30 Vaulted Ceiling Ideas That Will Add Drama to Any Room

Walls are of the utmost importance in any room, with plenty of attention spent choosing the perfect paint color, wallpaper, and artwork. Don’t forget to look up, though! Ceilings offer plenty of visual interest, especially when you're lucky enough to have vaulted ceilings.

Not only do vaulted ceilings provide extra vertical height, allowing a room to feel larger than it is, but they also offer the opportunity to punch up their personality with beams, shiplap, and pendants.  

Whether you’re considering a home renovation, are constructing a new house, or wondering how to outfit your current vaulted ceilings, scroll on for 30 vaulted ceiling ideas that are sure to inspire.

Create an Impressive Entrance

In this Bria Hammel Interiors-designed home, a vaulted ceiling is emphasized with stained beams for a wow-worthy entrance. The beams echo the subtle arch of the front door and decorative windows, which welcome guests into a comfortably traditional space.

"These statement beams bring warmth, and add a necessary layer to help make this space feel intimate and livable,” says lead designer Kate Pieper.

Maximize Picturesque Views

"Vaulted ceilings" and "cozy" rarely coincide—unless you're including them in an intimate space, like this breakfast nook. In this home, Lindye Galloway had the opportunity to build incredibly high ceilings that brought plenty of drama. Best yet, they allow for nearly uninterrupted views of the Hudson Valley.

“We always love high vaults, but the ones here are a specially-added element that pulls the space together to give it a homey feeling,” Galloway says.

Get Cozy With It

Need proof that vaulted ceilings can still create a cozy space? Exhibit A: this living room, designed by Curated Nest. The angular ceilings make for an expansive feel, but it’s brought back down to earth with plush, neutral furnishings and a warm taupe paint color on the built-ins.

The modern chandelier meets the two halves—the grounded seating area and ethereal ceiling space—in the middle.

Go Dark and Moody

Shelby Adamson of Little Black Fox loved the vaulted ceilings in her client's primary bedroom—especially the textural beams. To add depth and moodiness to the space, Adamson coated the walls Sherwin-Williams's Bohemian Black, then layered a monochromatic piece of art above the bed.

"The airiness and expansiveness that the vaulted ceilings created elevated the bedroom into an architecturally beautiful room," Adamson says.

Create a Homey Feel

Vaulted ceilings can, at times, provide too much space, so it’s more difficult to furnish a room to feel welcoming and cozy. To avoid that, take notes from this Maggie Griffin Design living room.

The vaulted ceiling is outfitted with warm wood beams in a design that brings the spacious ceiling more down to Earth. The brick fireplace, gallery wall of duck imagery, and traditional furniture upholstery add to the comfortable feel.

Choose a Monochromatic Color Palette

In this serene bedroom design by K+Co Living, vaulted ceilings add an air of grandeur. The room uses a monochromatic color palette to emphasize the dramatic ceilings while creating a soothing, snooze-worthy atmosphere.

Cream walls coordinate with the four-post bed, area rug, and accessories, while the white ceiling and wood beams draw your eye up.

Create More Space for Family Gatherings

When interior designer Milysan Kikos of ME Design Group was approached to remodel a kitchen for a big Italian family from Chicago, the space's low, heavy ceilings were suffocating—especially compared to the living room's vaulted ceilings.

“It felt like an enclosed closet of a kitchen," Kikos says. "There was no balance and flow between the spaces."

To provide more space for family gatherings, the construction process included both revealing the high ceilings and creating an open kitchen complete with a 12-foot custom island.

Go Rustic

Step into the heart of this home, a Kristen Elizabeth Design project. The expansive open kitchen and dining space offer a sit-and-stay-a-while feel, with plenty of natural wood elements, including the cabinetry, wide-plank flooring, and reclaimed beams on the vaulted ceiling. The overall look is rustic yet refined, blending modern functionality with country charm. 

Consider the Furniture Layout

Take it from interior designer Kriste Michelini: beginning a project involving vaulted ceilings means not just exploring room dimensions, but also giving the elements around the ceiling special consideration.

Experiment with lighting options, like skylights or stylish pendants, to enhance the ceiling’s captivating presence. Or, Michelini says, adding personality to the ceiling might mean weaving in exposed beams or an eclectic mix of materials.

Add Subtle Texture to a Monochromatic Room

White on white on white is far from boring in this monochromatic room. One reason: tonal beams highlight the vaulted ceiling.

“Adding subtle texture to a monochromatic room, these white, tone-on-tone beams bring your eye up to appreciate the statement light fixture in this space,” Kate Pieper, lead designer at Bria Hammel Interiors, says.

Enhance the Architecture

Previously, the sky-high vaulted ceilings in this airy living room were punctuated with dark beams that distracted from the architecture. Painting them to match the ceiling enhances the lines, a subtle way to draw your attention to the incredible vaulted ceilings.

Incorporate Japandi Style

To provide her clients with a serene escape away from the busyness of life in New York City, Lindye Galloway was tasked with designing a Hudson Valley getaway.

The results capture the charming essence of a cozy cabin style while incorporating sleek and natural Japandi (a portmanteau of “Japanese” and “Scandi”) elements. That's especially seen in this bedroom, with dramatically tall vaulted ceilings.

Emphasize a Set of Windows

A vaulted ceiling is a perfect architectural excuse to showcase a wall of windows, as seen in this Bockus Payne-designed bedroom. With so much sun streaming in, chances are you’ll want to highlight the space with a chaise lounger and chandelier.

Vault Just a Section of Ceiling

Intimidated by the thought of an entire vaulted ceiling? Perhaps just a section of a vaulted ceiling—like this one, in a living room designed by Forge & Bow—is a better fit for your home.

By extending the ceiling over the living space, the sun can illuminate the room through skylights and a not-so-tall ceiling won’t feel as cramped.

Combat Echoing

There are few downsides to high vaults in a great room, except for one: echoing. To combat the bouncing of sound in this spacious open living room and kitchen, Lindye Galloway used acoustic paneling to eliminate noise. That guarantees a sense of calm.

Lean Into a Maximalist Style

There’s nothing subtle about this living space designed by MMB Studio—it’s maximalist in every way possible, including the vaulted ceilings. Every element is a feast for the eyes, from the plush velvet furniture to bird-themed wallpaper to evocative art.

Thanks to the vaulted ceilings, which are tiled and outfitted with natural wood beams, the room feels far from crowded.

Embrace a Surprise

During a gut renovation of her home, homeowner Annie Hamnett made an incredible discovery: vaulted ceilings in all of the upstairs bedrooms. For her daughter's bedroom, Hamnett emphasized the newly tall ceilings with white shiplap and a chandelier.

"Keeping the vaulted ceiling added such drama and made the room feel so much bigger than it really is,” Hamnett says.

Highlight Original Wood Paneling

When a vaulted ceiling is a characteristic of the architecture—like it is here in this Craftsman-style home—go ahead and highlight them. That’s what interior designer Jihan Spearman did with this kitchen.

The peaks in the vaulted ceiling mimic the mountainous ranges that can be seen off in the distance, helping blend the interior and exterior of the home. The original wooden panels on the ceiling also act as a statement to draw the eye upwards.

Tie It Together

There’s an undeniably charming ambiance to this MMB Studio-designed living room—perfect for starting “Where is that piece from?” conversations with guests.

While each element, from the artwork to furniture, has a one-of-a-kind feel, the whole room is tied together by the charming vaulted ceiling. The white-painted planks, arranged in a random pattern with various widths, are paired with substantial wood planks. It’s elegant and eclectic.

Create Curves

MMB Studio demonstrates one way to pump up the drama in a hallway: repeating Moroccan-style arches on the ceiling. The painted plaster groin vaults provides plenty of shadows, with each peak an ideal spot to hang a pendant.

Use Criss-Cross Wood Beams

For a subtle way to draw attention to vaulted ceilings, consider how Design West arranged a pair of wood beams. The criss-cross design at the peak of the ceiling adds a sophisticated flair, all while centering the sleek marble fireplace.  

Emphasize the Angles

Sloped walls offer the opportunity to embrace and emphasize the angles or camouflage them. This bedroom somehow does both.

The walls are enveloped in a fanciful wallpaper along with the matching headboard, bedskirt, chair, ottoman, and drapery. This all-in approach unifies the space, while the white ceiling provides visual respite.

Hang Hefty Pendants

There’s nothing small about this Design West kitchen. The expansive vaulted ceilings lead to a trio of oversized pendants that light a double-wide island. The space’s calming color palette—white, gray, and dark wood—ensures it’s not too overwhelming though.

Lean Into the Grandeur

Vaulted cathedral ceilings add vertical grandeur to any space—including this high-to-the-sky home. By elevating these ceilings, PJCArchitecture achieved a dual benefit: the interior space maintain a sense of airiness and lightness, while also establishing a connection between the indoors and out through strategically placed skylights.

Lean Into a Cabin Feel

An animal print rug, a taxidermy deer hanging on the wall, a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace—this cabin-like living room would fit right in on a luxury ranch. The most important aspect of the Yellowstone-inspired space though may be the vaulted ceilings. The richly stained wood ceiling and beams add warmth and architectural interest.

Lean Into a Nautical Feel

Every architectural decision in this Bria Hammel Interiors-designed home was made to emphasize the incredible waterfront view. The vaulted ceilings were crucial to accentuating the vista, and so were the double-height windows. A stone fireplace and lush neutral furnishings round out the room that begs you to sit and stay a while.

Outline a Flat Top Vaulted Ceiling

To add ceiling drama without a central peak, consider a flat top. This prevents the ceiling from being too tall, creating an abundance of negative space that doesn't allow for a cozy feel—not what you want for an inviting living room.

In this homey room, a Maggie Griffin design, warm wood beams outline the ceiling while a three-tier metal chandelier adds a farmhouse feel.  

Get Creative With Wood Beams

To add a modern farmhouse feel to your vaulted ceilings, opt to add fishbone style wood beams. Take these, which bring visual interest to this serenely styled Emily Henderson Design bedroom. They add drama and help highlight the height of the space.

Bring Outdoor Materials In

It’s no shock that the owner of this home nicknamed it Red Steel. The homeowner was interested in a transitional home that would blur the distinction between the interior and exterior spaces—hence the grand vaulted ceilings that let sunlight stream in. 

“To make that dream come true for them, we carried the exterior materials of stone and red steel into the interior of the residence, and vaulted the interior ceilings,” says Bruce Bockus, architect of Bockus Payne.

Lift Up a Transitional Space

Hallways can often be overlooked, decor-wise, but this MMB Studio-designed home proves transitional spaces deserve just as much attention. This double-height vaulted ceiling is outfitted with long wood beams, emphasizing the expansive space. It also provides a Versaille-like feel, allowing for maximum wall space for artwork.

Read the original article on The Spruce.