Most renovations treat the ceiling as the last flat surface to paint. On two recent Calgary projects, HAUS Interiors treated it as part of the architecture instead, working with the specialists at Space Ceiling. One ceiling is gloss black and reflects the whole room. The other is soft white by day and full of stars at night.

A gloss-black ceiling for a Crestmont basement

This basement started unfinished. HAUS Interiors designed and built it as a family room, media wall, home office and dry bar, and you can compare the 3D design with the finished space on our Before & After page.

Basements in Calgary often come with lower ceilings, so the question was how to make the room feel taller without raising anything. The answer was a high-gloss black stretch ceiling from Space Ceiling. The surface acts almost like a mirror: it reflects the lighting and the room below, which adds depth instead of closing the space in. The install took about two days. Space Ceiling shares more about it in their Springbank Luxury Basement write-up.

A starlit ceiling for a kids room at the Eau Claire Residence

For a child's bedroom, the brief went the other way: calm and bright during the day, magical at night. Space Ceiling installed a white stretch ceiling with fibre-optic stars and perimeter lighting around the edge. With the stars off, it reads as a clean white ceiling. With them on, the room feels like a night sky, and the indirect perimeter light gives a soft glow for bedtime.

Eau Claire Residence: built by HAUS Interiors as general contractor. Interior design by Louis Duncan-He Designs. Stretch ceiling and fibre optics by Space Ceiling. Photo: Space Ceiling.

What to know before choosing a stretch ceiling

• Plan it early. Lighting, sprinklers, speakers and vents all sit in or behind the membrane, so the electrician, the contractor and the installer need to coordinate before drywall decisions are final.

• Pick the finish for the room. Gloss reflects and adds height; matte reads like a classic painted ceiling; translucent membranes can be backlit.

• Think about light as part of the ceiling. Perimeter lighting, backlighting and fibre-optic stars change how the room feels at different times of day.

• It's quick on site. Because the membrane is installed after the room is built, it adds days, not weeks, to a schedule.

Bringing specialists in early

Both ceilings worked because the specialist was part of the plan from the start, not added at the end. That's how we run every project as one design-build team: design decisions and construction are worked out together. If you're planning a basement or a renovation where the ceiling could do more, book a design consultation and we'll talk through what's possible.