Bathroom Ceiling Ideas for Any Home

Repainting your ceiling is the easiest, most cost-effective bathroom ceiling idea. It’s also one of the most versatile. Consider your wall color and choose a ceiling color that complements it (opposite to it on the color wheel), a related color (adjacent on the color wheel) or use the ceiling to create a monochromatic look with the same hue as the walls but with a different saturation. You can also give the ceiling a dramatic, bold look with dark shades of green and blue or even black. You might even want to try a faux finish to create extra interest and texture.

Ceiling tiles, planks and panels provide plenty of options for creating the look you want. Bright metal panels in different patterns, colors and finishes lend a traditional or historical feel, while faux wood panels and planks add a natural warmth. There are dozens of options to help you match the style of your bathroom décor and furnishings while creating a brand new, unexpected look for your ceiling.

Tiling a ceiling accent or a shower ceiling with porcelain tile also adds a unique look. The multitude of available colors, formats, shapes and patterns make tile a nearly limitless opportunity for customization and self-expression.

Installing crown moulding is a bathroom ceiling idea that offers decorative and functional benefits. From a purely decorative point of view, crown moulding adds architectural detail to your ceiling, and you can decide how simple or how intricate you want the detail to be. Functionally, crown moulding hides imperfections at the intersections of the ceiling and walls, giving the space a clean and professional look. Crown moulding also gives you an additional opportunity to add complementary or contrasting colors to a bathroom. And, installing crown moulding makes a room seem bigger, making it a perfect small bathroom ceiling idea.

Creating the look of exposed wood beams is a bathroom ceiling idea that adds more dimension to your ceiling. If you don’t have the opportunity of including these in a full bathroom remodel, the effect is easy to manage with decorative faux-wood beams. Wood-look or better yet, distressed-wood-look beams add a rustic appeal, an obvious choice if your goal is a farmhouse-style bathroom. The look of a wood beam makes a nice contrast with a painted ceiling. Or you can find paintable decorative beams so you can match your ceiling and still create a bit of dimensional appeal.

Nothing opens up and brightens up a bathroom like natural light. Large windows might not be practical, but skylights create a similar effect while maintaining better privacy. Choosing a venting skylight can also be a way to help remove humidity or even bring in a cool breeze. If you want an option that works for a ground floor bathroom in a two story house — and has a smaller footprint on your roof — consider a tubular skylight. On the ceiling it looks a lot like a standard light fixture, but it brightens your space with daylight.

If you prefer something that’s more traditional than a skylight and doesn’t require changes to your roof, stylish new flush and semi-flush mount lights, pendant lights and chandeliers draw attention to your ceiling, accenting any other bathroom ceiling ideas you employ. The range of styles and finishes is nearly limitless, allowing you to complement your design or create interesting contrast with your décor. Different types of LED or smart light bulbs let you further customize the space, with light that’s cozy, energizing or even colorful.

If you’re planning a full remodel of your bathroom or designing a new one, of course you’ve got more options. Remodeling to create a sloped ceiling along the exterior wall, an archway over the tub or even a vaulted ceiling over the entire space gives a bathroom a major upgrade. A new ceiling feature like this is the perfect place for accents of tile, paneling and paint. This type of feature also opens up more possibilities for enhancing the space with windows, skylights and lighting fixtures.