paint the top of those the wall color and add nothing too them.

Agree, nothing up there.

I agree paint the flat top the wall color, but I think your chandelier is undersized by about 30 percent.

Do you want to emphasize them or make them less noticeable? Do you want to climb up and dust the decor every 2-3 months or wipe it down once or twice a year? Do you have a big budget or no budget? What else is in the entryway that decor up there should coordinate with?

i would remove the vent trim and paint the vents the wall color too.

Nothing--you certainly don't want to call attention to this feature. Do what you can to make it disappear.

i often wonder what the architecht is thinking when they design these difficult spaces....anyway, simply paint the vents and the top of the closets in the wall color and leave as they are. i do agree that you could go grander in scale with the light fixture, but this can be quite costly. if you feel you must do something, i might consider a pair of great, antique shutters to flank the window and give it more presence.

less is more in staging, if i saw items up there, i would start to wonder how would i clean that space........... looks to me like there is air return there, i wouldnt want to notice those vents either.

if you are staging, think about how you are going to throw some color in here, right now it looks rather cold.

If you're selling, neutralize the paint on the two closets and try to make them fade away. You want the prospect's attention focused on the 8' in which most of us live. When they go upstairs they won't have their eye drawn to the "dust-catching" ledge so much if it is bare, clean and matches the wall paint. Even the trim around those items above the doors should be matched to the wall paint, so they don't catch the eye. #1 rule of staging - NEUTRALIZE!

The color on top gives it too much attention as of now. Change the color and place a nice real-looking plant or bowl on each side. I would advise against leaving the space bare since it looks to be too big to just stand empty.

I'm not sure you'd want to make the investment, but for selling, first impressions really do count. I'd consider creating stunning foyer by removing the closets entirely and redoing the floor! Although we haven't seen the actual foyer, I suspect the closets are taking up a lot of space and hampering a really elegant and open look.

Seem like others on Houzz are having the same problem.

Take one closet out or both and get an armoire instead , I don't think that anyone would enjoy climbing up there to dust ,

or get someone to built something like this .

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My brother and SIL have a space like that in their mission-style home....probably bigger than your space, but they put an antique rocker on it with a hand-made quilt tossed across it. On the "floor" of the space, they have a porcelain doll sitting on the floor. On the back wall, they have a large antique oval picture frame with an ancestor photo of a little girl on it. THAT's the only time I've EVER seen anything that "works" in a space like this. Since you're staging it for sale, I agree with others who say to paint everything the same color and don't point out the vents, etc.