Image: The First Ferry
A house is an amalgam of intimate and semi-formal relations between friends, family and visitors. Varied ceiling heights between the home spaces are virtually capable of making people comfortable according to requirements. Prateek Chaudhry, founder and managing director of premium design house The First Ferry,believes ceilings are a vast canvas of unutilized space. They open up an array of opportunities to experiment with and choose from. Remember, low ceiling height delivers intimacy and a high ceiling, formality, and the easiest way to vary ceiling height is to use false ceiling to create patterns.
1. Playing with ceiling heights delivers a wider or narrow spatial illusion. Ceiling height should be related and proportionate to length and breadth for comfort.
2. Adding varying contours on the ceiling create opportunities to embed lighting and experiment with reflective lighting.
3. Ceiling height is also related to the social distance that is required between people. A common semi-private room can be of a higher height as compared to intimate rooms such as bedrooms.
4. Storage units or loft, too, help in varying the ceiling heights. In the case of a penthouse or a bungalow, they must be built between floors and ceiling, at least two feet deep where you want to lower the ceiling height.
5. Put two alcoves over each other. If each is a minimum of 6 feet 3 inches, the main ceiling comes up to 13 feet which forms a good public space.
6. Raise the floor level with steps instead of lowering the ceiling. Underneath the steps can be storage space or services.
7. Rooms with a ceiling as low as 7 feet or 7 feet 6 inches deliver utmost comfort and feel beautiful as against public gathering rooms having a height of 10 to 11 feet.
8. Coffered beams and beams in varied finishes too help in creating an illusion towards varied ceiling heights.