I would leave the verticals and the ceiling beams in the wood. I think the verticals tie in with all the window trim and the stair very nicely.

I would probably paint the wood ceiling, except for the beams. I think it will feel very heavy once you go to the light wood flooring.

I wouldn't do ANY painting until you get the new floor in. It will make a huge difference in the feel of the space and how the light appears.

If you don't like the knotty pine, why not paint the ceiling and leave the doug fir beams? The ceilings do draw my attention in these photos, especially where they end right above the stone fireplace. I think this would be the easiest way to reduce the "country-lodge" feel most effectively. The douglas fir could be made to appear more craftsman, or spanish colonial, or rustic-modern, or even tudor, depending on stain colors, but the knotty pine does not lend itself to many styles. (This is coming from a knotty-pine-country-lodge-wood-ceiling lover, by the way.)

Do you have a particular style in mind?

Renee

Renee-

I love craftsman style homes. Rustic-modern would work well with our furnishings as well. I have read that knotty pine ceilings are very hard to paint- do you have a different opinion? The last thing I would want is for all of the knots to bleed through. Plus I am sure that would be a very expensive job right? I'm not sure I could get my husband to agree with the idea of painting the ceiling. I was hoping that the darker paint color on the walls would help to smooth the transition between the ceiling and walls. What would really be nice is to change out the fireplace stone altogether (the round stones are not my favorite shape or color...oh and they are fake by the way) and go with some neutral cream and copper colors to pull in the ceiling color and maybe everything would blend a little better. Ahhh, so many big desicions! I am trying so hard to work with what we have....but I find myself wanting to change everything about it.

I have similar ceilings but mine are whitewashed. I also have vertical beams going up the walls that we have painted the same color as the walls so they disappear. We have a more modern decor so I didn't want to draw attention to the original orange toned mahogany beams. Here is one shot for you to see: (apologies for the BIG pics-I keep adjusting but it Never seems to work)

I do love the look of whitewashed ceilings.... although I am not sure it would look right in the home with all the orangy medium toned cabinetry, trim and doors. And there is a LOT of this color. Or maybe I feel that way because I just do not like medium tone wood in general (which could be my main problem with everything here). I sure wish there was an easy fix to make everything work better together. I thought the painting of the beams to make them "disappear" would be a good solution but now I am not sure based on the responses. Please keep the suggestions coming!

I think the trick to painting knotty pine is to prime with shellac.

I think Les917 has the best idea- wait until you have your floors and furniture in, then see what you think.

Here are some pretty photos of rustic modern living rooms. Maybe something will strike your fancy.

Renee

Here is a link that might be useful: [Houzz rustic modern living rooms[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/rustic-modern-living-room-phbr0lbl-bl~l_43008)

Wow Renee- ALL of these rooms strike my fancy! They are all so beautifully done. I would take any one of them! Do you think I can achieve the look of these homes while embracing the orange-color of our current ceiling? I just feel like all the colors they have chosen seem to clash....the warm ceiling, light floors, cool fireplace stone. And to make things more complicated, all of our furniture is a rich, dark wood. I just feel like something needs to be changed to give it a cohesive look, but what? Perhaps when we refinish the hickory floors we should darken them? Or is there a way we could lighten the stain on the ceiling? So many questions I know. But thank you so much for the inspiring pictures....it gives me hope that our home has potential.

elmullen5, if you go to the gallery side and look under ceiling eye candy you will see alot of wood ceilings.

Thank you caminnc- those are very beautiful! And many of them were a bit orange in color too. I am starting to think that staining our floors dark may look better with the ceiling...and match with our dark furniture as well. What do you think?

I don't think you'll be able to escape the country-rustic look of the room, but that doesn't mean your furniture has to be country, except the country vibe will still be there.

Saying that, I love the wood. Especially the staircase and beam area.

The only wood that's going to look jarring is the floor. I'm also with Les, don't make any decisions until you take the carpet up.

One thing you can do is buy a large Oriental rug with some deep colors which would bring all the woods together.

If anything, you could paint the FB mantel. Again, I love all the wood in your room!

Love it or hate it, the sheathing on the ceiling is one of the defining elements of the room. Paint it all, and you will be most of the way there to homogenizing it into "generic overscaled great room". I do agree that you could probably paint out some of the post and beam elements around the stairwell, which don't look particularly balanced.

I would wait on the flooring until you can afford to do what you like. You may also want to consider some kind of tile, and I know that carpet is the great unspeakable of the GW decorating forum, but thats not a bad choice in this room either. You could turn this room into something that is currently popular, but I don't know that it would be the best thing for this room over the long term.

When I see unpainted beams, it makes me think of old english style, or tudor type style, or lodge. So, I guess it depends. If you paint them shiny white, they will lend a more formal look.

If you are going to paint the whole ceiling, I would do that first, as it will change the whole look of the room and the light of the room might change, and that might influence the color/finish you choose for your floor. Just my opinion. Plus, I'd hate to have to deal with any paint droplets or overspray on my new wood floor! Even if pros do it, if they have to clean up spots or overspray, the floor may never quite be the same. Just my opinion.

Here's a ceiling picture I came across in a decorating blog, Cote de Texas. The ceiling is dark and shiny and I think the shine makes it more formal and dramatic.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

My house has a lot of orange colored wood. It has some fully paneled rooms with knotty pine. I hated the wood when we first bought it, but my husband loved it, and it was all original to an old home, so there was no getting around it.

I embraced it, and actually replicated it in new buildings and in the recent addition to the house.

We have the knotty pine ceiling as you have pictured in our gameroom. I have beams and orange wood throughout most of my house. There are differences in woods and slight variations in colors.

Where we have heavy knotty pine and beams, I used tile for flooring. To me, it helps break up the look and it doesn't feel so heavy. I used lighter colored tile.

We get so many compliments on that wood ceiling that I am really glad we did it now, but I was opposed in the beginning.

We have a very dark entertainment center in that room and a large oriental rug. I really looks nice.

I agree with others. I would not paint the wood yet. Live with it a while, you might learn to like it.

We will not be painting the ceiling....even the mention of the idea made my husband upset. But painting the beams as I mentoned at the beginning is still an option. So basically, whether we paint the beams or not, I have to embrace the orange color and try to tie it in. That being said, I am having a hard time deciding on floors. Dark or light?

Oakleyok- What about the floor is "jarring" in your opinion? Is it the lightness of it or the grain of the hickory? We cannot wait on the flooring....a desicion needs to be made tomorrow. Our two options would be to continue the same natural hickory throughout or to continue the hickory and then stain it a different color (I am thinking a very dark color might look nice and would tie in with our style of furniture that we have). Does anyone have an opinion on a floor color that will look best with the current ceiling/beams? Please someone tell me the hickory will work....

I am not sure why the decision on the floor has to be made tomorrow: this seems like an awfully big decision to make at this point when a lot of things are up in the air.

"Git 'er done" is the kind of decision that I end up trying to correct years later when I do design jobs for people, and flooring is a lot less reversible than a bad paint choice. Not trying to be mean here, but unless you are walking around on bare floor joists, and could fall into the basement, this decision does Not need to be made today, however convenient it might be.

I would paint all your trim/doors white and leave the floor and ceiling in wood.

palimpsest- I understand your point about waiting on the floors. However, there are a few reasons why we want to get the flooring done right away.

1) Our plan was/is to have the floors complete before moving everything in....we have a large family with lots of kids and so conveniece is a factor for us. Our official move in date is the 31st.

2) You are right that there are alot of design decisions that are still "up in the air" as far as paint colors, furniture, ect- but I feel the first step before anything else would be to have the floors done....no other decisions would be able to be made with confidence until we have a starting point with the floors.

3) The wall to wall carpeting is hideous in there and really closes off the space (I know it's hard to see from just a few pictures). We will be using the non-fireplace side of the great room as our dining room and so having the carpet in there is not only impractical, but will make the space feel very crowded with dining and living room furniture.

Of course, having said all of that, we would certainly still hold off on the flooring if we were completely unsure of what we wanted. The thing is that we DO know we want a wood floor. And my husband thinks the light hickory would look fine throughout. So I was willing to go with that decision (until just recently now I became hesitant)and that is why we have the flooring guy scheduled to come tomorrow to take final measurements and get the wood ordered.

So the decision doesn't HAVE to be made tomorrow, it's just that my husband would be greatly annoyed with me putting everything behind schedule because of my last minute hesitations. All I am looking for is confirmation that the hickory will look ok in the space and if so, whether to leave it natural or stain it dark.

WhiteRiverSooner-

Would you mind sharing some pictures of your home? Particularly of your game room with the ceiling like ours? I would love to see how the dark entertainment center looks with your light floors and orange-tone ceilings...

I am out of town, so the pictures I have with me are older and not the best.

In these pictures we were waiting for the matching TV base for the entertainment center, so TV was sitting on a temporary table, but I think you will get the idea.

Sorry I can't get you better pictures right now.

elmullen, I think the hickory flooring will look nice, since you already have it in part of the house and the rooms all flow together.

Here's a picture with your original idea of a darker paint color on the walls to tone down the wood and the fireplace. It has wood floors too. This ceiling has dark beams, which you could consider adding in the future to tie in your furniture. They also stained the window trim dark.

[eclectic family room design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/eclectic-family-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_720~s_2104) by cincinnati architect RWA Architects

Renee

we had a similar situation in a 1960's house we bought. Lots and lots of unpainted trim and in a color not to our liking. We painted all the trim and bookcasing and darkened the hardwood floors and tore out the clunkier bannisters etc. We debated on whether to paint the wood beams in the vaulted family room. We decided to darken the stain as much as possible to match our dark hardwood floor. I am soo glad we did. the contrast of the beams is very pretty. Our house now looks more open and current and accents our colors and furnishings much better.Plus the dark beams give a nice depth to our high ceilings I say do one step at a time and hose's photo looks great!