20 Low Ceiling Small Attic Room Ideas That Make the Most of Every Inch
For years, the attic in our Volos summer house was just a place to put things. Not the tidy kind of storage, but the sort where you let it pile up: boxes from one year to the next, odds and ends with no home on the main floor but were too good for the bin. It was the kind of detritus you find in a house that has seen a few decades of family life. You’d pop the hatch, have a look at the low ceiling and the way the walls come in, and be done with it.
Until Maria and Marina made it their own.
I can’t quite put my finger on how it came about. But there was a summer when they went up and I didn’t see them for an hour. I went to have a word and found Marina using two cardboard cartons for a table, sketching on some paper she must have come by. Maria was on an old cushion with a book. No one had told them to; they just made up their minds that the space under the roof was to be had.
So we put in some work over the autumn. We put in a table small enough for the eaves, some floor cushions, a lamp, and a wooden box for the girls’ art stuff. From then on, the attic was their domain and hands down one of the best parts of the house.
It was a lesson in what a room with a low ceiling can be. The limitations — the slope, the lack of headroom, the odd shape — don’t need to be fixed. They give the place its personality. When you do it right, an attic has an intimacy a normal room with a flat ceiling will never have.
Here are 20 ways to get the most out of that kind of space.
Understanding What You’re Working With
You have to put a low-ceilinged attic in its own category. Don’t measure it up against an ordinary room and come away disappointed.
Then there’s the matter of the headroom. It’s not uniform; you’ll have your high point at the ridge and the eaves will be much lower. But that’s not something to fix, it’s a way to zone the room. You put the standing and walking where it’s tall. The nooks under the eaves are for sitting down, a bed, some storage, or a desk. A good design works with the slope, not against it.
And one more thing: if you do it right, a low ceiling can be a virtue. With the proper mix of colour, light and furniture, you don’t get a boxy feel — you get a room with some character, the kind of place you like to be in.
The Ideas
1. A Creative Corner for Children
You have the girls’ corner to thank for that. Their little drawing nook is case in point. We put a low table there, one of those 40-50cm from the ground, and it’s just right for the space under the eaves; an adult would be in the way, but not this. Some floor cushions in lieu of chairs, a wooden box or a small shelf for their things, and you’ve got it.
Kids are made for rooms with low ceilings. The height doesn’t register with them, and the whole thing has the feel of a den. It’s as good a spot as you can get for