If you've never been in a room that was badly proportioned due to too-high ceilings, you may not really believe there is such a thing. But there is, and it feels awful. Just very wrong -- but hard to put your finger on why. As a general rule, 9' is safe and comfortable for just about any room size. Higher ceilings can be are nice in large rooms; and 8' ceilings are wonderful for cozier spaces. One trick we've learned in this house is that a small area with lower ceilings at the entry to a larger space really 'opens up' the room with 8' ceilings. Our downstairs hallway has 7'6" ceilings, which we thought was a problem until we lived there a while. But now the 8' ceilings in the kitchen and den at either end feel much nicer, and the 'transition spaces' really function as transitions.

I usually paint the ceiling the same color as the walls, especially if your room doesn't have any crown detail. There are differing opinions, but I feel it makes the ceiling blend away from you. It has never, even with dark colors, seemed to bring the ceiling down. In fact, when comparing an area with the white ceiling, the painted room seems airier (is that a real word? :)) to me. If you have white crown moulding, a white ceiling flows better than no-moulding wall to white ceiling. I am having to scrape popcorn texture off of all of my ceilings, though. That heavy texture is bound to make the ceiling feel low. Sorry, I don't have any pics and my camara is too cheap to take good pictures. Take a look at the link below in the Gallery section. Scroll most of the way down to Soonermagic's pics. Her ceilings are painted either the wall color or close to it. She has crown, so the colors bring out that detail. If your room doesn't have woodwork, it is much easier to paint the walls and ceiling the same color. You won't have to contend with not-so-straight edges. The ceiling color will most likely look a bit lighter than the wall anyway. Here is a link that might be useful: Taupe/Brown gallery pics

Here are a couple of photos of the way we transitioned our bowling alley. View of the bowling alley from the lower-ceilinged dining room: View of the transition wall (we also painted the high ceilings a dark brown to help the volume ceiling feel less intimidating in comparison): View from upstairs (you can see how the loft hung out over the foyer): View of the living room part of our bowling alley: Hope that helps a little.

Hi S, You're ahead of most that post questions - you hired an architect and the plans are professional. How refreshing! That said you have not posted the reflected ceiling plan to see how the vaulted ceiling is in relationship to the kitchen. Also you should post some images of that area to additionally fully grasp the existing condition. I come from a 4 year degree in interior design with a minor in architecture, as well as years, of experience with construction in all areas of design. Yours is an architectural/interior design question not a decorator question. The plans you posted are easy to read BTW. Also sometimes an existing condition can be a pain that impacts the plan to not be 100% ideal but other times it can create an unexpected opportunity that is unique and actually offers an interesting/great result that would not have happened in new construction. But without the full picture no one can truthfully call it.