A ceiling is the overhead surface or surfaces above a area, and the underside of a floor or a roof. Ceilings are often used to conceal floor and roof construction. They have been particular places for decoration from the earliest times: either in coating the plain surface, by bringing out the structural members of roof or floor, or by treating it as a surface for an allover pattern of relief.

Not much is known of ancient Greek ceilings, but Roman ceilings were richly designed with relief and painting, as is shown within the vault soffits of Pompeian baths. During the Gothic period, the normal design to utilize structural elements decoratively then adapted to the development of the beamed ceiling, for which huge cross-girders support smaller floor beams at right angles to them, beams and girders being strongly chamfered and molded and usually painted in bright colours.

During the Renaissance, ceiling design was evolved to its highest pitch of originality and difference. Three options were further developed. The first was the coffered ceiling, in the intricate design of which the Italian Renaissance architects far exceeded their Roman prototypes. Circular, square, octagonal, and L-shaped coffers were popular, with their edges ornately carved and the field of every coffer flourished with a rosette. The second kind consisted of ceilings entirely or partially vaulted, generally with arched intersections, with painted bands highlighting the architectural design and with pictures covering the remainder of the area. The loggia of the Farnesina villa in Rome, decorated by Raphael and Giulio Romano, is a great demonstration of this. During the Baroque period, fantastic figures in heavy relief, scrolls, cartouches, and garlands were also used to decorate ceilings of this form. The Pitti Palace in Florence and many French ceilings in the Louis XIV style show this. In the third kind, which was markedly found of Venice, the ceiling became one huge framed picture, like in the Doges’ Palace.

In modern day architecture ceilings are sometimes separated into two major forms — the suspended (or hung) ceiling and the exposed ceiling. With ceilings hung at some distance under the structural members, some architects have decided to conceal large amounts of mechanical and electrical equipment, such as electrical conduits, air-conditioning ducts, water pipes, sewage lines, and lighting fixtures. Many suspended ceilings have a lightweight metal grid suspended from the structure by wires or rods to hold up plasterboard sheets or acoustical tiles.

Other architects, bringing out the aesthetic of the exposed structural system, take pleasure in showcasing the mechanical and electrical equipment. Due to this trend, some structural systems have been developed that have a deliberate power in themselves and make for admirable ceilings.

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