Joanna Gaines Makes A Bare White Box Dining Room Look Upscale With This Ceiling Choice

Ah, white. It's crisp and clean. This is probably why white walls continue to dominate interior design. They make any space feel bright, balanced, and polished. No matter if your style leans modern, classic, or pared-down, white acts like a quiet canvas that lets everything else in the room shine. It gives your furniture and artwork room to breathe instead of competing for attention. And, even better, it makes updating your home easy because you can change the mood of a room just by swapping pillows, art, or rugs without repainting. But if you want your white room to still feel as cozy as a cloud but still wish you could add some character without changing the color, HGTV's Joanna Gaines has an idea for you, but you might have to look up to spot it. Gaines transformed a dining room ceiling using painted wood slats to add color, depth, and interest. 

On TikTok, Gaines shared a mini-renovation where the dining room was what she called "a plain, white box." With a limited budget, Gaines was looking for a creative way to keep the warm white, but add some dimension. To incorporate texture, she installed 1-inch-by-6-inch boards across the ceiling, leaving 4 inches of exposure between each one. She also added 4-inch crown molding. She painted the ceiling a light gray-white shade called Drawing Room and refreshed the walls with One Horn White, a "warm white with a light beige tint." "I love the ceiling," one commenter said. 

You may be wondering why focusing on the space above your head can make your smaller room more impactful. Different styles of ceilings can bring architectural qualities to a room. Instead of a flat, forgettable surface, a ceiling can become part of the design, drawing the eye up and giving a room added dimension. The repeating patterns created by the framework of Gaines' vertical design add depth and structure, helping the space feel larger without overpowering the rest of the décor. Also, using an accent color on the ceiling, like Gaines did with gray, which was darker than the white walls, is an easy way to give a small room more personality and visual impact. These design choices can also help visually tie together furnishings and décor, creating a more unified look.

Love the dimension, but want something a bit more rustic and organic? For a few hundred dollars, YouTube's @Juliecarmonahome revamped her small, white hallway with a similar design. She got ¼-inch plywood from Lowe's and cut it into planks. She secured them to the ceiling using a small spacer between each one, and then she painted and added a decorative glaze. The end result was an elevated space that had more warmth and character without having to change wall colors. "I would do that in a heartbeat," one commenter said. For your white room renovation, try one of these 12 curtain colors that go beautifully with white walls.