I dream about having high ceilings one day, but in the meantime, like many of you, I’m living in a home with standard 8-foot ceilings. As we’ve been sharing the renovations and design of our home, I hear the same question over and over “wait, are your ceilings really 8-feet? I didn’t know I could do that…”, so I figured the topic was worthy of a blog post. Here is my best advice for how to make your 8-foot ceilings work for you, not against you.
1. You can install crown moulding
One of the most common misconceptions around 8-foot ceilings is that you can’t install crown moulding without making the walls look squat. I don’t agree with this at all. When it comes to crown moulding, I would keep two things in mind when working with 8-foot ceilings:
- Be very intentional with the scale of your crown moulding. I typically keep my crown moulding between 4.5-6.5″ (measured on the diagonal), but don’t err on the side of smaller over larger where small crown moulding can look dinky and too large moulding can look completely off too.
- Try to paint your crown moulding and baseboards to match your walls in order to visually elongate your walls. The reason why many people think you can’t install crown moulding is because when the crown and baseboards are painted white and your walls are a colour, it will make the ceilings look low, but when all the trim is painted the same, your eye considers the crown to be part of the walls and not the ceiling.
2. You can install hanging lights
Don’t be scared to hang those pendants over your kitchen island, just be considerate of scale. You don’t want your pendants to be too small that they don’t match the scale of your island or peninsula, but you also don’t want them to be too large that they overwhelm the space. When you’re looking for light fixtures, pay attention to the minimum height on the fixture, as well as how much of that is cord length, where you want to make sure that you’re still able to have enough cord length that the lights look suspended from the ceiling. In our kitchen, we went with 14.5″ diameter light fixtures in white, so while they are reasonable in size, the visual weight of the pendants are not heavy. Similarly, you can absolutely hang a chandelier over your dining table, just stick to the same principles as with the pendants around scale and hanging height.
3. Take advantage of full-length curtains
When hung correctly, curtains can elongate your walls, making your ceilings look taller. Make sure to hang the curtain rod high (with 8-foot ceilings, I typically place the rod midway between the window casing and the crown moulding), and wide (so the curtains aren’t covering the windows when they are pulled back). It’s amazing how some vertical elements like curtains can trick your eye into thinking the ceilings are taller than they really are.
4. Anything that can be installed up to the ceiling, should be
If you’re tiling your shower or a kitchen backsplash, don’t stop your tile short of the ceiling. Taking the tile all the way up will visually extend your walls. If you leave a foot or two of wall above your tiles, it will make your ceilings look short. The goal is to minimize as many places where you’re breaking up your walls, which is what leads to 8-foot ceilings looking squat.
The same advice applies to cabinetry, where you want to make sure your cabinets are meeting the ceiling, which not only gives you some extra storage space, but also makes your ceilings look much higher.
5. Embrace painting your ceilings
Much like how crown moulding and baseboards painted to match your walls extends your wall height visually, so does carrying that same colour on to the ceiling. If your eye can’t find a stopping place, then it makes your ceilings feel much higher. Many people were shocked when we carried the black paint on the walls of our bathroom on to the ceiling, citing that black ceilings would make the ceilings feel extra low, but actually the opposite is true. A dark ceiling paired with a dark wall will make the ceilings feel endless. Similarly, I carried the light greige on my office walls on to the ceiling in order to minimize the contrast between the walls and ceiling, effectively making the walls look taller than they really are.
6. Install full-height decorative moulding
While I broke this rule in my bedroom (for good reason!), installing decorative panel moulding or picture frame moulding to the entire height of your wall can add visual height. Skipping a chair rail can help even more, as you aren’t creating a horizontal breakpoint around the room. By creating vertical lines on the length of your walls, you keep your eye moving upwards towards the ceiling, the same way that adding stripes on a wall can lengthen your walls.
Have you discovered any other tricks to making your ceilings appear to be much taller than they actually are?
Great information. Thanks Erin.
I hope you & your family are doing well.
You house is really just so lovely. It’s classic but never stuffy, I LOVE your colors, and your detailing is so spot on. Fantastic!
Once again – well done, and explained with pictures to support the information. Love reading your stuff!!!!
Very helpful, thank you! As always, I love your style too.
Love your style! Could you share the paint color you used in this beautiful room?
Thank you! Do you mind specifying which room / colour, there are a few included throughout the post 🙂
VERY helpful – and absolutely gorgeous pictures. Thank you for the advice, Erin. What a gorgeous and exquisite home.
Hi! I love your tips! I have 8 foot ceilings all through my bottom floor and am excited to use this info!
I’m also curious about your paint colors. Do you have posts where you detail paint colors in your home? Specifically I’d love to know what color you used on the walls in what looks to be a dining room (with the round table and built ins) and then also the wall color on the wall just outside your kitchen (can’t tell if thats the same room) thanks! Im about to paint my downstairs ans its one big open floor plan so I’m gathering inspirations for samples. Thanks!
Hi Jaylyn, those walls are indeed in the same room and the paint colour is Farrow and Ball Cromarty – it’s a really lovely soft green that throughout the day can lean anywhere from taupe to green to grey. Hope that helps!
Could you please share the name of the paint you used on the kitchen walls and cabinets? I’m getting ready to repaint my small open concept 1st floor and your colors look very harmonious.
The kitchen cabinets came painted, so I don’t have a paint colour name I can share, sorry! The paint on the kitchen walls is Benjamin Moore Cloud White.
Thank you very much!
Great work! We recently purchased a mid-century modern home with 8′ ceilings. Your article supports some ideas I’ve considered, and provided some I hadn’t thought about. Thank you!
Hi Erin,
Could you please let me know what brand of cabinets you used in the kitchen
They are Cliq Studios in the Austin Concealed Hinge style and in the Harbor colour
Thank you so much!
Very helpful post! Can you provide the name and source of the pendant lights over the kitchen island? Love that look!
Certainly! They’re Hudson Valley Lighting: https://rstyle.me/cz-n/eckf3ucd8gx
Thanks so much for your speedy reply!
I saw a comment on the product link that said the off white was more of a light tan. It looks off white in your picture and on the website. What do you think? I’m looking for off white, not light tan. Thanks.
It’s off-white, not tan!
Hi Erin- Beautiful home! I was wondering since you mentioned not creating any breaking points on the wall to increase the look of higher ceilings, if you consider the picture frame molding/wainscoting below the chair rail in the bedroom to do this? I would like to wallpaper a bedroom as you have and include similar molding on a portion of the wall, but wondered if you would just suggest to wallpaper the walls top to bottom, with no chair rail/picture frame moldings? Thanks!
So, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this one – our bedroom walls don’t look short, I think because the colour is tone on tone and not super contrasting from the trim to wallpaper and secondly, because we were really intentional with the size of our trim (especially the crown). It also may help that the room gets a lot of natural light. I do think if the wallpaper went the full height of the walls that the ceiling could appear taller than it does today, but it definitely doesn’t feel short. Long-winded, but I hope that helps!
Hi! I love your tips on hanging things high. With an 8 foot ceiling, what length drapes do you typically buy in order to hang them halfway between molding and window casing?
Similarly, what height kitchen cabinets do you use? I want to hang my kitchen cabinets higher but unsure i should replace them with taller cabinets as well?
I love the blue wallpaper! Can you share the details?
Yes! It’s Trend 30000W Light Blue 02 (https://fabricut.com/trend/wallcovering/9173702/30000w/light-blue-02)
I’m a designer and I always recommend having drapes hung as close to the crown as possible with 8’ ceilings. The panels create such a taller illusion while also providing softness
Hello Erin, I just discovered your blog and your home is so well done, and just lovely. I have a couple of questions for you. 1) Do you use a different paint sheen(s) for your monochromatic wall/trim scheme (crown, baseboards, window/door trim)? 2) When you painted your interior doors black, are they black on both sides – or did you paint the other side to match wall color of interior room? 3) Would you mind telling me the greige color of your office? This post really helped me think about my 8ft ceilings. So helpful! Thank you so much.
Hi Elle:
1) I prefer to do a slightly higher sheen on trim, where possible (especially if your millwork is substantial and deserves to be highlighted), but doing the same (e.g. an eggshell) on both also works!
2)The doors are black only facing the hallway, they match to the room they live in on the other side
3) The greige in my office is Farrow & Ball Ammonite – it’s a magical colour!