High ceilings - what am I missing?

DRP

Old houses with high ceilings will often have attractive period moulding.

They give a sense of space and the rooms can be less boxy than new builds.

I love my victorian 1886 terrace and will love the c1900 house iam moving to I've never found that the high ceilings prevent me from keeping the place warm (double glazing and under-floor insulation )

barbiedoll

I live in a small Victorian terrace and I love our high ceilings. We have the original picture rails too and having a relatively high ceiling means we can have a lovely chandelier light fitting.
(We don't actually have one yet but it's next on my wish list!)

I've never found it particularly hard to heat but our rooms aren't massive. It is a pain at Christmas though, trying to get decorations up means getting the big ladder out. And cobwebs are harder to reach!

Humphrey10

Low ceilings can be a bit claustrophobic - if you had 2 rooms the same size one with low ceilings and one with high ceilings, the one with high ceilings would look bigger.

NervousHomeowner

I think it's because high ceilings can add a sense of elegance and make a room feel more spacious. They also usually come with nice big windows too, which are always lovely Like others have said though, they are a pain in the bum to heat! You have to remember to dust higher too

We are about to move from our rented 1800s terrace with beautiful high into a 1950s flat and I'm really going to miss having lovely high ceilings.

gnvqsos

The height will boost the volume of the room making it feel spacious.Lower ceilings are a cheap solution to rising building costs.Those worried about heating costs can wearanice jumper or two from the charity shop.

shortdog

You're missing having to get the stepladder out every time you want to change a bulb, clean the cobwebs, or take down that stray drawing pin left there from the Christmas decorations (yes, it's still there. I'll use it again in December.)

Fraise

dimbo61 wrote: »

High ceilings usually come with old houses and can look great
Outside toilet, coal shed, cold and expensive to heat also come to mind!
Old electrics, solid brick walls with no cavity, poor/no foundations.
No paarking or garage, expensive to repair and maintain.
Much better than the modern shoe box we live in :-)

Can't say I agree with that. Old houses with high ceilings are usually much more solidly built than new ones. They have thick brick walls, good solid foundations, space for parking often with garages and even a carriage driveway and the electrics and heating are
renewed by the owners usually including inside toilets and bathrooms. Old houses always look more
grand and spacious with lovely architraves etc but equally, low ceilinged cottage type places can feel very cosy and snug.

phoebe1989seb

I have to confess I do like a high ceiling - although they have to be in context with the style/size of the property to work best IMHO.

Our last-but-one house (detached built in 1888) had very high ceilings - 13' - in the two 20' reception rooms, with ornate decorative cornice that was a lovely feature......apart from when I had to spend hours using poultice strippers to remove textured paint applied by the PO :mad:

The hallway was very grand with a sweeping staircase and double-height large stairwell that had a huge window letting light flood in. It was the stunning high ceilinged hallway that sold the house to us. We never found the house cold as a result of the ceiling height, although I concede it wasn't cheap to heat and the decorator who came to hang wallpaper in the hallway refused to do it as he was afraid of heights

Our next house (originally built in Tudor times but rebuilt elsewhere in the 30s ) had an amazing vaulted-ceilinged large main reception room that went up into the eaves. Goodness knows how high it was - suffice to say it didn't get dusted and the Hoover wouldn't reach that far unless I stood on a ladder! The overall feeling in the room was cosy and bright despite the ceiling height as there was a 12' south-facing bay window and gorgeous polished oak floor, plus some large rads! The ceilings throughout the remaining (smaller) rooms were of standard height and did feel quite low by comparison.

OTOH, our current house is Georgian (or slightly older) and has relatively low ceilings at around 8'. To compensate we built a double-height vaulted kitchen extension last year. This enabled us to hang my ebay bargain of the century - a two metre high light fitting that originally cost £2k.......I paid £300 Much of the downstairs has lovely original ceiling beams but tbh I still miss my Victorian grandeur, even if it did cost more to heat

Edited to add - oh and forgot to say, none of these have outside loos - unless you count the disused privy halfway down the garden in our current place, lol!

googler

benjus wrote: »

You don't need high ceilings just because you're tall...

Anywhere with "normal" height ceilings will not be a problem for anyone ...

Maybe not 'need', but 'want'.

I want to be able to stretch my arms out in the morning without colliding with the ceiling. If I do fit a ceiling fan, again, I want it to be far enough away that I can stretch up without endangering myself.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm such a shortie that no ceiling is ever too low for me, but I do have to take into account tall visitors.

I have sorta medium height ceilings I guess in current house and I even have to get out the stepladder to change lightbulbs and get to my highest shelves.

So, I'm not that bothered about ceiling height, except for the thought of those higher fuel bills for higher ceilings.

I think it's a vistas thing actually. Some people like to feel they have a bit of "vistas" within their own home (and high ceilings are part of it). Personally, it's most important (indeed I've discovered its VERY important) for me to have vistas outside my home. One reason for selling current house is feeling "boxed into a rat-trap" within both the back yard and in the area generally because of the houses being built so close to each other (even if not attached to each other). So many people are being crammed into my current area that even modern executive type detached houses are often only a few feet apart from each other.

So my vistas will come from moving to an area where there is one heck of a sight more "vistas" because of the much lower number of people living there and the houses have been set noticeably further apart from each other. Bigger gardens, wider roads, space...space...space at last:D