4 Ceiling Trends That Give New Weight to the “Fifth Wall”

Ceilings can, and should, dazzle. A stellar example can signal thoughtfulness about the design of a whole space, and function as a kind of decorating Easter egg: Look up, and you might be rewarded with gestures of wit, virtuosic craft, optical tricks, or sumptuous color. So what ceiling trends are raising the roof right now? We spoke with inventive designers with distinctly different aesthetic points of view to find out what inspires them when it comes to designing a room’s fifth wall.

Geometry and Not-Plain Planes

Playing with color, form, and geometry can give a ceiling movement and verve. London-based Studio Vero chose to make the most of a low ceiling on the ground floor of a West London residence. “This space is a little anteroom on the lower ground floor that leads to a garden—it has a low ceiling and could have been something of a forgotten room, so we wanted to turn it into something special,” says partner Venetia Rudebeck. The team layered stripes, embraced vivid colors, and—on the ceiling—created a flat version of a classic circus tent with a green lighting fixture from Urban Electric that recalls the satisfyingly plump cylinders of Irving Harper’s 1956 Marshmallow Sofa. “As the room connects to the garden and has a home bar in it, it brings in the element of fun in the way it’s almost tent-like, yet it’s been done in a sophisticated way—with the antique table and the chairs from Martin Brudnizki’s And Objects—it’s playful but feels very smart at the same time,” adds Rudebeck.

In a small space, like the anteroom Studio Vero took on in this West London flat, going for a bold ceiling treatment can pack a stylish wallop.

Simon Brown courtesy of Vero Studio

Clever use of multi-floor depth can make a space that might otherwise be overlooked into the centerpiece of an interior. Marco Angelucci of Marguerite Rodgers in Philadelphia recently used a stairwell with a skylight to frame a dramatic lighting fixture, thus bringing two forms of illumination into the interior. “Don’t limit yourself to walls when thinking about ways to let natural light into a space,” Angelucci advises. “A skylight can do the job too while displaying the ever-changing sky. It’s artwork for the ceiling.”

Marguerite Rodgers in Philadelphia used a stairwell’s skylight to dramatic effect.

Halkin Mason courtesy of Marguerite Rodgers

Think of a skylight like “artwork for the ceiling,” says Marco Angelucci of Marguerite Rodgers.

Halkin Mason courtesy of Marguerite Rodgers

Art History

Architectural history is full of examples of ceilings as the canvases for great works, from Giotto’s deep blue starry-sky masterpiece inside the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua to the dazzlingly complex carved stone ceiling of the Hall of Kings in the Alhambra palace in Granada. Designers can draw on centuries of inspiration when it comes to anchoring ceiling trends in historical context. Chicago-based designer Sarah Vaile studied Henri Matisse’s paper cutouts as she crafted her entry hall for the 2023 Lake Forest Showhouse; working closely with a decorative artist, she placed linen appliqués in the shape of paper birds on the ceiling of the two-story space, making it seem as though the birds were flying upwards from the colorful Matisse-inspired wallpaper by DeGournay.