To paint the ceiling or not?

[Night Elf]

I'm repainting our hall bathroom that has no window. I'm choosing a very light gray which I know is gorgeous because I had it in my last house. :)

 

The ceiling has white spots where the previous owners of this house tried painting over mistakes they made when they painted the walls. Should I repaint it white, or repaint it the same gray color as my walls?

 

Every ceiling in my home is white. I've never had any other color on any ceiling I've ever lived under, yet I see this in other homes.

 

So... white or color?

[K&Rs Mom]

I'd go with white. We redid our guest room last year, and the white ceiling made the blue walls look much crisper. It seems like the same color for walls and ceiling would be too much.

[Hedgehogs4]

I'm repainting our hall bathroom that has no window. I'm choosing a very light gray which I know is gorgeous because I had it in my last house. :)

 

The ceiling has white spots where the previous owners of this house tried painting over mistakes they made when they painted the walls. Should I repaint it white, or repaint it the same gray color as my walls?

 

Every ceiling in my home is white. I've never had any other color on any ceiling I've ever lived under, yet I see this in other homes.

 

So... white or color?

 

COLOR! once you paint the ceiling a color you wonder why you've always left it white!!

 

we painted the ceiling in the main level of our house light blue when we had the walls painted a stone / buff color with white trim and WE LOVE IT. my dh actually wishes it were more blue.

 

we just painted the walls of my 4yo girl's room pink (what else) with a pale yellow ceiling. we love that too! it is so cute and cheerful!

 

eta - i would do it a contrasting color for the pp's reason above. something different than the walls, otherwise you're sitting on the potty in an all gray box.

Edited April 15, 2010 by Hedgehogs4

[JenAL]

When we painted our upstairs bonus room, we chose to paint the walls & ceiling the same color. It was a mistake. It makes the room feel small and closed in. I'm not against painting the ceiling a color (the rest of our house's ceiling is not painted white, but a few shades lighter than the wall color). But the same color makes the room feel very small, IMO.

[Night Elf]

eta - i would do it a contrasting color for the pp's reason above. something different than the walls, otherwise you're sitting on the potty in an all gray box.

:lol::lol:

 

Oops I forgot to add: The color is a very light silvery gray color. The only contrasting color I can think of would be a dark color and that seems like it would shrink the room. What do you think?

[Heather in AL]

Another idea would be to dilute the wall color and put that on the ceiling.

 

We bought our house from the builder who used a professional decorator pick colors and all the rage here is painted ceilings---they took the wall color and did a 1/4 mixture for the ceilings. It's pretty neat.... not stark white, and not the full color of the walls. I'm not sure how it's done, though.... I'm assuming at the paint store.

 

The exception to the above is in our powder room.... Our house has two wall colors throughout (a golden tan color and a similar 'cork' color) the walls in the powder room (and in the DR under the chair rail) are called Mexicanna Red (or something like that), and the ceiling throughout the house is 1/4 of the golden tan color. It's hard to explain/describe, but it looks really nice.

 

Not having seen your color, it's hard to say if you should go with a diluted wall color or white. I agree with the previous poster that the same color on the ceiling may be too much. It might make the person in there feel 'boxed in'.

 

Have fun deciding.... I love decorating and painting. :001_smile:

[AuntieM]

COLOR! once you paint the ceiling a color you wonder why you've always left it white!!

 

we painted the ceiling in the main level of our house light blue when we had the walls painted a stone / buff color with white trim and WE LOVE IT. my dh actually wishes it were more blue.

 

we just painted the walls of my 4yo girl's room pink (what else) with a pale yellow ceiling. we love that too! it is so cute and cheerful!

 

eta - i would do it a contrasting color for the pp's reason above. something different than the walls, otherwise you're sitting on the potty in an all gray box.

 

 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my painted ceilings! Wish I could have had every ceiling in the house done!

 

FWIW, one design tip is to paint the ceiling with a 1/4 tint of the wall color.

[Night Elf]

Ok ladies, the best compromise seems to be the 1/4th wall color for the ceiling. That will put just a tiny bit of color in the ceiling without overpowering the room.

[teragram]

Whatever you decide to do, just don't ask this question during "tea time." :lol:

[DarlaS]

I'm repainting our hall bathroom that has no window. I'm choosing a very light gray which I know is gorgeous because I had it in my last house. :)

 

The ceiling has white spots where the previous owners of this house tried painting over mistakes they made when they painted the walls. Should I repaint it white, or repaint it the same gray color as my walls?

 

Every ceiling in my home is white. I've never had any other color on any ceiling I've ever lived under, yet I see this in other homes.

 

So... white or color?

 

If it's a small bathroom with only average lighting, I'd go with white. I think it might darken it considerably to go with a color--even a light color.

 

Of course, if you paint it gray and hate it, you can still paint it over. It's only paint.