Our next focus in our “how to decorate”series has us looking at making your ceiling be part of your life using black paint. 

Its not new, its just not common and that’s simply because its hard to achieve a perfect finish.

Ceilings are notoriously finished off terribly or as I like to call them slapped up plasterboard, so it really is best to keep them white so you don’t notice all the issues.

If done well you don’t see any joins and it appears straight and too be fair I can imagine it would be hard to put up those big heavy long pieces of plasterboard above your head and get it right  perfect.

So when is it OK? 

When your walls are taller than floorspace 

When the ceilings are higher than the average wall height

When you have alot of industrial fixtures to hide (loft type homes often have air con ducts piping from upstairs protruding through.

Exposed beam homes who want to make the beams part of the room.

If you use a semi gloss paint it reflects the light and helps keep it light and lifted.

When is it not OK?

Personally I don’t like it in Nurseries or kids rooms, although I have heard it can help sleeping but I think there are darker colours other than black that you could use.

I don’t think it suits bathrooms they are too small and often it takes up the  breathing space you need in a task area. I think task areas need lots of light, again if you use a semi gloss or you have a reasonably large bathroom it could work. 

When your ceiling is undulating and you use a flat black paint.

What do you think, could you do it?