I’ve always loved renovating bathrooms, but there was one thing I kept overlooking. For months I obsessed over choosing coordinating tiles, debating matte vs gloss. I spent hours pinning showers on Pinterest and emptied Whole Foods climbing over each other to reach our loo in the plumbing department.
I stalked people’s bathrooms on Instagram and Googled ceiling fan styling tips until midnight. Then one day it hit me – I’d nailed the bath to shoulder-height routine. Fresh white paint on the ceiling?
Check. Getting frustrated with my unfinished vision took a while, though.
I’d hop in the bath (we splurged on a ‘real’ bath rather than bath-over-shower hideousness) and… look up.
My eyes would trail up the sleek tiles until they rested on one big missed opportunity. It was like slapping on mascara then forgetting your eyebrows exist. Criminal, in my opinion.
My “Eureka!” bathroom came to visit a few weeks later. Friend Claire had her new ensuite done, and ohmygod everything was so nice! Gloss black Victorian floor tiles.
Oversized copper sink that cost more than our weekly food shop. FANCY towel rail. I stifled a yawn as I looked up.
OH. SAME. Here we were comparing our shiny new bathrooms and we’d BOTH UNDERPAINTED THE CEILINGS.
Great. As always, Claire is way ahead of the curve so I didn’t actually ask her, but I bet she painted hers white too. Danny and I use our bathroom multiple times a day.
Give or take. If you have kids/husband who drinks sixteen cups of tea a day/you can substitute either of the former with yourself, you will use your bathroom more times than that. Stop ignoring your ceiling.
Up is a direction. Mine came crashing back down when we finally had cause to repaint the ceiling after builders moved in upstairs and had an ‘incident’ with the pipes. Nothing major – but enough that I’d need to paint over the soggy bits.
Ditching white was the easy part. I grabbed a tester pot of Dulux Pine Look in Graphite instead of my go-to Dulux Trade White. Same colour family as the walls, but a few shades lighter.
Spoiler alert: Never look down when you have someone painting your ceiling. Danny walked in and was like…wow. Seriously, usually he wouldn’t even notice until I’ve mentioned it at least three times.
Bathroom renovation magic. People have mad skills when it comes to painting walls. Ceilings though?
Totally beginner-friendly territory. Feel free to experiment with bold patterns and colours you may shy away from on four-legged surfaces. I’ve tried a few things over the years.
Some bombed. Some went viral inside our four walls. Painting your bathroom ceiling is one of those things.
At first, I didn’t get it. How hard can it be? Paint it white.
Ta-daaa. Done. Spoiler alert: your ceiling is NOT a wall.
Eye level is different when you’re soaking in the bath. Everything feels more… intense. Pine felt like THE darkest colour on the rack until I painted my bathroom ceiling.
It went from drab to SPACIOUS in seconds. Looking back I should’ve gone with a paler shade. Dark colours highlight every dust particle and watermark like nobody’s business.
Next time I’m sticking with GREY. Or pink. Never underestimate a soft pink ceiling.
I ended up painting our main bathroom ceiling the same colour as the walls but in a matt finish instead of eggshell. Creates a subtle hue difference that looks intentional but isn’t IN YOUR FACE. Cost about fifteen bones in paint.
Bam. Transformed. Got ballsy when we moved into our current house and had a blank slate ceiling to decorate.
Decided to try my luck at shiplap. Saw it done on House Hunters International (didn’t get the house but major #copied). Swear it looked like half the effort those ‘This Old House’ boys make it out to be on YouTube.
Spoiler alert: it’s not. Cutting and painting those fiddly little bits took me a solid weekend. Plus ALL THE MEASURING.
God, the measuring was excruciating. Our bathroom wasn’t perfectly square (old houses, am I right?) so every.single.board had to be cut a slightly different length. Danny kept suggesting we hire someone but I was pretty damn sure I could figure it out myself.
Spoiler alert: you probably can’t. Anyway, got there in the end. First couple of boards aren’t exactly Christms-worthy in terms of finish but they’re on the down-low behind the door so no one cares!
Wouldn’t change it for the world though. Shiplap adds texture and movement like nothing else. The way the light hits the plastercorners throughout the day is glorious.
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Bonus? Used plain old pine tongue-and-groove from the builder’s merchant instead of the engineered shiplap. About sixty quid saved.
Looks exactly the same once painted. Beadboard is similar but way easier if you can’t quite commit to full shiplap or aren’t confident with a mitre saw. Did this in our current ensuite with these click-together panels from Wickes.
Did both ceilings (loo and ensuite) in a day. Takes approx one human laydeh and cost about forty quid paint and panels combined. Love how it makes the room feel taller – ceilings are pretty low in our Victorian terrace so any trick that gives the illusion of height is GAME.
Don’t stress too much over upkeep either. Thought they’d be dust traps but they’re actually great. Give them a wipe over every couple of months and you’re golden.
Way easier than the textured ceiling we had before, which was impossible to keep clean. Similar concept to shiplap but a heck of a lot fancier. Crown moulding around your bathroom ceiling is a GAME CHANGER, y’all.
Invested some quality evenings into YouTube U (AKA The Dixler Method: ‘Learn in 2 Days or It’s Free’). Stupidly at first. Watched enough throwaway crying on YouTube renovation channels to teach myself in the end.
Anywho. Slapped up in two evenings with a radio show and enough tea to kill a small bear. Happy pair of bluebirds.
Once I’d added crown moulding, our bathroom went from functional washing space to…a bathroom. No joke, it truly made the room feel finished. Cost thirty quid in white trim and barely broke a sweat.
Got the郁nanoFLOWERitch on trying out coffered ceilings next. DIY version, obvs. Like those incredible cathedral ceilings you see in old conversions but don’t need to hire a team of architects and tilers to achieve.
Saw the messrs Do do it in their Victorian flat in Nottingham and adooooredd it. Instead of complex architraves they’d simply created three rectangles on their bathroom ceiling and painted the insets a shade darker than the moulding itself. Freaking sophisticated and yet not at all over the top.
Yep, did it. Wallpapered my bathroom ceiling. Don’t hate.
PROMISE. Tiny botanical print. Nothing too busy.
Learned that lesson from a neighbour who did oversized tropical leaves and couldn’t sleep at night worrying she looked like she was in the jungle. Satin finish so it doesn’t BLEACH you when the sun hits. Major yikes.
Hanging wallpaper vertically was… interesting. AGAIN: gravity is not your friend when you’re trying to align patterns and paste ceilings. Trickiest bit (aside from using your arms for longer than is probably humanly possible) was matching the pattern repeat but worth it for the OTT effect.
Instant wow factor. Tip: keep your background light or your bathroom will look like a cave. And spend the extra quid on proper paste.
Sawed off criminally cheap the first time and half the wallpaper shrugged off before we even took selfies. I wish I’d played more with lighting when we did our bathroom ceiling. All those fancy downlights people have look expensive when they’re obviously part of your intentional ceiling design.
In ours, I opted to add three LED spots to mirror the lines of the shiplap. Creates gorgeous shadows throughout the day. My #bathroomfail was painting my downstairs loo ceiling navy.
Gorgeous colour. Pine in the jug looks like THE darkest shade EVER. Up there…it’s a……cesshole.
Every watermark. Every flake of dust. mocks you. Don’t get me wrong, dark ceilings can look incredible.
Just expect to spend more time cleaning than you normally would. Practicality over pretty, folks. Similar goes for textured ceilings.
Look fabulous but collect dust like nobody’s business. Lovely coffered ceilings, for example. Sure, they’ll look INCREDIBLE in your bathroom but OH HAI horsehair dust lurking in those skinny panels every time you wipe them down.
Confession: ours used to be textured. NEVER again. Price-wise, painting your ceiling is the cheapest ceiling game out there.
Bathroom paint will set you back twenty to thirty quid depending on the size of your bathroom. Shiplap/beadboard paneling will cost fifty to a hundred depending on square footage.
Adding extra moulding adds thirty to sixty quid to your project, depending on how extravagant you go crazy.
Most of the cost is your time. Literally all of our ceilings have been weekend DIY projects because Danny and I aren’t afraid of a stepladder and own some rudimentary tools. (PHYSICAL SCIENCE:NEVER TOUCH YOUR ELECTRICS.) Do NOT be silly enough to wire things yourself. Get an electrician in for any jobs that involve fiddling with wiring.
Not worth the electrocution. The weirdest thing about taking my ceilings more seriously? I actually LOOK FORWARD to using our bathroom now.
Silly? Maybe. But when you’ve created something YOU love walking into every day, you kind of want to enjoy it.
Even if that thing is twenty feet off the ground. Give your bathroom ceiling some love this weekend and report back!
