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Paint a Faux
Tray Ceiling Illusion
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Create the illusion of shadow using darker colors against
lighter ones. Your flat, boring ceiling will
suddenly have style.
One thing that can make a room feel dark and claustrophobic
is a low ceiling. And the bigger the room, the lower the
ceiling is likely to feel. It is true, that low ceilings
reduce the cost of heating by giving warm air very little
space to rise.
But wouldn’t it be wonderful if we
could have the best of both worlds—both the grandeur of a
high tray ceiling and the functionality of an ordinary,
eight foot flat cover.
There is a way to cheat reality, by creating an inexpensive
tray ceiling illusion.
It comes down to what the eye thinks it is seeing. If right
now you look up at your ceiling and see a wide, flat space,
that space looks all the bigger for being unbroken, a solid
wide stretch. Therefore, the first thing to do is to reduce
the size of your ceiling—visually, with a painted illusion.
Here's how I did it.
Sketching Your Tray Ceiling:
Take a big book, like a world atlas, and place it in a
corner on the ceiling. If the book is too heavy, you can
cut its shape out of cardboard and use this as your
stencil. Now trace a line along the side of the book or
stencil. Then move the book or stencil along and keep
tracing the line. When you’re done, you will have
created a line all around your ceiling, at a distance of
about one foot from the walls.
Now, you’ll need to repeat this step, but instead of
placing the book or stencil against the wall, you will
place it along the first line you have drawn. When
you’re done, you will have a second line, about one foot
away from the first line, and running all around your
ceiling.
That’s it. You have sketched your tray ceiling.
Depending on the size of your room, you may want to make
the stencil or book bigger or smaller.
Making the Sketch Two-Dimensional:
By painting in your sketched ceiling you will now give
it a two-dimensional feel. Your color choices will vary
depending on the illusion you wish to create:
If the ceiling feels very low: you can create the
illusion that the walls are taller by using the same
color as the walls for the first section you sketched on
the ceiling. Then use a darker color for the middle
section. And finally fill in the central section with a
light color (lighter than the walls).
If the room is very large: your ceiling might feel
terribly big and oppressive. In that case, paint the
first section you sketched on the ceiling with a dark
solid color, to give the impression of a shadowy area.
Then paint the middle section with the same color as the
walls. And finally fill in the central section with a
light color (lighter than the walls).
For the illusion to work well, it is important to choose
colors from the same palette, with slight variations of
shade. If the walls are white, then choose very light
colors. When you’re finished you will see that the
painted ceiling now gives the impression that it is
higher than it really is, and even smaller, if you chose
step two above. The room will look more beautiful and
feel more cozy. Like the painters of old, you will have
recreated reality with a brush and paint bucket.
Questions? Comments?
Drop me a line.
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