The ceiling in my entry is bright blue, like the walls. And half of our basement has a ceiling that’s nearly black. Have fun with color, if that’s your thing. It’s your space, and it can always be repainted if necessary.
(I hate all-white rooms because my wicked stepmother decorated their house that way. My room was the only one with any color at all…a navy blue carpet.)
We previously had all-white walls and ceilings because when we bought this house in 2015, walls and ceilings were orange and green! We figured we’d paint it all white to get a blank canvas and then pick fun colours, but we never ended up doing that because it was so much work.
I’m not a fan of all-white interiors either, but having white ceilings seems pretty common here, even when the walls are painted in a differnt colour. But you’re right, the worste case scenario is having to buy another can of paint and spend a few hours painting.
@TheMistressT the shade of purple I want for the walls is quite intense, so walls and ceilings would definitely be too much. But I think I’m going to get a paint sample of a lighter, matching shade to try that out for the ceiling. Unfortunately our windows are bright white. We got insulated windows and the plastic frames are the same colour inside and outside. Our house already had white (metal) window frames, if we wanted to change the appearance of the house we’d have to get a permit, and we didn’t want to go through that hassle. So we’re stuck with window frames as white as Tipp-Ex. I know you can still paint plastic, but painting would invalidate the warranty.
I also picked up my vintage canning jars from storage. They’re from my family’s farm and probably from the postwar period. The old school ones with glass lids and rubber rings. Aside from the fact that I don’t need such massive jars (1,5 to 2 liters - that’s slighty less and slightly more than half a gallon) most of them are slightly damaged. But they’ll look great in my craft room filled with beads and ribbon and bits and bobs. I knew in the back of my mind that vintage canning jars were a bit bigger than they are these days, but I’d forgotten how huge they really are.
White ceilings are the default color in the US, too. Back when I was a professional, sometimes clients would be dumbfounded that they could have a ceiling that wasn’t white and it not be juvenile or novelty. I would show them examples and you could practically see the lightbulb over their heads go on. 
It’s nice to look at various light neutrals that coordinate with your walls, floors, etc., too. The look isn’t “out there” or whatever, but it’s not so harsh as white can be.
I used white with the wall color mixed in when I owned our house. It wasn’t as stark nor was it dark…white really does work to brighten a room. Our rec room had dark ceilings to watch movies and play pool…but…it is paint…a relatively inexpensive remodel
I’ve known quite a few people who have done 1/2 or 1/4 intensity of their wall color on their ceilings. The paint store does it for them, so it’s not quite the same as diluting with white, depending on the tint base.
Yes…the paint store I used was great at recommending ideas for ceilings…apparently blue is popular also.
There are no “rules” anymore…unless you plan on selling…then neutrals seem to be the key…all of my rooms got painted very pale grey or white when we were selling it…
I think access to information has really allowed ideas for what “rules” are open up quite a bit. You hardly ever see a room designed by an accomplished designer have default ceiling white. If it’s white, it’s a very deliberate choice based on all the specifics of that space and the people who inhabit it. Just like those spaces won’t necessarily have all matching metal in the hardware and fixtures or all the same wood stained the same color.
If you’re open to ideas, there are so much resources, but unfortunately, in real life, I still see everyone buying exactly what everyone else has. There’s not even a lot of difference anymore between countries - I live near the German and Belgian border and their interiors used to be completely different from typical Dutch interiors. Now everyone in the whole world seems to have adopted International AirBnB / Pinterest - style.
I’m going to buy a paint sample for the ceiling this afternoon and I hope to be able to paint my craft room this weekend! I don’t mind painting itself but I hate the mess paint can create if you’re not careful. It helps Mr. Imma isn’t around this weekend. He’s awful at painting, always spilling it everywhere.
We quite like it when things are a little bit off or asymmetrical. We live in an old house so little odd nooks and crannies are to be expected. Our kitchen salesperson was really, really confused when we said we wanted non-matching hardware 
we have handles on some cabinets and drawers but not on all of them.
Our kitchen has a white ceiling (if you don’t count the water stains from the leak we’re trying to identify and fix). Livingroom, entrance, library have wood ceilings. The “boys” hallway and bedrooms have white ceilings. The laundry room has a white ceiling.
My bedroom used to have white ceilings, but I don’t like white ceilings so I painted it a caramel color which coordinates nicely with the wood walls.
My bathroom - which has white tiles - I painted the ceiling an pastel sunny yellow which blends quickly into the white walls. I textured those walls 80 zillion years ago - using the teeth on the trowel I pulled straight down from ceiling to top of the tiles - so nice rows of texture and I still love it!
THIS. I think this look is easy-enough to copy that lots of people do it. And it’s easier to get a “finished” look by falling back on standards, like white ceilings, matching hardware, the current standard color of electrical plates/switches/outlets, and "sets"of furniture. For a lot of people it feels “rich” to be able to have everything match which makes sense, because it is a privelege to walk into a store and pick out a new set of something or to not have to do things piecemeal. It takes even more money (time, access to expertise, etc.) to have things not match deliberately and appealingly.
I definitely like the over time acquired look. We had used or passed down furniture when we got married and over time collected or upgraded.
I was with one of my wealthy friends who took me to visit her 50ish daughter. Before we got there she said " My daughter would rather have her bees than matching furniture. "
You’re never gong to see a house featured in a home decor or architectural magazine that has a dining room where the table, chairs, buffet, hutch, sideboard, etc. all match, even if they were all bought within weeks of each other. That said, the people in that house have access to high quality furniture and an expert at finding things that go well together and with the floor and drapes, etc.
You just absolutely blew my mind!!
I grew up in a shabby, acquired-over-time and everything-DIY-house, my grandparents lived like that, our family farm looked like that, when I moved out our house looked like that… when I first moved out I took my grandparents’ stuff with me - in the 10 years between their death and my moving out it had been stored in an old barn, and it smelled a bit like cow for a couple of years. Storing furniture was only natural as everyone assumed the grandkids would eventually want it. As you may have guessed, no one in my family was wealthy (and that’s an understatement). I didn’t stay in the rural, conservative community I grew up in, but some of my friends did, and I always wondered why they had such cookie-cutter homes. I chalked up their “sets” of furniture, dinnerware etc to the difference between rural/urban and conservative/progressive trends.
But you’re right, it’s about not appearing poor, like my family, it’s about feeling wealthy because you have everything and it looks nice and matching. I remember when my highschool friend got married not too long after school (her husband was still in college) and we played a game where we’d name an exotic kitchen tool and she would say if she had it. We couldn’t come up with anything she didn’t have, and she was so proud! She was especially proud that everything was paid for, because a lot of people we knew back then would get their furniture sets on payment plans - another reason to buy a set. As teenage girls, we all slowly collected our trousseau underneath our beds.
A lot of people I know in the city have non-matching interiors, but you’re right, while in our case that has to do with being from a low-income background, a lot of people we know here are from pretty wealthy backgrounds. I haven’t checked where their furniture comes from, I’d just assumed it was cobbled together like ours, because you can’t find anything like that in the stores, but it could very well come from some designer vintage store where everything is €€€. Apparantly we still don’t go to the shops where the real privileged people go, since all we see is boring, matching Pinterest style.
We got rid of all low-quality hand-me-downs/thrift store things, so for example we let go of the third hand, worn out Ikea sofa, but we’ve kept everything handmade or solid wood. I’m sure our house will always look a bit mismatched, whether appealing or not is in the eye of the beholder.
Speaking of trousseaus, traditionally in the Netherlands they would be collected in a wardrobe with doors. Upon marriage, that cupboard would be used as a wardrobe / linen closet in the marital home. They were called maiden’s cupboards and a antique one has been very high on my wishlist for our new house, but they are very expensive these days. I still hope to find one in a thrift store one day. They seem very practical for craft supplies!
I have been longing for one of those wardrobes for my house, too. We have no closet in our bedroom, no linen closet and no closet at all on the first floor. I occasionally look at the thrift websites/fb marketplace type places but I have no cash for it so I’m on the lookout for someone looking to give one away just to get rid of it bc it isnt their style.
It does seem like the type of furniture that someone else may consider old fashioned, and give away for free or sell for next to nothing just to get rid of it. But actually finding one is probably a challenge!
I don’t feel strongly about getting one that’s officially “antique”, just regular old would do as well. I just want solid wood.
The most welcoming homes to me are ones where I can get a sense that the person lives there…where you know a bit about them…books pictures, pets…I am coming to see them in their home.
Some of my friends are matchy and neat, some are minimalist,etc. Doesn’t matter if they like it because I like them.
Do you.
YES! I am comfortable in a home where the people who live there are comfortable whether that be minimal or maximal, Modern or Traditional or Boho or or or. So long that there is a place to sit comfortably, it’s wonderful for a visit or short stay. I couldn’t stay long or live comfortably in certain styles or lifestyles, just like some people probably couldn’t stay long here because we allow the dog on the sofa and a couple of our horizontal surfaces are filled. To each their own. I just wish people could embrace their own and not compare to their parents’ or neighbors’ standards.
Not sure if it was across Australia, but certainly my grandmother (dad’s mum) had a ‘glory box’. Hers was a big chest/blanket box and she collected all her linens etc in it. I’m pretty sure that my mum didn’t have one, so I guess it was pretty old fashioned and may have been from my grandmother’s family traditions. She had Scottish, English, Irish and Canadian ancestry. As the oldest granddaughter, I got left the dresser/sideboard that my grandmother kept in her room. I don’t know if it was supposed to be for my glory box, I was only 11 when she passed.
How nice to have inherited that dresser! I imagine especially for those people who moved across long distances, such as your ancestors, it would be super useful to have a large sturdy chest for their things. The traditional cupboards here looked very pretty but weren’t practical for moving outside of your area.
By the time I was that age, in the early 00s, the days of those pretty chests and cupboards was long gone of course, but it was still very common for girls to have a few plastic tubs under their beds to collect their things in. I don’t have friends with girls in that age category, so I have no idea if it still happens, but I expect it does. Maybe not as much as back then because I think girls aren’t settling down as young as they used to.
I didn’t really get around to painting this weekend, but I did unpack more boxes, gave away 20 empty boxes to neighbours who have a friend who is moving soon, and sorted out some things the builders left here. For a long time, I left all the piles of screws and things they left everywhere in place, because sometimes they’d go back and use them again, but now they’re done, I’m assuming they don’t need those things anymore and getting rid of them.
I can’t find the conversation I’m looking for that was about dishwasher tabs but I just came across this recipe for DIY and why the heck not, we make everything else ourselves!