shorelines ◦ interiors by gregory ◦
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"Painted Ceilings"
People seem to have extreme opinions on this subject. I want to make my case for painted ceilings. When you walk into a room with a plain white ceiling, your eyes tend to glance up just for a moment. Why? Because the ceiling was not integrated into the decorating scheme of the room. It looks unfinished. The ceiling has become an unwitting focal point when it should just recede from your view. I think of the unfinished ceiling like an alien, a white square hovering over your room.
Before the Great Depression, ceilings were seen as artistic canvases. Grand Houses of the 18th and 19th centuries would commission artists just for the ceiling, painting scenes of mythology, angels, and cherubs. Victorian houses included plaster work and rosettes that were meant to be painted and adored. Arts and Crafts homes graced their ceilings with oak beams, woodwork, and painted ceilings. After the Depression, plaster was still used, but the paint finish was merely white or crème. When you are traveling around visiting your friends’ homes, look up. The South Shore has many old houses with ceilings waiting to be discovered.
If you have a square room with painted walls, no ceiling mouldings, and a white ceiling, you have a box with a white “lid”. Nobody wants to feel “boxed in” within their own home, so paint the walls and ceiling all the same colour and finish. The result will be to soften the hard angles in the room, removing the “box”. Windows and artwork will then seem suspended in colour.
If you have wonderful ceiling mouldings, then you have two options. First, you could paint all of the room mouldings and the ceiling in the same colour. Even in white this is attractive, the mouldings soften the wall to ceiling angle, so the ceiling appears more recessed from the walls. The mouldings and ceiling work in concert to present a “cap” on the room as opposed to a lid. The second option is to paint the ceiling and walls the same colour, and paint all of the mouldings the same colour. This works best in a large room where the ceiling mouldings are substantial. Emphasizing small mouldings would revert back to the box effect. A small line along the ceiling just creates the “lid” again.
Now, you may be wondering about lighting. “If I paint my ceiling, how will the light reflect around the room?” This is a fallacy. If you have a single bulb fixture suspended from a plaster ceiling rosette, then you might be receiving some reflective benefit—on the rosette. Otherwise, a bit of light only bounces onto the tops of people’s heads (unless they are looking up to notice the white ceiling). Ceiling fixtures are decorative displays of light, so they look good surrounded by ceiling colour. Recessed downlights always look better emanating from a pool of colour on the ceiling. Art lights or spots again look better emanating from a pool of colour. Extra light should come from lamps and task lighting, but that’s a whole 'nother article…