I think you are on the right track by adding wainscotting and crown moulding. The crown will actually imo bring the ceiling height down and the wainscotting will break up the wall. Paint the ceiling a dark color as that will lower it, leave the walls lighter.

I wouldn't put the wainscoting so high as you don't want to walk in and feel like a little kid in a giant's room. Rather I would paint the ceiling a dark color which will bring it down visually. You might also, instead of a crown molding, run a molding at a more appropriate height for the ceiling for the smaller room...maybe 10" below the ceiling instead and paint the ceiling color down on the wall to the molding to also visually bring the ceiling lower as in the examples below.

Fountain House · More Info

Living room · More Info

I would probably skip the crown mouldings and use a lighter color that could go on the ceiling as well. Maybe a celery green, something like this:

Agree with a lower wainscoting. Big yes to crown moulding. 9'4" is not that tall. I'd paint the walls and beautiful rich color. someone here did their powder room in BM Caponata, and boy is it gorgeous. I'd paint the walls in a rich jewel color and the ceiling in a complimentary color.

I'm going to do rather big crown moldings at
the ceiling.

Don't do it. Install a wide molding at normal ceiling height (8 ft) and paint everything above it the same color to declare that it is "ceiling".

I don't think I'd bother with wainscotting in such a small room. I think it might actually emphasize the height and narrowness and make it choppy and too complicated. Maybe just a picture rail height molding, possibly with a ledge on top for art or decorative items.

I think I'd paint the walls and ceiling in the red, and do the trim and crown in white. That would really put the focus on the vintage fixtures. I'd look for a really special vintage mirror for a focal point. A chandelier that coordinates with the sconces might be a nice use of the ceiling height, and would provide more light.

Some conflicting suggestions here. We're going to have the wainscoting in the LR, so I thought maybe to do it in the powder room, but I can see how it would be too much. I like the idea of some kind of (small) chandelier, but I'd have to figure out a way to incorporate it into the existing ceiling fixture. Right now, I have a combination light and vent fan, since a vent fan is required, and there's not much ceiling to work with.

I'm a little more conflicted on the crown molding. The rest of the house is going to have a sort of Craftsman crown, using a combination of rectangular boards and a small crown to fill the corner. It comes down the wall about 7-1/2"- not huge, but bigger than a typical tract home with 8' ceilings. I could do something different in the powder room, of course, but I want the room to be well detailed. Since I do all of my own work, the expense isn't great, and I could re-paint the room rather quickly.

I'd keep the crown moulding uniform with the rest of the house.

Here is the thread with the powder room where she used the BM Caponata. Notice also the gorgeous wainscoting. Scroll down to 2:49 a.m. where she posts the pics of the finished product.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2866072/help-me-find-a-powder-room-paint-color?n=33

I have a similar elevator shaft powder room. I have been contemplating painting the ceiling dark. But I wouldn't wrap it down the wall. I had a similar paint treatment in another bathroom in the old house, and it didn't make the ceiling seem lower, it just looked goofy.

We had a small bathroom with a ceiling that was at least 10 feet, maybe more (it's been 17-18 years). Someone suggested we drop the ceiling color. Instead of a moulding, we had a wallpaper border with a front porch scene and painted light blue above it and on the ceiling. It worked really well in that room.

tibbrix- Thanks for that link. Your picture of the dark chocolate bathroom with the white wainscoting is what I had for a mental image. My wainscoting would work well at about 54" to work with the various elements, or lower, around 46".

The room is so small that I can experiment without a tremendous expenditure of time or money. I want to do the crown in there first so I can see if I like the look of my home-brewed crown. For me, some kind of wainscoting is a given, and again, I can work out the details before moving on to the much larger LR. I can start with white wainscoting and crown, dark walls, and a white ceiling. From there, I can try the dark color on the ceiling as well to see if we like it better. It doesn't take long to paint/re-paint a 28 square foot ceiling!

Btw, while I LOVE chocolate brown and would definitely consider it for a powder room - I think it is an elegant color - the color in that pic in the link, in tfitz's powder room, is actually BM Caponata, a purple.

Does your powder room have a window?

No, there is no window in the powder room. There is an overhead light (part of the vent) and a pair of vintage white porcelain sconces over the corner sink.

I like the BM Caponata, but we're really leaning towards a deep rich red, just because.

I'd be leery of a dark ceiling in a room with no window, although the crown moulding would mitigate that "cave" feeling. A black-cherry kind of red would be beautiful.

SW Rookwood Dark Red

I thought my powder room was small at 60" square! I am adding a large, but shallow, semi flush ceiling light to my powder room, which will bring down the ceiling height.

Ours is 40" X 98", so we have the 'bowling alley' combined with the 'elevator shaft'!

I would prefer the bowling alley to the 'phone booth' we have! Previous house had a 'bowling alley' with sink on one side, door in middle and toilet on other side. It did its job! The bad part is really the location, not private enough. Luckily we also have a guest full bath on main floor that I direct people to for more privacy.

It was hard to get a good photo in such a small bathroom (ours is a tad bit larger than yours in length and about 45" wide), but here's what we did.

We painted the ceiling same as the walls. The same crown is in the rest of the house. Also, we have visuals (prints, paintings, etc.)

on the wall, so when you are doing your business, you are focusing on the walls and not the ceiling. The dark color makes the ceiling look lower.

My sister-in-law has a similar bathroom. She gold foiled the ceiling and then put a very large (in length) gold framed mirror on the wall opposite the toilet, It's at eye level to the bottom of the frame when sitting on the toilet.