How to Design a Cool Ceiling

One area that often gets overlooked is the ceiling.  Sometimes called the "5th wall", you would be surprised what an impact can be made with a little thought.  The ceiling in this picture is one we did that has a sheetrock furr down around it, creating a tray ceiling.  We then added 2 X 4's at the bottom most part of the tray both horizontally and vertically to create a cove to hold rope lights.  This particular tray received a plaster treatment, but you could go a lot less expensive by doing something with a paint.  There are all kinds of cool paints now available at your local hardware store.  We sheetrocked over the cove area, then we triple ran rope light so that you would notice it at anytime during the day.  This is key, because so often people only run one strand of light, and it is lost on the effect that you are trying to pull because you can only see it at night.  The rope lights are switch activated, so they can be turned on and off at your discretion.  This effect can be done on all scales of budget, so if you are considering doing something to your ceiling- this is a fantastic option for the price.