part of that dining room kept for reasons of cost to replace. The drapes and rods, her sister and her got from Target in a mad dash to finish....

Anyway, she said she loves your advice and would open her door to you any day!
PRO
Cynthia Taylor-Luce
13 years ago
Oh gee (she's blushing furiously)...

I saw this on my Blackberry when I was out today, and I started to cringe when I read your response "she exploded in..." and I thought you'd say "anger" but you said "laughter"! Whew! What a relief. So glad she has a sense of humour.

I try to always be positive on here, but in this case I thought I was safe making an observation because I didn't dream the owner would ever see my comment. That's a good lesson for me! LOL

Feel free to give her my contact info. I do online consulting as well as my regular business here on the outskirts of Toronto. I would be happy to have a crack at this one!

Thanks for your comment...

Cynthia
ctaylorluce@cogeco.ca
www.ctaylor-luce.com
My phone number is on my website.