Discussion»Questions»Home and Garden» Would you like 20 feet high ceilings in your living room, dining room, recroom/den etc to provide lots of space to hang lots of neat stuff?
We had those in our previous apartment on our brownstone's parlor floor, but we recently moved downstairs to a larger apartment with a backyard but much lower ceilings.
Sounds like a smart move. Those high spaces increase heating costs and the downstairs is cold yet. In my current house my stairwell is even higher to accommodate a ceiling sky light four floors from the downstairs floor. . It's no problem where I live because I'm happy the hot air has a place to live.
Even smarter considering that we had the place renovated and rented out for $3250/month. The people down here before were paying $3850, so it wasn't a big income loss in exchange for a lot more space, although we spent a good amount on renovations.
* High ceilings are hard to keep clean (dust and spiders don't need a ladder to get up there).
* High ceilinged areas cost more to heat, (heat rises, cold air sinks) So you pay more to sit and freeze while the spiders are warm and cozy as they spin their "dust collectors".
* High ceilings don't reflect light well, thus making the area below them darker (did a spider drop down and .
* Inevitably, where there's a high ceiling there's a large, high window (trying to compensate for the lack of light). Cleaning windows at arm level is bad enough ... ..and trying to train spiders to clean windows is a huge waste of time (in case anyone was wondering, spiders do laugh).
* High ceilings echo sound ... all sound - A car alarm system going off 10 miles away, the neighbor's tone-deaf kid practicing the trumpet, spiders weaving "death webs" to drop on you when you're all alone and the power goes out ... at night.
Vaulted ceilings were the way to go before air conditioning was invented - enclose as large a volume of air as possible inside so it gains or loses heat to the outside more slowly. Now with aircon, you're trying to cool as small a volume of air as possible so your power bills don't cripple you.
No, I don't care for super-high ceilings. Our vacation home has them and it looks nice with the big windows and the pine wood, but it's not very practical. The lights are impossible to get to without a very tall ladder, they're hard to clean, and the living room is difficult to heat as a result.
I prefer something a bit lower. I still have room to hang things.