Adding Interest to Ceilings

One of the most forgotten elements in designing a room is often the ceiling. There are so many ways to elevate a room's interest when giving attention to the ceiling. Since moving in our current home, I had planned to add custom paint touches to our coved ceiling in the foyer, but could never make up my mind on exactly what I wanted to do and the brain time was honestly not there. Slowly, as my schedule allowed, I began to overhaul this room. I started with the walls and ceiling, here is what I did...

First, I painted the walls in a soft neutral, BM Revere Pewter, one of my favorites. Anyone who knows me (or reads my blog:) gets that I love all things Art Deco AND have been quite obsessed with peacocks well before they became trendy (hence, my logo). I wanted my entry to represent my style and personality so I opted for bits of all my favorite things to be part of this room:). I love doing this for others, but it was fun and therapeutic to do for me this time:).

Second, I grabbed a ladder, painter's tape, brushes, paint (will get to details in a moment) and a damp rag for 'just in case' mistakes. The cove was already painted a neutral base coat of BM Manchester Tan.

Since my foyer is an octagon shape with doorways and stairs leading in various directions to the rest of the house, the pattern needed to be a little random, refined and balanced (my feng shui). I started from the center and randomly taped off pieces in different directions and sizes. Once I was satisfied, I began adding in the color.

The first to go up was a soft taupy pink that nods to Art Deco, but actually reads as a neutral in this space. (Note: I actually got the can at Lowes for $2 on the OOPS rack), just love when that happens:). I tried to balance the color around evenly without looking "matchy".

Next, I wanted the "glam" of the Deco period to be present, but not over the top for my home in the country. I layered on silver and gold leaf craft paints from JoAnn to create patina and depth. This was a bit time consuming as I used an artist brush and did several overlays, but well worth it to me. I waited an hour to make sure the paint was dry and simply pulled off the tape. Yay, I love it. It led me to the realization that a custom paint finish would be needed for the chandelier, but that would have to be a different day, my friend:).