How to make your ceilings seem taller

Simple tricks can create the illusion of a higher ceiling.

The following tips will help give the illusion of higher ceilings. 

1. Choose low, horizontal furniture. The taller the furniture, the more crammed things feel. Low furniture doesn't compete with the height of the ceiling.

2. Keep window coverings simple. This will make your windows seem larger and the whole room more open.

3. Use vertical stripes to elongate. Vertical stripes force the eyes to go up and down, making what they are fixed on appear taller. (Many women who complain of being short are advised to wear vertical stripes as it makes them appear taller, this is the same idea but with home decor)

4. Hang picture frames, drapes, and shelves higher. In the same way vertical stripes make the eyes travel up, hanging pictures/shelves higher than you normally would gives the same result.

See how more open and spacious everything is in the after image?

5. Throw in a diagonal

The eye tends to follow the point of the diagonal, so the image above is a great example of how a diagonal can create height.