Ceiling Decorating Ideas – The Fifth Wall

You take your child to the doctor’s office. While waiting for the doctor to come into the exam room, you glance up. The ceiling is a lovely, relaxing ocean scene.

Now you are staring at the ceiling, wondering how to transform your nursery and bedroom. Other rooms come to mind as well, like the kitchen and dining room.

The idea of changing up the ceiling is not so crazy. Updating the fifth wall can pull the whole room together. Without making over the entire place, you can change the look and feel of a room with just a fresh coat of vibrant paint.

Let’s Rest

Are you tired of lying on your bed, staring at a flat white expanse? Turn the wall behind your bed and the ceiling into one big canvas.

Continue stripes from the wall behind your bed up onto the ceiling. If you have a color picked out to jazz up your 5th wall but want to add something more than “just color,” alternate your chosen hue with white stripes to form a pattern.

Or perhaps, you love your new barn door-style closet, but the room still needs something to make it feel just a little more country. Repurpose old barn wood on the ceiling to bring in that country vibe.

A little too ambitious for your taste? Another way to get the barn wood look is by using wood plank wallpaper.

Or perhaps a pretty, themed wallpaper is all it would take to liven things up. Yes, wallpaper on the ceiling– it’s not being called the 5th wall for anything.

What about where the baby sleeps? Give the nursery that ultimate personal touch. Decoupage the flat smooth ceiling above the crib. Start with soothing colors and then use images of cherubs, animals, cartoons, or quiet design elements to make it just a bit more interesting for your newest little one.

Relaxing In The Living Room

You spent countless hours making over the living room. You are right on trend with that bold velvet chair and a vintage rug. You’re using glossy paint to give the room not only color but also help reflect light throughout the space. Still, the place needs something more.

Examine the space and decide what type of feel you want in the room. Do you want a cozier feeling in the area? Then, paint the ceiling a darker color than the walls for that snug as a bug in a rug vibe.

Are you looking to bring an open, airy feel to this space? Use lighter colors to create that free, breezy atmosphere.

Or do you want the room to feel finished? Then sheath the whole room in the same color. Using the same darker paint on the walls and ceiling will make a small room feel very intimate.

In larger rooms, this monotone painting scheme will help your furniture and decor stand out. The same paint color on the walls and ceiling of an asymmetrical room, or one with angled ceilings, can help to simplify the shape of the room.

Does your living room need depth and texture? Faux beams can be installed to achieve the effect. If your ceiling already has beams and you aren’t sure what to do with them, paint them with a glossy color, and use a muted color between the timbers.

Time To Eat

As you are choosing paint colors, take the rooms’ activities into account. For example, in a dining room, you don’t want the bright hues clashing with your lasagna and turning your guests green. Here, sticking with a basic, neutral wall and relegating the bold color to the ceiling may be an appropriate choice.

The Scout Guide also advises taking the paint sheen into account. For instance, if your walls are a high gloss finish, paint the ceiling a lighter color in a matte finish.

Painting experts at Select Painting note that high gloss paint is the most durable and easiest to clean. However, it also shows every bump and flaw. Consult the experts before deciding which sheen to apply to which surface in your home.

If you have a tray ceiling, you can add some stenciling for a bit of dining room elegance. You could also use wood strips or color variations on the inner tray to enhance your dining ambiance.

More Options

Smaller rooms and rooms less frequently used, like the laundry room or bathroom, are great places to get playful with colors. Adding color to the ceiling to match your decorative towels or that whimsical laundry room rug gives a whole new feel to those surroundings.

A vivid color, like a bright orange in the kid’s playroom, will brighten the room and give an expansive touch to their favorite place.

Painted wood moldings hot glued to the ceiling will also transform that surface. Paint the molding a lighter color than the ceiling itself to give the illusion of a trayed ceiling.

Make the ceiling appear to dissipate by using matte paint. Bring the color a few inches down the wall. Add a border between where the ceiling paint ends and before the wall paint starts for a bit more dramatic effect.

Flat white is no longer the only option for the ceiling. There is a whole new color palette waiting to be added to that fifth wall.

Searching for that perfect color can be overwhelming. Contact a paint specialist to learn about the latest colors and to add those finishing touches to your fifth wall. It will save you the neck ache.