Design ideas
Ceiling Design Ideas for Contemporary Arizona Homes
Open plans, high volumes and strong daylight change how a ceiling reads. Six design directions, and how to fit each one to an Arizona house.
Resources
Guides for the decisions that come first
Proportion, silhouette, layout and preparation — the parts of a ceiling beam project that get decided before anyone talks about product.
Not sure where to start? The Buyer's Guide puts these in order, from first idea to evaluating a quote.
Design ideas guides
Design ideas
Modern Desert Homes: Ceiling Beams That Stay Restrained
A modern desert house is built around the horizon, the light and a lot of calm surface. Here is how to add beams without giving up the quiet that made you want the house.
Design ideas
Southwest-Inspired Ceiling Beams Without the Theme-Park Look
Southwest character comes from color, light and a few honest references. Costume comes from stacking every reference in one room. Here is how to tell the difference on your own ceiling.
Design ideas
Santa Fe and Pueblo Revival Ceilings: Vigas, Latillas and the Look Today
What vigas and latillas were, how the revival style used them, and how to decide how much of that language a house today can honestly carry.
Design ideas
Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean Ceiling Beam Ideas
Dark beams on white plaster are the starting point, but arches, tile and iron all affect how far to go. Here is how to plan a ceiling that agrees with the rest of the house.
Design ideas
Updating a Tuscan-Style Home: What to Do With the Ceiling
Many Tuscan-style homes do not need new ceilings so much as less contrast around them. A triage for houses with dark beams, houses with none, and houses with a little of everything.
Design ideas
Rustic Ceiling Beams That Still Feel Refined
Rustic works when the rough element has something precise to play against. How to budget texture, check it with a flashlight and keep the layout crisp.
Design ideas
Modern Farmhouse Ceiling Beams
Modern farmhouse is a recipe, and recipes get tired. Where beams belong in a gable or a flat kitchen ceiling, how to choose a tone beside your floors, and how to keep it from reading as a trend.
Design ideas
Ranch and Mid-Century Homes: Adding Beams With Respect for the House
These houses have a low, horizontal logic that is easy to spoil. How to read the house's own rhythm, when to leave original ceilings alone, and what to do at a removed wall.
Design ideas
Industrial Ceiling Beam Ideas for Homes and Lofts
Industrial style borrows the look of steel framing, so it depends on rhythm and logic. Which silhouette to choose, how real frames behave, and what changes between a house and a loft.
Design ideas
Traditional Ceiling Beam Ideas
Traditional covers several very different lineages. Read your trim to find yours, then solve the detail most people miss: where the beam meets the crown molding.
Design ideas
Classic Grid Ceilings: Order, Symmetry and When They Work
A beam grid is the most orderly thing you can put on a ceiling, and it exposes every misalignment in the room. When it works, when it does not, and how to plan one on paper.
Start a project
Read enough? Send the room.
Photographs and rough dimensions turn general guidance into a conversation about your ceiling.