Personally I always prefer White ceiling.

I paint ceilings white in most rooms because the ceiling is such a chore to paint, especially once your furniture is moved in. If there is an incident and you need to touch up, ceiling white will match when the color that has been sitting in its tin for five years may not. For the DIY crowd, using a pale pastel for the first coat, between white primer and white topcoat prevents missed spots that can only be seen at certain time and weather conditions.

Gosh, I think it really depends on Color and Ceiling height. I just painted my living room a Grey/Green/Moss color, a bit dark.......it has a bulkhead around the room, I painted the trim at the top of the Bulkhead the same color as the walls, so just the ceiling is white, looks nice.
I am painting my Master Bedroom a Ben Moore, nice Linen Beige and the ceiling a very dark Rich Brown, it also has a Bulkhead. The Dark Brown is used in the Dining room and Kitchen combo.
The master bath will get the same linen color in egg shell including the ceiling. We have a Media Room that is going to be painted the same Moss color as the living room including the ceiling, that room has a double door closet. I am converting it into a day bed, with storage under the bed/sofa. The closet that is being turned into a day bed nook will be painted 2 shades darker in egg shell, the key here is extra seating, a single bed for guest, storage and I am putting 2 sconces on the wall in there and on one end there is enough room to have a built in side table.........this was a small bedroom. The guest bath same one color, moss or linen, then I can trick it up with any color I like. I think a crisp white with a Fabulous Black mirror. The floor tiles are a natural light brown, with white tiles around the tub and the vanity is a nice beige. I know it sounds like a lot of beige, but there are only thousands of colors that fall in that range.
So step out of the box try at least one room and paint the ceiling something besides white......even if it has little natural light, I think you will be happy with the result, it will give the room more of a designer look. Remember your lighting fixtures are key and that is where a lot of money is spent. Restoration Hardware and West Elm are two really good places to look, as well as the lighting here on Houzz.
Our guest Bedroom is being painted the same linen color as the Master BR. in Ben Moore flat, Walls, Ceiling, and trim in an egg shell. It is a small room. The accent color is Red. I will post the entire house later in the year. I am only using three main colors in the house but in different way's, it is a small house, just 1,400 sq. ft. I took the Houzz front door quiz, it responded back with Black, for the front Door.......Just a personal thing, I don't like Black Front Doors, if the front of the house faces West, it will get very hot in the Summer. Too many other great colors to choose from.

The Craftsman Style house is beige with and a soft white trim and some distressed brick. I am thinking about a soft lemon/butter color for the front door and although not really proper for Craftsman, I am thinking about putting dark brown, three slat shutters on each side of the windows for interest. It has a rather large front porch and I am in the South, so two white rockers and there is room for a porch swing as well. Mayberry would be proud!

I voted for colour ceilings. I just love them for a moody look. But all my ceilings are plain white and due to my low ceiling height, i'm unlikely to change them.

I like colored, although I did the kitchen white. My tiny powder room, with a low ceiling, I painted the same color as the walls and love it. A white ceiling would still have been a low ceiling.

A room with dormers or slanted walls to the ceiling (w/no moulding) always looks better when everything is painted the same color- walls, dormers, and ceiling. Creates flow and because there are no stops and starts, room actually feels bigger. I see many rooms where the color stops to make room for a white ceiling and it just looks wrong.

Can't believe all the comments. We just went through that and painted the walls a med Taupe and used the lighter color of taupe on the chip chart for the ceiling and painted the shafts of the skylights bright white per my Arch adviser. What a debate as my wife wanted white white white ... The darker walls pop the art and the bright white skylights flood the room with - white light.

I've gone both ways in our new house ( actually had a separate post on this dilemma because of wall to ceiling oddities), using white ceilings in the downstairs and colored ceilings in most of the rooms upstairs. Although I love the crisp look of white trim with colored walls, the rooms upstairs are very cozy.

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white roof is a traditional one, it looks specious but colored roof ,if done correctly gives a very warm & cosy feeling, furniture arrangements should b below door level,colour matching of acessories to b considered aiso

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Sguest35 and Jeannie Nugyen' ceilings in color are done beautifully. Personally I am a color-on- the-ceilings fanatic but my husband prefers white. We compromised by using Mannequin Cream by, I think, Benjamen Moore. Both ceilings and woodwork were this color in flat and semigloss respectively. The rest of the house is done in golds, reds and blues and is incredible. It looks so...well...decadent. All furnishing are in these color families and can be mixed and matched all over the house. Same with outdoor furniture cushions. The house blends from the front door to the back yard. LUV IT!!

We are painting our bedroom dark blue and the ceiling is getting painted because I hate white ceilings all the time.

I like color -- I did this in the great room, dining room and bedroom.

Now, this is how a painted ceiling is done. Rich mouldings...awesome.

We are fortunate enough to have a getaway house on the island of Tobago in the Caribbean. The original wall colours were not flattering and in the afternoon sun they made the house seem hotter than it truly was. We repainted the walls in pale tints of grey - this is potentially boring but the revelation came from painting the ceilings throughout the same shade of watery blue. The colour washes from the ceiling on to the walls, intensifying or subtly altering the mood of the rooms - as well as the colours themselves. The effect is gratifying and we love the results. Be careful, nonetheless, a mismatch has the potential to be garish.

most people have white ceilings for the same reason they have white walls....simple. however, when you are doing some lovely paint colors on the walls, don't neglect the ceilings. make them either the same color as the walls or something that is in the same color family, a stark contrast, or whatever makes you feel you made a conscious choice.

Here's another entry for the white vs. color ceiling debate. In this case, the bold ceiling color choice sorta "makes" this space, doesn't it?

It really depends on the rest of the design, furniture a etc. but as a default, I always go white on the ceiling.

Love some color on the ceiling. Also love the decorative painting around the fan in picture on the right. Can you do that decorative treatment on a lightly textured ceiling, or does it need to be done on a completely smooth ceiling ?

madgone. yes, you can paint a design on a textured ceiling. It will just not have very clean and solid paint and edges, but that just adds more texture and interest.

Color for sure! I have white trim, and it makes the trim stand out so well. I also have black trim in a room, and the very light grey ceiling also works there. That being said, I may paint the ceiling white if I ever chose white for the walls.

Keeping ceilings light helps reflect light back down. If you have 8' ceilings and use a darker color, it will be more dramatic, but you may end up feeling like you are living in a cave. madgone> Stenciling on a textured ceiling, will not give the same results as on a smooth surface....you might be better off lightly penciling in the design and use a very small brush to paint it.

Oh, paint it all the way if you can! The only reason I'd not paint a ceiling is I'm being lazy, and my partner hates painting! We had to do it when drywalling the whole bathroom, plus we wanted washable, anti-mold paint on the ceiling. We have the same pearl gray as the trimmings, it's very nice, and it's just a little glossy so the light reflects in the room.

If you make an effort to come up with a nice palette for a room and paint over white walls, and you wouldn't leave one wall white, why doing so with the ceiling? Like everybody says, if you don't want to darken the ceiling, choose a lighter shade. When we got our house, there was so much to do, we hurried to paint our bedroom so the new bedroom furniture can be put into place by the delivery guys, and we skipped the ceiling. Every morning, I wake up to an old, boring white ceiling, while I had colored ceilings in my bedroom in the 3 last homes I had. I hate it, and it does not complement at all the nice light fixture we chose... However, I kind of regret the wall colors, so if I decide to paint it some day, I'm doing the whole room all over again. If one ceiling deserves it, it's the bedroom, because you actually look directly at it every day.

The only ceiling that truly bothers me, is the corridor-livingroom-diningroom-kitchen one-piece ceiling. It's hard to choose the right shade that will harmonize all those rooms! But with other renovation priorities and a baby on the way, I doubt I can tackle this for years to come...

We have wood beam ceilings, so neither really

The simplest way to tone down the white ceiling paint; pending on the color of the walls I always add a little bit of wall paint to my ceiling paint - it softens the white and the hue will always match your walls. I mix my own colors but I also use this practice in store bought paints.

We painted our master bedroom ceiling a darker brown, lighter brown, white trim. The picture lighting isn't great but it looks wonderful at night as the chandelier creates a beautiful design on the dark ceiling.

Nice choices karolinepc!

Yes, definitely color on the ceiling from now on...starting with my beroom :)

Colored ceilings are fun!!!!!!!

White ceilings are boring!

Is it ok to have my dining room and two hallways ceilings painted a lighter version of my walls that are in same space BUT keep the living room, kitchen and bedrooms the existing white?

I'd love to paint dining room and hallways ceilings a different color but wonder if it would look odd as you can see the living room and kitchen from the hallways and they will be different ceiling colors??

I sure need advice on this. My painter may get impatient with me :)

Thanks

Here are some non-white ceilings that we've done:

Laqfoil -- nice!

I used my ceiling to tie the color pallet in my home together. Taupe walls in the living room, gym, hallways and all ceilings. Kitchen and 1 wall in family room deep burgundy, 2 walls in family room a deeper shade of the main Taupe, bedrooms and baths blue green.

I always think about the next time and a painted color ceiling isn't a good fit. Over time I don't like the look of paint build up on a ceiling. It reminds me of old dorms in college. I like to be able to paint the walls without painting the ceiling. I go with white or a neutral color.

It totally depends on the room and ceiling needs, but I do have different ceiling treatments in my home... Here's a post featuring some creative treatments I've done: Ceiling Treatments: the 5th Wall

I painted all my walls and ceiling with the same paint in flat. I love the look. The only exception is in the living room which have beautiful wood cathedral ceilings and one wood wall which I left as is. My home is surrounded by old growth trees which makes the living room rather dark at certain times of day (even though I installed two large skylights). I know if I painted the wall and ceiling a light color it would make a huge difference but I just can't bring myself to cover that wood.

It depends. If the room gets plenty of sunlight and the ceiling is not too low, then colored would look great. If the room is on the darker side, then i think warm white (or slightly tinted in the same color as the wall) would be best to make the room brighter. toomrobrightrobrighter.

We adore ceilings that match wall color but there are variables. In NM we had a modern adobe blended with rustic elements. Pale red cay walls and ceilings created a warm, rich womb-like effect in an open high-ceilinged home. Our VT farmhouse, where we live now, has Benjamin Moore seashell walls and ceilings - again, high ceilings, some cathedral. It is positively etherial. Very open and flows so nicely.

A colored ceiling is a nice change from the norm.

Here's mine.

wbarker111, please share your colors used. thx

All white ceilings horrify me. It makes me feel I'm either in the hospital or I'm stuck in a rental that I'm not allowed to paint. Give me color every time! :)

We just finished an ADU (additional dwelling unit) in which we painted the ceilings black with a wainscott in a correlating color and it looks great.

We painted all our ceilings the same color as the walls; however, the ceiling looks darker

White or color? Does it matter?

I think that adding a pop of color on the ceiling can really make a statement, but be sure not to overwhelm the aesthetic in your room with too bold of a color..Perhaps a natural but dark tone that doesn't take away from other furniture tones