Just LOOK UP!

Let high-impact ceilings capture your gaze with these genius ideas for embracing color, pattern and texture.

- MONIQUE VALERIS

ADD HEIGHT WITH TRAY CEILINGS.

A tray (or recessed) ceiling, as in this New York City apartment, makes a space-challenged room seem larger by drawing the eye upward. Designer Kati Curtis enhanced this one with a custom patinated finish she developed with the painter a nod to an architectural detail on the historic building's exterior. "The finish inside the tray changes from light teal to copper depending on how you look at it," she says.

Think beyond white.

For this 1920s Uptown New Orleans bungalow, designer Penny Francis of Eclectic Home couldn't help energizing the space with a standout ceiling fixture and a striking paint color to match the green from the Zak+Fox wallpaper. “Lighting is the jewelry and the most important element in a room," she says. “It creates mood and ambience, and a fixture that has great architecture pops against the color."