Give high walls and ceilings a dramatic makeover

By Pocyline Karani

Classical designs fused with contemporary styles always give a home a rare yet exceptional appearance. Many homes boast of very high ceilings with two-storey foyers and great rooms. Often, this presents a challenge when decorating the tall walls.

A nicely decorated room with high walls and ceilings. A good paint job, carefully selected artwork and other accessories will work together to give the room a fabulous look. Photos: Martin Mukangu/Standard

To start with, consider enlarging the area covered by drapes and hang them on elegantly decorated curtain rods. These help to enhance wall pictures and art pieces. Using tapestry helps to achieve texture in the room and eradicates starkness. Texture can be achieved by using crown and chair rail moulding, which makes the room appear smaller.

Decorative borders that start from a chair rail to the baseboard effectively breaks a cavernous look. Install a border around the room in place of a chair rail. Paint the half below the border a dark colour then paint the ceiling and the wall above the border a lighter tint of the colour below the border.

Any visitor who walks into the room will first be struck by the pattern of the border, which carries the eye around the room rather than up to the top of the wall. Installing the border at the top where the ceiling meets the wall only increases the height as it draws your eye upwards.

You will also need to consider the choice of paint if you want to eradicate the hollowness tall walls bring to a room. Ensure the paint on the ceiling is similar to the colour of your walls.

You may wonder what tall walls have to do with the ceiling.The truth is, painting the ceiling will introduce a feeling of intimacy in the room. Additionally, you will better appreciate the spectacular effect of walking into a room with a vaulted ceiling and yet be able to enjoy the cosiness of a smaller room.

Alternatively, if you are the adventurous type, consider painting horizontal stripes around the room. This will make your room appear wider and the ceiling feel lower. Stripes draw the eyes downwards to a more intimate level.

Don’t be confined to painting parallel horizontal lines as there are more creative ways of painting stripes when decorating tall walls.

Visually appealing walls

Paint the wall your chosen base colour and leave it for a couple of days to dry and cure. You will also need three more accent colours in addition to your wall colour.

Walls can be made more visually appealing by using one of the popular faux painting techniques like sponging, ragging or rolling. Wallpapering is another superb idea that could change the overall look of a room.

Even though wallpapers easily get out of date and are a real pain in the neck when it comes to removing, some special circumstances call for their use. Interestingly, there is a new three-dimensional wallpaper that makes its features appear real. For instance, a wallpaper depicting a black and white wooden bookshelf with books looks and feels too real to pass for wallpaper. Another wallpaper gives the room a liquid sky, animated sunshine shade, which is achieved by a multi-layered textile sunshade/blind that captures the particularities of sea, air and light.

Accessories

You can achieve this same result by using variations of the wallpaper below the wall border or by installing a chair rail in place of the wallpaper border.

Large and tall pieces of furniture like armoires, bookcases and chests are perfect for filling large rooms with tall ceilings. Install large chandeliers and lighting fixtures. Expand your range by combining modern accessories with urbane, or old and antique looking ones.

Medallions on ceilings around hanging light fixtures also provide visual interest and can enhance your ceiling.