Highlight Your Room's Grandeur with These 7 Vaulted Ceiling Decorating Ideas

If you're fortunate enough to have a living room with vaulted ceilings, you likely want to highlight the architectural grandeur while still maintaining a warm and welcoming vibe. Decorating the angular planes and soaring height takes a balancing act between stunning and stark. By implementing some strategic design details, you can elevate the look and feel of your vaulted space from awkward to absolutely jaw-dropping.

Read on for brilliant ways to showcase the majesty of your vertical volume with lighting, fabrics, furnishings and accessories that dazzle.

Embrace the Height with Structural Elements

One of the best ways to decorate a room with vaulted ceilings is to lean into the architectural elements that define the space. Instead of trying to minimize or mask the sloped sides, use finishes and furnishings that accentuate the details.

Add Interesting Architectural Details

Consider installing crown molding, ceiling medallions, decorative corbels or exposed beam work to add visual intrigue along the edges of your vaulted ceiling. The additional trim accents and textures will help draw the eye upward and break up any monotonous expanses.

• Crown molding lends an elegant, finished look while accentuating the height.
• Faux beams, whether painted or covered in wallpaper, append a coffered ceiling vibe minus the construction work.
• Painted medallions make excellent focal points and enable you to add color.

Draw the Eye Upward

Use vertical elements like tall shelving units, floor plants and curtains to lead the gaze heavenward. The goal is to move the eye around the entire room, not just the lower half. Strategies that connect the walls to the ceiling keep sightlines active and unified.

For example, try hanging macrame art pieces that graze the ceiling or tall woven grass prints. The vertical lines are especially effective at showcasing angular architecture. Floor-to-ceiling curtain panels also beautifully frame vaulted spaces while creating a cozy atmosphere.

Illuminate with Stylish Lighting

It's impossible to highlight towering ceilings without gorgeous lighting. Combining ambient, accent and overhead fixtures enables you to bathe the space in warmth while still celebrating architectural details.

Focal Lighting Statements

Dramatic light fixtures turn vaulted ceilings into literal bright spots. For serious wow-factor, install a sparkling chandelier, modern sputnik pendant or cascade of bell jar fixtures. Positioning the lights slightly off-center adds stylistic drama.

Just be mindful of fixture proportions; a single tiny pendant can get drowned out in roomy vaulted spaces. Scale your statement piece to match the ceiling height so it packs enough visual punch.

Ambient Uplighting

While eye-catching pendants handle focal duties, evenly placed uplighting keeps the room glowy and inviting. Try incorporating recessed cans, track fixtures or adjustable wall sconces. Uplighting casts a flattering luminescence, preventing vaulted ceilings from feeling too cold or cavernous.

Accent Lighting

Finally, don't forget about accent lighting to showcase beloved vaulted details or artwork. Picture lights overhead, lanterns flanking a faux beam and cove lighting inside a decorative recess all make excellent accents. Led strip lights also work beautifully adhered under eaves or edges.

Warm It Up with Luscious Layers

Warming up stark spaces comes down to layering tactile textures and enveloping fabrics. The trick in vaulted rooms is finding pieces that entice interaction while connecting to the vertical elements.

Texture

Cover surfaces in touchable materials with visible brush strokes, woven looks and dimensional patterns. Grasscloth wallpaper, nubby wool throws, flattened shag rugs all bring depth across multiple planes. The mix of overhead volume and underfoot snugness makes rooms remarkably welcoming.

Fabric

Don't overlook the power of billowing window treatments, cushy slipcovers and blanket layers to introduce softness. Fabric in abundance offsets imposing architecture through lightweight contrast. To continue emphasizing height, pick long linen curtains that puddle on the floor and lofty tossed throws.

Draw the Gaze Outward with Clever Furnishings

Strategic furniture placement prevents folks from only looking up at the ceiling or down at the floor. The idea is promoting dynamic conversation areas that deliberately angle sightlines.

Lofty Furniture

Choose substantial statement pieces like oversized sectionals, modular bookcases and multi-tiered coffee tables. The goal is filling floor space without overcrowding the room. Breathing room is key for enjoying vaulted ceilings.

Additionally, substantial furnishings make rooms feel more grounded and balanced. A dainty sofa gets dwarfed, but chunky chairs hold their own. Seek weighty wood frames and substantial shapes.

Conversational Layouts

Pull focus to eye level by orienting furniture toward one other in cozy vignettes. Circle chair arrangements promote intimate discussion nooks without competing with architecture. Float pieces away from walls to enable flow.

Flanking a fireplace or centering furnishings on a large area rug also works beautifully. Just avoid massive backless pieces that block sightlines. The goal is encouraging dynamic views.

Add Visual Interest with Color and Pattern

Color and print infuse personality into vaulted spaces while highlighting cherished details. Instead of defaulting to plain white ceilings and non-descript neutrals, embrace vivid accents.

Ceiling Accents

Paint ceiling beams, cove edges and decorative installations in dramatic tones. Deep blue, emerald green and eggplant purple all make ceiling details pop. If your living room lacks beams, no worries! Stencil patterns, wallpaper or painter's tape geometrics supply stand-in style.

Vivid Wallpaper

For serious pattern play, dress up those vertical planes in eye-catching prints. Wallpaper enables you to incorporate color and texture without overwhelming enormous ceilings. Look for tropical frond prints, Bohemian paisleys and oversized damasks to lead the eye overhead.

Eye-Catching Artwork

Include vibrant artwork displaying dynamic shapes, bright colors and sweeping movement. Abstract prints, textured botanical illustrations and multi-canvas gallery walls all enliven bland walls. Place artworks strategically to direct gazes across various sightlines.

Finish with Purposeful Accessories

The right accessories and accents connect the entire vaulted space, leading the eye across decorative tiers. Display items that celebrate height while upping grandeur.

Draw the Eye Up

Vertical elements like macrame hangings, live green walls, floating corner shelves and floor vases keep focus overhead. The slim shapes prevent bulky furnishing congestion down below. For bonus grandeur, intersperse mirror panels, lucite etageres and crystal sconces.

Finishing metallic touches imbue palatial polish to vaulted rooms. Bronze furniture feet, antique silver table lamps, gilded candle holders and crystal drop chandeliers up the glamour quotient. Don't shy away from a bit of sparkle and shine!

By embracing these seven decorating strategies, you can highlight the majestic architecture of your vaulted ceiling living room without sacrificing comfort. The design ideas shared help balance vertical volume with welcoming warmth and dynamism. Your soaring space will feel anything but stark once you implement eye-catching lighting, plush fabrics, scaled furniture and artistic accents. Happy highlighting!