Small homes or low ceilings don't need to leave you feeling like you live in a cave. You can easily add height to a room by following these tips.
Step 1
Use the proper paint. If you want to add height to a room, the easiest way to do this is to change the paint color in the room. Light colors make the room seem open and airy, and give a spacious feel. You can stop at the ceiling with a light paint color, or you can paint the entire room a light color to really add height to a room.
Step 2
Use vertical lines. You can add height to a room using painted lines as well. Simply paint vertical lines of a complimentary color onto your walls (thick or thin lines are fine). You'll draw the eye upwards toward the ceiling with this trick, leading people to believe the room has much more height than it really does. (This same technique can also be done with wallpaper that has vertical stripes.)
Step 3
Hang drapery at the ceiling. An old trick of decorators is to hang draperies from the ceiling. Again, this tricks the eye into thinking the windows (and the room) has more height. Attach the drapery poles to the line where the wall meets the ceiling, and then hang a roman shade or other drop shade at that ceiling line and drop it down to the very top of the window. This should create the illusion that the top half of the window is covered by the shade but in fact, the shade is just covering the wall above the window! It's a great trick to add height to the room and make it seem much larger.
Step 4
Install crown molding. The more you can draw the eye upward, the more successful you will be at adding height to a room. Installing crown molding to the ceiling line of a room will pull the eye up to the top of the room, giving the room added visual height.
Step 5
Install dark floors. Dark floors will starkly contrast light wall colors. If you want to add height to a room, put in some dark floors and you'll immediately notice how your eye is drawn up to the lighter walls.
Step 6
Keep the room clean and open. Avoid clutter in your decorations and you'll definitely add height to a room. Hang enough artwork to draw the eye to the wall, but not so much that the eye is overwhelmed and can't find the wall! Clutter takes away from the open feeling of a room. If you want to add height to a room, keep it clean and fresh and don't over-decorate it.
