Asymmetrical Angled Ceilings: A Simple Solution Using Color

Color contrast highlights an awkward slanted ceiling.

Many homes have asymmetrical angled ceilings, some by design and some as a result of the practical need to accommodate functional items like closets, framing or duct work. Sometimes the entire room is like this and sometimes it's just one or two walls, but either way the result can be awkward and discordant. When it comes to painting these rooms, where you put color will either call attention to the problem or help to minimize it.

Look at this bedroom ceiling. All of it is angled, but in several places there are additional sloped sections to accommodate a closet or lead to an adjoining room. Because of high contrast, the white ceiling and dark brown walls not only made the room look uncomfortably unbalanced, it undermined the beauty of the wood beam in the center of the peak because the pure white didn't flatter the wood.

This room is another example of a common automatic pilot color decision - painting the ceiling plain white. That's what you're supposed to do, isn't it? (No.) Adding to the problem, the baseboards, doors and windows were white with very bad brown glazing that looked splotchy and dirty. The small adjoining bathroom had the same issues with odd angles and bad glazing that didn't work with the stone counter top and tub surround. 

It was time for a new approach to help this master suite live up to its potential. 

After: awkward angles are less noticeable.

Fortunately there's a very simple solution for bringing unity and harmony to rooms with angled ceilings: paint the ceiling and walls the same color. When you do this your eye sees the room as a harmonious whole instead of components, and it enlarges the space while minimizing the impact of all those angles. 

After: one color on ceiling, walls and baseboards.

In the "after" pictures you'll see that we chose a serene blue-green for the ceiling, walls and baseboards. It made the room feel more open and spacious, made the angles in the ceiling less noticeable and made the beam a more attractive feature. The doors and windows were painted in the same warm off-white that was used in the rest of the house.

This project is a perfect illustration of smart color selection combined with strategic color placement to solve a design problem and create a beautiful, coordinated master suite. 

If your house has design challenges (interior or exterior), we can show you ways to use paint colors strategically to help resolve them. Call me for a painting estimate at 828-692-4355. If we do the painting, my help choosing colors is a free service.