Painting living room with high ceilings?

Question

We bought a house that has a living room with a two-story high ceiling. Halfway up the walls (where a regular ceiling might be) there is a cornice (I guess that is what it is called -- it is an architectural detail that extends about an inch out from the wall and is about three inches high. There are actually two of them, side-by-side, extending around the room, with a three-inch flat part between the two).

I have no idea how to paint this room. Should I paint the whole wall (including the cornice) one color? Should I paint a different color above the cornice and on the ceilings? Should I paint the walls the same color, but paint the cornice a different color? I know the colors I like (sage greens, tans, browns, etc) -- and then I planned to paint the ceiling a beige color. However, the walls and this cornice thing have me stumped.

Answer 1

You might want to treat the cornices as you would trim and paint them the same color as the rest of the trim in your home. (I did that with mine in my living room with an 18 foot high ceiling.) You can also use the cornice as a dividing line between your ceiling color and your wall color if the height of your ceiling is making the room seem cold. I continued the wall color all the way up to the ceiling and left the architectural detail white but I have two walls painted green and two walls painted taupe. This technique is called color blocking. I took the area between the two trims and used a type of border called anagylpta which is a raised patterned wallpaper border that is paintable. This makes it appear that there is another piece of molding or trim between the two cornices and ties them together. Using this color blocking technique you will be able to incorporate all of your favorite colors if you stay in the same hue. (You do this by looking at the paint samples and choosing say, the third one down, for each color you desire.) It has been featured in several design magazines and won some design awards, so besides being a unique treatment, it is a show stopper as well.

Answer 2

it depends on what illusion youre trying to create. painting the entire wall the same color will make it appear high. breaking it up with different colors will create strong horizontal breaks and therefore make the wall appear lower.
one option would be this: paint the upper half of the wall the same color as the ceiling(beige),paint the 2 cornices in a chocolate brown, paint the space between the 2 cornices and the lower half of the wall the same color--either a sage green or a tan that is darker than the beige of the ceiling and upper wall.
This will visually lower the height of the wall and unite the ceiling and wall together nicely.
Another option would be to treat the 2 cornices and the 3" space between them as one piece by painting all the same color.Using this painting scheme, paint the cornices and between them tan, then paint both upper and lower walls sage green, and the ceiling beige.
I had a similar dilema in my dining room where there was a plate rail that ran around the room about 6 feet up from the floor, then there was another, smaller strip of molding about a foot above the plate rail. I finally solved the dilema by installing ceramic tile between the 2 strips. I used a terra cotta tile because the walls were painted a chestnut color, and the moldings were a dark reddish brown color. looked really nice and gave a great complimentary contrast and texture to the room. Dont know if this idea would work in your space or not.you might even be able to put a narrow strip of heavy textured vinyl wallpaper between the 2 cornices in a complimentary color. I f you do something like this then the upper and lower halves of the wall should be the same color or very similar in color.

Answer 3

If you are pleased by the look of the cornices, you could paint the walls one color and the cornices a different color.

You don't want the colors to be too different when it comes to light-dark value - maybe only a point or two different. This is due to the fact that white and light colors make a room look big whereas dark colors make a room look small. If you were to paint the cornices a dark color and the walls a light color, those cornices would be jumping off the wall.