in a mountain house

How would you describe a "mountain house"?

Plans, elevations etc would be helpful.

It is either a house located in the mountains or a house where the vaulted ceiling is way way too high.

The house is indeed on a small mountain top with great views, thus the large windows at each end of the rooms. The side walls are 10’. There is no floor above thelse rooms but test of the house is two stories and that part of the roof about 32’ tall. Our architect will draw this section’s roof lower but to blend with the other. We can do whatever interior height we specify as it does not have to coincide with the roof height. All roof angles are 14:12. House is considered English cottage style.

Keep in mind the scale and what you will see looking out high windows.

This shows a 20' high ridge and a 5' 4" person.

Wow, I would have never guessed. Thank you for the visual PPF. That is too tall for my tastes. My architect likes 18’ but based on this, that feels too tall as well.

Mojomom, this is super helpful. It doesn’t seem quite as tall as I imagined. Is this your house or have you been in this one? How did it feel?

Here is my home, an english cottage with a vaulted in the kitchen and great room - I think its all in how you finish the space https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/123-Lakewood-Dr-Denville-NJ-07834/39409334_zpid/?view=public

I think @mojomom's is perfectly scaled. Will your fireplace be centered on the vault/cathedral or over to the side like mojomom's?

IMO high vaulted ceilings are not only awaste of heating and cooling but make noise travel often in very unusual ways and also have a huge effect on things like surround sound .I live in a house with 8’ ceilings and fantastic views of both mountaind and vineyards and have never thought that a higher ceiling would have any effect on my view. I think you do what you want but I would never do any thing higher than a 10’ ceiling.

Thanks for the input Patricia. Husband must have vaulted ceiling! shead—the fireplace is NOT centered on the vault but off to the side. Yes, love mojomom’s scale, beautiful room. Makes me think we can pull off 18’ vault.

Well, I agree with your husband. Vaulted ceilings are very nice. I've had them lots of times in the past and will have two in our new build (living room and master). I don't care what anyone says....I'll take vaulted ceilings and walk-in pantries all day every day over 8 ft ceilings (or even 10 ft all over ceilings) and pull out pantries. But folks are different.....to each his own :)

Yes, love the walk in pantries as well.

The vaulted ceiling in the inspiration picture is the best look for the room. For me, it makes the room feel narrow and isn't adding value, but everyone likes something different. I would rather have taller windows and a raised flat ceiling.

Ten foot horizontal ceilings would provide a nice sense of human scale space and probably save you a bundle of cash.

Pitched or vaulted ceilings can also be very appealing, but a pleasing height depends on the length and width of the space.

“A pleasing height depends on the length and width of the space.”

Thank you. That is my exact concern. For a combination living room-kitchen 20 x 38, I‘m grappling with what a good pitch and height would look like. Open to all thoughts...

Keep in mind that vaulted ceilings can be difficult to light. While you are thinking about the view, at night there is no view, and you will need good interior lighting that can reach down from the height of a vaulted ceiling. That means chandeliers, plus uplighting as pictured in mojomom's pic so that the vaulted ceiling doesn't disappear into darkness like the ceiling of a cave, plus recessed lights within the sloped ceilings that are directed correctly, plus table lamps next to sofas and chairs. It's not that easy to have good lighting with a vaulted ceiling.

Might be helpful to know what @Mojomom's room dimensions are. I think her's looks very nice.

Have you tried the Golden Ratio using the width of the room?

Mtngirlann,

Glad it helps. It’s my house and it has a very comfortable feel. It gives me joy every day just walking out from my bedroom into the space and views like living in a treehouse. The vaulted part is about 18’ x 38’ with the kitchen off to the side. I do agree 100% that you do need to really be careful with lighting and for me, the up lighting is the key. With radiant in floor heating, the heating is really a nonissue. Here are a few pics from this morning to give you a better feel for the proportions. Sorry for the glare in the pics, in real life it isn’t really an issue.

I generally dislike anything over 10 foot but a mountain house is the exception.

I think the height would be partly dependent on the peaks in your view. Probably really hard to know - do you have a neighbor with identical view?

I am currently renting a mountain house with a vault but it doesn't have windows in the vault - a modest old house.

Is your view partly up above or are you on a high ridge and the only view is down or directly horizontal?

Also consider what pitch vault you like! I concluded I don’t care for the steepness of a 12/12 vault. I will be doing a 10/12 vault...stating at 10ft, going up to 17.5ft.

I lived in a house with a peak at 14 feet inside and it felt very luxurious, so you don't have to be extreme to get a good effect. I agree that adding lots of extra feet to see more of the sky might not end up being a bonus (and might add a fortune in light/heat control issues)...

B Carey—That sounds like something my husband and I could maybe agree on. Do you have an image of that kind of vault? I am not visual and must see pictures...

David—our vista is both short range and long range, we are building on top of a mountain with other mts around us. We will have both an up and down view. Thx for asking.

https://www.houzz.com/user/mtgirlann

Here is a link to my page/ Our New Build

https://www.houzz.com/plans/new-build-gabe-pp~266142?stepId=saved

We have a Pacific Ocean View/ Salish sea, on one of the Southern Gulf islands, BC/Canada.

The main area has all T/G Douglas fir on our all ceilings, the great room,vault is 23 feet in height, the kitchen dinning room are at 11 feet, bedrooms 9 feet. The house is an ICF build..Being a visal person myself, ths may help you.

@mtgirlann we are building a lakehouse that sits up on a rise above the lake. Our house has a 19' wide living room that is 23' deep, and the open kitchen to the left with 9' ceilings. Here's a cut from our plans showing the height of the vault, and a photo of the room from the loft above the family room. While it's a very high ceiling, we love how it maximizes the views from the house (despite having "plopped" it on the site ;) )

Cheryl, thx for the visual—so much to love about your new build!!! Oh my, you have an eagle on your property. Please share your thoughts about using ICF, and how you like it so far.

SBDRH, you DO have a gorgeous view! Such a pretty window configuration. I have to remind myself when I start feeling anxious over the decision that it really is about the views. Your image was a good reminder.

Virgil—couldn’t figure out how to get the answer to your question and it just dawned on me maybe how to do it. If the width of the room is 20’ , then the golden ratio would be 16?

Scylla, we’ve had that conversation and the architect voted with my husband to go for the views. I’m just trying to discover the best height.

Deb, I love the English cottage stonework on your house! Looked over the photos and I could live with the height of your vault. Do you happen to know how high it is?

mtgirlann, Google golden ratio calculator or golden mean calculator.

@mtgirlann, I asked a similar question awhile back here:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5866328/perfect-golden-ratio-for-cathedral-ceiling-height

Our great room is 20 ft wide and we ended up doing about 15 in the center and I think it looks great! I'll post a pic from my phone. It was the maximum we could get with our trusses on a 9:12 roof pitch.

Ok, I looked at several and tried the calculating. They all seem to be dealing with linear vs 3 D. I guess I’m missing something. Would greatly appreciate if someone who is math oriented would plug in my numbers. I appreciate everyone’s help, I’m very grateful but have hit a wall.

We are still in progress but this is ours.

That seems like a beautifully scaled room to me. Do you remember how high it Is?

I think it's about 15 ft in the center. I'll try to measure when I go over in a little while. If you see from my earlier post, I had the same dilemma and had people saying use the Golden Ratio, etc. which I could never figure out how to use for this (and I'm a math person!) so I ended up basically using the Rule of Thirds. My side walls are 10 ft tall and the height above those in the center is ~5 ft (or 1/3 of 15 ft). I don't think it's exactly 15 ft as we had some truss restrictions but it's close. My room size is 20 ft wide by 18 ft long.

Please consider the orientation of any large window wall. Will you need to cover the windows to prevent sun/uv damage and glare? If so, planning is needed at this stage to incorporate proper framing and electrical as needed.

Everything you are saying is being thoughtfully discussed. Were You thinking any particular framing and electrical info? I’m a decent researcher and planner. Looking into Altec and Intus windows for R value. So hard to cover an arched window and make it look current.

Mtgirlann I'm curious what your final decision was as I am now facing the same decision. My husband wants the vaulted ceiling and I can see the appeal given that we are right up against a mountain so the view will be up close and looking up. Our great room is 32' x 16' with the peak splitting the long side of the room. We could do a 14' peak or 17' peak on the vault. 17' sounds too high but it might look ok proportionally given that the room is quite wide? All the pics I can find online look too high but the rooms aren't as wide and I'm also not sure how tall those ceilings actually are. Any advice is appreciated.

Jamie, haven’t built yet! You will probably beat me!