Ours is cathedral, modeled after my in laws living room. I think our dimensions are 19x19, 9 ft ceiling with cathedral goes up to 15ft or so maybe? I'd have to look up our roof pitch. Obviously we are mid build. We are unsure yet if we are adding beams or leaving open. There are some smaller scale cathedral rooms on houzz too but may take more searching. Good luck!

Mamma where are you located again? I ask because of heating/cooling

Ohio. FWIW, we have free gas on our land, so the cost of heating isn't as much of an issue as it would be otherwise.

Ok so then it's just a question of which you like better. Are there any open houses where you can see what different cathedral ceilings look like?

I personally like a "low" cathedral.

One thing that made me want a 2 story great room and would make me lean toward a higher cathedral is that the stone fireplace will be on the short wall because we want a lot of windows on the wall next to it that looks out with the great view. So like the one posted above, the fireplace will be on the short wall to the left and the wall shown above would be lots of windows. Hopefully that makes sense. LOL. Open houses is a good idea.

BTW What did the architect say about the changes?

We haven't built yet but I have several photos of cathedral ceilings because that's what we're planning for our small lake build. I've saved them for different reasons and will try to include a variety. We don't plan a fireplace, but I do have some with a fireplace on the low side.

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Thank you, omelet! Those first 2 are really close to what I'm imagining!

momma-

We have a great/living room with cathedral ceilings that is approximately the same size as you are describing. In our house, the "beams" are actually rods that are structural and connect one side of the roof to the other. Among our friends, those who like modern architecture love this feature...the traditionalists, not so much. Our fireplace is on the low edge of the cathedral ceiling (about 11 feet).

the traditionalists, not so much.

Kudzu, I'm a traditionalist and I love them. Think they're smart looking.

cpartist-

Good to hear one contrarian view! ;-)

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Here are some of my cathedral pins, although I was specifically looking for the fireplace on the high wall so I didn't save many with it on the short wall. I would have put ours in the short wall to get better views and more windows but it just didn't look right with our layout on the exterior. good luck with your project!

have you seen this one?

kudzu - that's awesome! I love that a functional element became decorative. "Form ever follows function."

Oh and I'm typically more traditional... so cp is not the only contrarian. :)

Kudzu, I love them. I don't know if I'm traditional or not. Thirty years in a 1919 bungalow and I'm kind of over that!

Our home is smaller and more modest than the homes here, but thought I'd share anyway.

Daboyd and Joyce - those are both beautiful!!

This is not our new home but the inspiration for our great room ceiling. we will have the beams but not wood ceilings but plaster board. I will try and take a picture of actual build but not sure what it will show at this point.

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The visual appeal of pitched ceilings which follow the underside of the roof structure has a lot to do with the actual pitch. For example, a 12 in 12 pitch is striking and very strong aesthetic. There are several of those pictured. On the other hand a very low pitch, say 4 in 12 is almost embarrassing to look at since it's very low and unappealing, IMO. Thus, the steeper the pitch the better the aesthetic. That comes with a downside, however, since the wider the room the higher the ridge will be, regardless of pitch. The images which are most visually appealing here are those which are only one room wide. Then there is the matter of structure which supports the roof and is exposed. Pictured here is a wide variety, ranging from no exposed structure (the roof rafters are hidden by the gypsum board ceiling), no visible structure but exposed metal collar ties (which keep the roof structure from expanding and sagging), beams, and trusses. Of these, trusses always become visually dominant and tend to lower the visual height of the ceiling, as do exposed roof beams whose finish contrasts with the finish of ceilings and walls. Study well and choose carefully!

Virgil-

Thanks for the clear and interesting assessment.

Thanks all! Joyce and daboyd - I love both of those rooms you posted and they are real close to what we want. I am taking these pics with us when we meet w architect again tomorrow! Daboyds shows an adjacent room with barn doors, which is helpful to see because we are considering having our office located the,same location, also with barn doors!

Virgil, not sure I understand the pitch numbers. Is one of these pics the 4 in 12 you are referring to that is aesthetically unattractive?

Mommabearof5, the pitch numbers are the common way of describing the rise (vertical dimension) to the run (horizontal dimension). Thus a 4 in 12, or a 4/12 roof rises 4 inches for every horizontal 12 inches and a 12 in 12 rises 12 inches for every horizontal 12 inches. It's hard to be sure, but the Romness Residence appears to be about a 4 in 12, and perhaps some others as well, but with the angles from which the photos were taken it is hard to be sure. As your architect will tell you, to have a cathedral ceiling depends on the type of roof structure and the insulation strategy being used for your house. For example, if standard roof trusses are used for roof framing there cannot be a raised ceiling (the bottom chord of the roof trusses are horizontal--unless scissors trusses are used). Everything depends on the width of the room where the raised ceiling is desired and the location of bearing walls or supported beams. Your architect will explain it all! Good luck on your project!

We have an open floor plan, with kitchen, living, dining and office measuring 32'x34'. Our roof pitch is 8/12 and the inside ceiling pitch is 5/12. We're setting trusses this week and I can't wait to see it!!!

We have stained cedar beams, pine trim and wood doors. Open living room:

Master bedroom:

My son and his wife bought a newer house with vaulted ceilings in the living room/kitchen and master bedroom. They can't get the house warm enough for the baby to be comfortable sleeping in her crib. Hot air rises; it doesn't matter if your heating source is free or not. It means cold floors in the winter time.

Another friend has a new log cabin with vaulted ceilings. The heat goes up into the loft and second floor. She freezes in her main living area.

I don't mean to be a Debby Downer, but if one of you "runs cold", run from the vaulted ceilings. I won't have them in my build. Don't get me wrong, I think the aesthetics of them is beautiful!

Another thing I read on here that I want to consider that is supposed to really help with that issue is radiant floor heat. Not sure if that will be do-able, but maybe that would be a good option??

That is my situation... We have cathedral ceilings (picture in my post above) and concrete floors with radiant heat, with some area rugs e and there. We keep the house at 67° in the winter and it's very comfortable. In fact I like to lie on the floor to watch tv or read. It also feels nice on the feet to have the floors heated. The second floor rooms also have cathedral ceilings and there's radiant heat in the standard construction wood/plywood subfloors, which have wall-to-wall carpeting. These rooms are comfortable, too.

Today, I would *only* have a cathedral ceiling if I also had heated floors. We have two cathedral ceilings. The guest bedroom is always cold. The library (with under-floor heat) is one of the most comfortable rooms in the house.

However...I would not want *only* under-floor heat. I would miss the humidified and filtered air provided by the forced air furnace.

We don't have any problems at all feeling cold in our great room which has a cathedral ceiling. We have geothermal heat with both radiant floor in the lower level and forced air on the main level. We have been very happy with how the systems work. We do have a fan in the great room (which we rarely use), and our house is fairly new and insulated extremely well. I guess all those things combined keeps it cozy everywhere. Not an expert here.

We have a vaulted ceiling in our kitchen. Our roof pitch is 12/12, our ceilings are 10 feet tall and the vault is 16.

Joyce:

How many square feet are your lower and main levels? Is the cathedral on your main level? Which rooms are on the main level? What rooms are on the lower level. We are really interested in knowing this for our build. Thank you!

Still_waters, we have a ranch with 2600 on each level. Main level has great room with cathedral ceiling, kitchen, dining, study, master suite, laundry room with my computer area, mud room, and a 12X8 closet/storage off the mud room. Lower level has family and recreation areas, 2 bedrooms plus a large bunk room, 2 full baths, and storage/utility areas.

We don't have any issues being cold in the winter. No heated floors.

@kudzu9

I'm just envisioning the holiday and party decorating options you could have with steel poles. Streamers across them. Banners hanging from hooks. Those snowflakes hanging from clear filament attached to magnets or hooks. The possibilities are endless.

tcufrog-

One year we hung our 15' tall Xmas tree from it...upside down so there would be lots of room underneath and the grandkids couldn't knock it over! Sprayed it with anti-dessicant and then never had to worry about watering it.

Hanging the Christmas tree upside down was traditionally done in Europe for quite some time. http://www.ehow.com/info_8683446_significance-upside-down-christmas-tree.html

tcufrog-

Thanks...we just thought it was an interesting change and practical. I didn't realize we were such traditionalists!

We run the ceiling fan in reverse during the winter and only need to turn is on for really cold nights....like 10 degrees or lower. No issues with it feeling cold.

I've never heard of hanging a Christmas tree upside down. HOW do you do it? I mean, to what is it attached, and how do you get it up there? How do you plug in the lights? Don't ornaments fall off?

Well, you need an attachment point above it. I sprayed the tree with anti-dessicant spray so it wouldn't dry out, drilled a 1/2" hole through the base of the trunk, put a rope through the hole, threw the rope over the support that it would be hanging from, and hoisted it up. Then I put on the lights and ornaments after it was in place. Wish I had a picture to show you, but can't find one right now.