Decorating and Design - tray ceilings

after painting the walls a light grey and the ceiling white I thought the wall on the tray to the ceiling would look nicer if they were either white, too, like the ceiling or would it look better maybe a darker gray than the walls. Can someone tell me does the lighter or darker color look better on these type of ceilings? right now I have that part the same color as the walls but am thinking I would get a better look with a different color.

i think it's a feature that needs to be accented somehow.

to keep it subtle, i'd paint the vertical wall part of the tray a slightly darker shade of the light gray, and keep all the horizontal ceiling areas white.

or for more drama, paint the ceiling part of the tray either of the grays.

to add a punch of color & maximum drama, you could even paint the tray walls an accent color.

it really just depends on how dramatic you want to go.

would it be practical to wall paper the verticle area of the tray ceiling, or a border around it. And what if the border doesn't cover the whole area, what do I do with the couple inches left that the border doesn't cover?

it's a great place to use a border! :thumbup:

you can get a wider border and trim it to fit (if it has a stripe of color that can be cut off & still look right - many do) or if it's smaller than the space, you can paint the wall with the same color that is the background color of the border (or one of the other colors in the border), and it won't be hardly noticeable that the border doesn't fill the space. you can either center the border in the space, or put the border up high & leave the space below, or vice versa - whichever enhances the border best.

or

you can get striped wallpaper and cut whatever portion of it will work as a border ("railroad" the wallpaper). basically, you're making your own border this way.