Our new house has 10 ft. ceilings throughout. To help cozy up some of the spaces we did the following:

In the kitchen we are putting 30 inch uppers with solid doors and an 18 inch on top of that with glass door. That upper cabinet will be strictly decorative. This still leaves me enough room to put decorative items on top of the cabinets.

In the guest/hall bath we painted the ceiling the same color as the wall to help cozy it up since the room is so tiny. With that real high ceiling it might look a bit weird. We are also putting wainscoting 4 ft. up which will also bring down the ceiling height.

In the guest bedroom we are putting 5 ft. wainscoting as this room is narrow and long and this will cozy it up.

We have white ceilings in all the rooms except the hall bath just because we like a lot of light and the light will bounce off the ceiling.

We will have 5-6" crown molding in all rooms.

Another trick that will help bring the ceiling height down is to put some picture rail molding 12" down from the ceiling, around the room, then bring your ceiling color down the wall to meet the railing.

We don't really want to bring our ceilings down because we love the airy and open feeling. We've lived with 8 ft. ceilings way too long. We both grew up in homes that had 12 ft. ceilings and having the tall ceilings suit us well.

Hope these ideas were of help. I'll have photo's of my crown molding up next week.

That is a little house, but I know that many pictures I put in the Gallery were from a blog that's for owners of little houses. Have you looked at the picture threads in our gallery for ideas?

Okay, I had to chuckle over the "10'ceilings". Most people I know only have 10' ceilings. It's the newer builds that have these high cathedral ceilings. Just think of the money you'll save with heating and cooling because you won't have that extra space to take care of :) 10' isn't really all that short, unless you're like an 8' or 9' person...

We live in a mobile home and have for the last 8 years and will until the time comes that I get out, go to the two year business school and get a job (I've been a SAHM for 9 years tomorrow, exactly) because we need the second income. Our trailer is twenty years old but it doesn't look it because we have replaced and repaired and painted nearly everything. It's a 16X70, which means we have a little over 1100 sq ft, three bedroom, one and a half bath, 8ft ceilings in every room but the living room and kitchen. We have two kids, so lots of toys and 'junk' that comes along with them . :) Sometimes I wish we had a bit more room, like we only have the closets in the bedrooms and that's it for storage (we have an Amish shed outside for the seasonal things and whatever else we need to "store" but I have also learned to make use out of every avaliable space like under the beds) but we've made it work. We're not on top of one another. There aren't little walkways through the rooms. And even with the 8' ceilings and ceiling fans that hang lower, nobody has hit their head on anything (DH is 5' 10" and I'm 5' 5", so we're not anywhere near hitting our heads...but DH's cousin is 6' something and they bought an older house with low archways and he's still able to walk through and skim right under them with no problems. He's not complainging)

I often think the problem is that people think they need more "junk" than they really do to make a house a home. You really just need the basics. I will admit that the reason I wish I had more room was really just to have more cupboards and shelving and more space to display my Primitive antiques, not because we're lacking space to move around and properly function.

Just look back at the houses from the previous generations. Some really tiny homes were big enough for families of 5, 6, 7....I know people that lived in smaller mobile homes than we're in and raised 4 or 5 kids! My grandparents first house was about the size of our trailer. It was a Cape Cod style so they had the slanted roof in the bedrooms upstairs....they had 5 kids in that house. It can be done!

One tip will be to definitely measure spaces and the furniture you plan to fill it with. A lot of furniture today are these massive, overstuffed pieces that may not work so well in the smaller spaces. However, you will be able to find things that work!

Enjoy your new home!

Do you by chance have one of the Texas Tiny Houses from this site;
http://www.tinytexashouses.com/?

I love those! If so, can you share more?

I've pasted Behr's "8' Rule" article below.
You can see the article with photos here.

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Contrary to what you may have heard, white can actually make ceilings appear lower in rooms with low ceilings, and make them seem even more distant in rooms with high, lofty ceilings.

Based on this, there are some good general rules to follow when selecting paint colors for your ceiling area:

If your room has ceilings that are 8' high or under, paint the ceiling a shade or two lighter than the color of your walls.

If your ceilings are higher than 8', paint them a shade or two darker than your wall color.

Following this advice will help give an illusion of space to a low-ceilinged room, or add a feeling of coziness to rooms with higher ceilings.

Leaving the ceiling white, while painting the walls with color, can occasionally make a room seem unfinished. Adding just a touch of color to a ceiling can bring a certain intimacy, as well as give the space a much more finished and refined look.

Sweets 98 -- okay, you made me giggle too!
10' ceilings seem huge to us, we've been living in our motorhome for several years... 400 sf and ceilings that I can touch without stepping on my tippie toes!

So, if 10' ceilings are the norm, just treat as a regular room :) That's easy.

Last night I spent several hours on the gallery. Made a lot of notes, got a lot of ideas -- thanks all.

I'm excited about the thought of having a kitchen that is bigger than 5feet. :)

10 foot ceilings are NOT the norm in my area, they are an upgrade in new construction. You are smart to be thinking about how to deal with them. I find it particularly difficult in my bathrooms. I have done nothing to them yet, hence the lack of photos. I am planning to add lots of molding to the powder room, which currently feels like a silo.

The two smallest rooms in the house, my office (11x16) and a bedroom (12x14) are painted normally with colored walls and white ceilings. They look fine.

10' is pretty much the norm for newer houses here but usually the larger ones. I don't think I've heard of that high of a ceiling in a smaller house. I think it would be fabulous and help make things feel very open. I'm in 100% agreement with the article Moonshadow posted. I would paint the ceilings a warm tan or go with the one shade darker rule if you're not using colors that are already pretty dark on the wall! ;c)

Okay, so it was EARLY this morning when I replied. 10' ceilings aren't he norm here, either in older homes! LOL They're usually lower than that :)

Movin-on,
Yes, your new home will seem a lot larger if you've been in your RV! You are "movin-up". I think if you can make a home out of an RV, you can certainly handle your new home :)

As for paint and things like that in a small house, it totally depends on what else in going in that room! I have been able to use darker paint on the walls in my kitchen than in other rooms because my cabinets are cream, counter tops and floor are a light, neutral shade and we have white appliances. Those things make the room brighter. Now if we went with darker cabinets, black counter tops and stainless appliances, I would want a light color on the walls or it would be a LOT darker. We have also painted the wainscot in our living room, which was fake wood to a deep red. It doesn't look darker in here because I have a lighter color above and we have enough lighting.

Lighting is another thing. My Gran has a larger sized kitchen, but because her house is backed up against the woods and she lives in an area that even in the middle of summer, the sun is hidden behind the trees by 3pm, her kitchen is DARK. Even with white walls and lighter stained cabinets!

Good luck!