Funny you should mention this color, but we are just about to use it in our DR. There is no way I would paint the ceiling with Pashmina. I think it would look like a cave.

I looked up images of the color, but didn't see one that has a ceiling in the same color. If you have very high ceilings and your room has a lot of windows it might work, but look at all the rooms here with it - white ceilings. HERE

I would say "it depends...". What is the reasoning behind why the decorator is suggesting this? There may be some good reasons to do so. Is the ceiling high? Is the ceiling low? Is the junction between the walls and the ceiling uneven in any way? Are there soffits or obstructions in the ceiling?

Is there trim between the wall and the ceiling like crown molding?

I colored the ceiling in on one picture I found:

A lot is going to depend on the lighting. I've seen black ceilings that were fine under certain circumstances. I have a dark brown open sheathing and raftered ceiling on my top floor. I would never paint it. But it needs a lot of lamps to be well lit at night.

I think a mistake people make now is to rely heavily on recessed cans and a central decorative fixture and not have enough lamps and that can really leave a room without adequate lighting, or a lot of lighting but with glare.

I think you need to ask your decorator Why? And "just because" might not be an adequate answer.

What pal said -- and I was looking at that same photo. There are a couple of others that appear to have the ceiling painted in the same color at a lesser value (one looks like 20-30% and another 30-40% or so).

One other thought is that decorators are often like rooms that are more moody or dramatic than a lot of folks are comfortable living with, especially in casual common areas.

Thank you all for your comments. I should have mentioned in the original post that our ceilings are only 8 feet and there isn't any crown molding/trim between the walls and ceiling. The room backs onto our backyard which has lots of trees. We get a fair bit of light these days and throughout the winter because of the leaves being gone, but come the summer, that room will be darker.

I was the one who asked her about doing a diluted version (ie: 25%) for the ceiling as I had read that it would make the ceiling appear higher. When she suggested full strength I didn't really question it as I was looking at some tiny little sample on a fan deck and she said she had used this color a lot over the years. It really wasn't until my DH and I painted the sample boards that we saw how it might be overwhelming on the ceiling.

palimpest - thank you for taking the time to mock up that photo. I think it looks nice, but no way do we have those beautiful high ceilings. Our floors are a medium tone wood look so I don't think that will help keep it light and airy.

Here is is with the ceiling flattened. It may be too dark for your purposes. In this room it is balanced by the white floor

Our decorator wanted us to do the same. Her reasoning was since the bulk of our house has 10' ceilings, and our trim & crown molding are especially wide and painted white...it would show off the trim much better. I was hesitant, so we compromised & did a 25% lighter ceiling.

i will say, I don't even notice it. But...I will also say, the 2 main neutrals in my house are pretty light to begin with, AND a huge drawback I just discovered involves repainting. I am slowly transitioning the rooms in my house that are painted SW Grecian Ivory to SW Lattice bc I love Lattice so much more than Grecian Ivory. Dh repainted the playroom first, looked great, then realized, "oh fudge, the ceiling!" Dh doesn't paint ceilings, especially 10' ones! Yeah, so it would have been better to go w/white for that reason! The Grecian Ivory is very subtle, but you can definitely tell it ISNT white and it ISNT Lattice so it has to go! :)

It's a bit of a trend, especially for those who love dark colored walls and rooms. Here's an interesting article, and another. Totally depends on the look and feel you are trying to achieve.

Ok, so I'm trying for a more airy light approach.....after looking at pics you linked Kaillean, I think I need to re-think this.....sigh....I'm afraid that I'm not that dramatic. And Pal, thanks for showing me the flat ceiling.....you are very talented and your visuals help beyond belief.

There is something to be said for blurring the line between walls and ceiling. I don't know if I would try it in your room without seeing it, but I can tell you that I did it in part of my bedroom. Most of the room has 10 foot ceilings with a tray up to 12 feet, but on the exterior wall, there is sort of a bay with French doors and windows on either side. The house is a story and a half, so that bay area has a lower ceiling. And there is lots of crown everywhere except the bay. The room had the ceilings painnted white and the first time we painted iit, we kept it that way, but I kept playing with painting the lifted part of the tray blue. Neither blue nor white seemed right with that small bay portion. I still remember that "here goes nothing" feeling as I started to paint the wall color on the ceiling and thinking "repainting this white is gong to be a pain" because of the color and the texture. But once it was done, I lived it. It is now the only thing that makes sense to me -- for that area.

Nini is right though -- it doesn't matter if you go 10% or 100% of a color on the ceiling, when you change the walls, you will almost certainly have to paint the ceiling too.

Have you used any of the paint tools to try the color on a photo of your room? That would let you see the color on the walls and ceiling and with your flooring.

Are you familiar with Laurel Bern's blog? She's an expert with GREAT advice and beautiful idea pics on her blog. In her search box just type in ceiling paint or something like that. She's a Ben Moore expert! https://laurelberninteriors.com/2012/04/08/welcome-to-the-laurel-home-blog/

I just had my bedroom, bath, and kitchen painted and struggled with the same question. Have you looked at pics of rooms with the ceiling the same as the walls? I generally like the look (at least in photos).

I matched the ceiling with the walls in my bathroom and white ceilings in the kitchen and bedroom. I like it in the bathroom and kind of wish I'd done the same in the kitchen (both are light colors). My bedroom is deep teal, and I chickened out on doing the ceiling dark too.

I also recommend Laurel Bern! She says dark colors make the walls recede and white makes the wall seem closer. In my teal bedroom with white ceiling, I don't disagree with that.

true or false? painting walls white will make a room appear larger

20 breathtakingly georgeous ceiling paint colors and one that isn’t

Laurel Bern is the greatest thing since sliced bread!!! I just discovered her recently and I've read every single blog post. Soooo helpful. Great links, caligirl

We have 8' feet ceilings in our new home..the lowest ceilings I've had in my life. No moldings(which would be helpful)-we wanted to have them, but our budget had to be cut somewhere. I was thinking about it quite a bit, and reading a lot on the subject (including of course Abigail Ahern and Laurel Bern..)). It was scary but I went for it. Didn't do full strength-it's a horizontal surface, the light gets reflected in a different way, in our place would read darker than the walls. We went with 50% strength in all the rooms except for the living which has slanted ceiling and the color I chose for it is much lighter ..there we took it to 66% (the store couldn't do 75% which I was aiming for-they tweak depending on a formula). Of course we tried a lot of samples to arrive to that decision. Now when it's done-I can say it was one of the best decisions I made for the house. The lines blend, and you don't have this feeling of a white lid on the pot. Having several skylights helped too-the house already had four I think, and we added one more. It totally feels higher.

Another thing that I did, and was afraid of, contrary to popular belief you shouldn't put lights on the ceiling that's low..I put central lights everywhere I could. I'm happy I did that-they break the expanse of the ceiling, especially important in longer rooms..they do force you to look up but instead of thinking "oh..the previous ceilings were higher" you look at the light. It actually feels higher. Of course had to go with flush mounts and semi flash in certain rooms..did add a pendant in the master's seating area, sconces in several rooms, other lights..you want to have different sources of light, at different heights. Two chandeliers -dining , and the entry-the entry has a very high ceiling)

Definitely depends on your space and the light it's getting too. Also changes throughout the day-most of the time reads as same exact color, being half strength..sometimes reads a bit lighter.

And yes, for sure-you have to know your "why".

The lines blend, and you don't have this feeling of a white lid on the pot.

Yes, the "lid" is a bit how I feel in my bedroom right now. I think the white ceiling is fine, and that lid feeling will go away once the room has trim and furniture (it was literally painted yesterday). However I prefer the look with the lines blending.

I painted my living room Pashmina 1.5 years ago. Really like it and it does change throughout the day. Kept the ceiling white (we have crown molding).

Our decorator always paints the ceilings a shade or two lighter than the walls. That's what he did in our home & it looks beautiful. It seems like the same color on the ceiling as on the walls would close the room in. If the room is large, it may look fine.

You have all been amazing with sharing your opinions and certainly gave me lots to read & learn! We're going to paint a couple more sample boards this weekend and stick them on the ceiling - don't know why I didn't do that sooner.

I guess the "why" in my mind anyway was to try as some of your mentioned "blur the lines" between the walls and ceiling. With only 8 foot ceilings I wanted to trick the eye into not seeing that line break between color and white.

I do think that full strength looks like it will be too much. Our goal was an open airy feel, not a cave, and I'm afraid this color at 100% will be too much on the ceiling. I'll go back to the paint store and buy some diluted samples (is that what they're called?) at say 25% and 50%. Looks like we're painting boards this weekend! lol

Side question, if I don't like the Pashmina on the ceiling any sampling, anybody have a ceiling paint color suggestion to go with it? The decorator who suggested Pashmina originally told me to use Frostine for our trim if that helps.

Aprilneverends - thanks for the lighting tip also. It's also on the "to figure out" list and your comments were very helpful.

As an alternate ceiling color, edgecomb gray might work. I wouldn't use Pashmina full strength, nor would I use white -- I don't like that kind of stark ceiling contrast. A soft muted gray-white maybe. I've successfully used the same light color on walls and ceiling, but even more successfully (IMO) a similar, complimentary (not matching) color of a paler tone.

My kitchen, living room, dining room and hall have the same color on the ceiling as the walls. It's quite a bit lighter than Pashmina (SW Antique White). My ceilings are 9 ft. and vault to about 12-13 ft. in the living room. No crown moulding. It's very enveloping and really does blur the lines between wall and ceiling. Depending on the light sometimes the ceiling will look darker or lighter than the walls. I was afraid to do it, but my hand was forced by the way the rooms blend and so I tried it in my hall and that convinced me.

Ok, so back to BM Paint Store yesterday and spent about an hour staring blindly at the rainbow of colors until my pupils dilate to the size of a pin and I enter some kind of hypnotic state, at which point DH simply nudges me towards the exit door as he knows nothing is going to be accomplished at that point. Ha!

Tried to buy sample pots of Pashmina in lesser dilution ratios of 25 and 50%. No go, as the pots are too small to do this apparently. So, I looked at other colors in the Affinity collection but I'm more than useless doing this myself. Asked if I could buy a gallon at 25% and if after I do a sample on the ceiling, if it's too light could I bring it back to add more color (say 50%) and they said yes. So I'm thinking that's what I'll do today.

Of course DH just pointed out that the ceiling connects to almost every other room on this floor and that all rooms would have to work with whatever ceiling color we choose. sigh Hmmm, maybe a white lid isn't so bad. Wish me luck!

And thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your opinions and those links to various bloggers. I only wish I had some of those beautiful ceilings/homes that they show. However, the information is helpful if not somewhat overwhelming. :)

Linelle - Maybe I'll copy what you did and try it in the hall first. Seems safer.

Of course DH just pointed out that the ceiling connects to almost every other room on this floor and that all rooms would have to work with whatever ceiling color we choose.

BenM CSP-365 Grandma's China

BenM OC-93 Sugar Cookie

SW 7003 Toque White

oh yes, they can't play with the paint unless they have certain amount of it..you need to make a separate sample. lots of money in our case, yes. (our GC included 3 samples per room; but we needed more..))

we have a main space (entry, living, dining, kitchen, corridor)-that's one color plus one corresponding ceiling color

then a family room: another color plus ceiling color

then two kids/guest baths-two different colors plus two ceiling colors, accordingly

then four bedrooms-4 colors plus 4 ceiling colors

then a master bath -yet another wall color plus a ceiling color

it sounds like a mishmash but it's not. I put all the samples together(they were on paper), and moved them around the house..and stared at them for a day or two. to see whether they flow and work with each other

they did

because of the light changing throughout the day, some of them read as very close colors sometimes.

Interestingly, I do remember every name of every paint. Working on them so hard. But I have it on a list too

the problem with tweaking the formula-harder to match within X years if you don't remember the color, yet still like the paint. You can ask though to open an account in the store so they put your custom colors in their system.

Affinity is great quality..used it in some rooms in our previous place.

The one we've got now-should be cool too but they bought a lower-grade paint. I don't think it's on our GC (he's an extremely transparent guy, and he'd give us a choice) rather think it's on the painting sub. We figured it out by pure chance and it was too late by then. Let me tell you-the difference in how it holds is striking. I'm livid sometimes thinking about it. Actually my husband wanted to repaint with higher quality paints everything before moving in..but it would mean another couple of thousands probably more..and we had to move fast, and I was tired as hell.

Well we bought Pashmina at 25% so we'll see how it turns out.

Lori - I'll check out your suggestions at the store on Monday when they open again. I appreciate your suggestions for alternate ceiling paint colors.

April - I literally had a panic attack reading all of the rooms and how many colors you had to pick. I really have to get this figured out soon so we can move forward. I swear I can spend hours and hours and hours reading up on this stuff, then get samples, then freeze, because I'm so unsure of things in the world of decorating. But I will continue to read and learn and sample, sample, sample!

Well..I didn't have to, I wanted to:) The painters were a bit perplexed. One asked me: "Don't people, usually, just do two or three colors?" Otherwise they were patient with me.

I also was very scared, a bit non proportionally to the importance of a mistake if it happened-it's not like I had to run for my life from a grizzly bear or something. But yes, scary when you start. Then it gets better:)

I built my home almost 9 years ago where every new build had walls/ceilings the same color and it seems to still be going strong in 2017. Here's a birdseye view of my upstairs family room which is a warm tan color.