Ceiling Design

Ceiling design is where a room gains or loses its sense of proportion. Dropped perimeters, floating rafts, coffers and integrated lighting all change how high a space feels — sometimes in the opposite direction to what you would expect.

Height is perceived, not measured

A common mistake is dropping a full ceiling in a room that cannot afford the height. The better approach in a low room is usually to leave the centre high and drop only the perimeter, or to float a raft below an open ceiling. Both read as taller than a uniform drop at the same finished height.

In a room with generous height, the opposite applies — a coffer or a dropped feature can bring an oversized volume back to a human scale.

Lighting is part of the design

Integrated lighting has to be designed with the ceiling, not added to it. Cove and perimeter lighting needs a shadow gap deep enough to hide the fitting and a surface smooth enough to take grazing light without showing every imperfection. A cove that is too shallow shows the lamp; a surface finished to standard tolerance shows every ripple when lit from the side.

Drawing before building

We set out ceiling designs on a reflected ceiling plan before any framing goes up — coordinating the design with lighting positions, diffusers, sprinkler heads and detectors. Those functional items have to land somewhere, and a design drawn without them ends up with a detector in the middle of a feature panel.