You mean you want to look at them for structural reasons, or you're hoping to leave them exposed as beams? If the latter, then I think you might do better to add some new beams, as it's the rare joist that is nice enough to show off. Here are some beams added after the fact:

Park Hill House · More Info

My Houzz: Casual Elegance in a California Beach Home · More Info

and here are some exposed joists:

Kendrick Place Rowhouse · More Info

Country House in City / Dallas · More Info

Loft-Like Basement Renovation · More Info

Painting the joists is a common approach, as there's often a mismatch with the floorboards above, as well as wiring and other stuff you want to downplay... You have to keep sound insulation in mind as well.

Yes we'd like to leave them exposed-a modern industrial look. It's a large room but I'm afraid adding beams would make the ceiling feel lower. If it's not 'pretty' underneath we thought of painting it white.

you arent going to have floorboards on top of the joists like those...my house does because it was built in 1870, not 1970....

I feel like I should go take a photo of the exposed beams in my basement and how horrible they look with all the plumbing and wiring. Even if you painted everything white, I don't think it'd look terribly nice and it'd probably be dusting hell. (However, the house is 1920-30 so there's a lot of OLD wiring and plumbing down there, too.)

Exposed joists look great in a newly renovated loft. The joists you are going to see will have holes in them, droopy wires, exposed air vents, exposed water piping and bits of paper stuffed into holes...that were left there during the build. Everytime someone walks on the floor upstairs = dust falling all over your floor in the basement.

Some people have managed to do this by adding in 'fake I-beams' and then closing them in...this hiding the wiring etc. They also managed to install new plywood between the fake I-beams to stop the dust from settling on their popcorn. The new plywood can hide acoustic insulation (like roxul or Safe and Sound). The new acoustic insulation is much thinner than the old pink insulation. You can "create" an industrial look ceiling without showing off all the nastiness that is hiding in your joists. Of course it is the expensive way to go...should be a little bit more expensive than refurbishing the ceiling.

Those people who simply exposed the ceilings (left all the "ugly" hanging out) found out how loud it is to have people above you without a ceiling. They could hear the full conversation going on in the kitchen above them...that was on the other end of the house. Every word was fully understandable. Every phone call, every cell phone ring, every toilette flush...everything is exposed when you expose the ceiling.

It's not going to look the way you hope. There will be exposed metal ducts, pvc, copper and cast iron pipes. Without the insulation the drywall provides, you will hear all the sounds coming from upstairs bathrooms traveling by way of the pipes. Add decorative beams on the surface of you must have the appearance.

I have been researching doing the exact same thing in my kitchen. House built in 2006, but time to repaint so was considering doing something fun in the process. Through my research, I am very concerned about the noise issue as my daughter's room is above the space and she likes to practice her gymnastics in her room. I stumbled upon wallpaper that gives the exact look I want. I do not know the exact name, but search for wood plank wallpaper and you will see it. I am interested to hear and see results from other people. Thank you.

I would like to know what you decided, if you have, and how it looks. We want to take our stippled, sagging 8 foot ceiling off and hope to expose joists at least good enough to wrap. What if we put planks, toung and groove, down in the attic for a needed floor there and to give a nice view from our living room looking up.

Do you need permits to do this or you just take the ceiling down?

We are looking at the same thing; have to pay attention to fire code:
Basically have to tack 1/2” drywall or 5/8 wood back on under the joists for
Thermal insulation and ignition prevention
As I understand it
Or have a sprinkler system
We just read about this on a Houzz 2016 thread- thanks to some astute builders lending their expertise:
So we are going to do sprinkers
And then
Foam board against the nails coming through the plywood above
Then slide tongue and groove wainscoting between quarter round nailed to the joists and the foam board above; paint

Interested in builder and other’s thoughts. I cannot find much on the internet

I pulled down the drywall ceiling in our kitchen a few years ago to do the same thing in our 1889 house. The wide plank attic flooring was above- and I was dying to expose the underside of those floorboards. At first I thought I’d hit surprise pay dirt- an antique tin ceiling! Then- gah! It’s covered in flaking, falling lead paint and punched through with a million holes to suspend the drop ceiling. And in between the tin and those luscious floorboards- heaps and heaps of really old fluffy insulation. We quickly, and sadly, covered the whole mess up with wainscotting panels... but I still dream of trying again.
Really- this might be a fire code violation?

So you want to hear every step or cough or noise from above while you are in the living room?
And whoever sleeps in that room will hear every noise from below, as well.

Was there ever an update with a photo? Interested to see how it turned out

Well, we did it and were able to vault into the attic.

How did you do it? can you talk about the process? how did you reroute any wiring?

easy peazy. i have thought about this for years on my basement.

1 - remove drywall

2 - hire electrician to rewire all the things that he can to the edges of the room.

3 - put 1 inch thick furring on the sides of the joists — a few inches from the very top, (not all the way up as there are bound to be some cables still that will remain.

4 - do foam insulation in between joists

5 - cut and attach drywall to those furrings so now you have drywall and insulation in between joists.

6- caulk and paint as you see fit. i’d say varnish the joists and that’d look more natural.

This can be done in the following fashion (giving you more headroom while still hiding things like cables and tubes and having noise and temperature control.)

1 - remove drywall from ceiling, if you have the ”X” joints you can cut these to make them a bit shorter so that the they can sit a bit higher and you can also later cover them, there are also different technologies that perform the same like blocking which can be pit at the top of the joists leaving you with plenty of space to add drywall in between the joists.

2- paint the joists whatever color you need or varnish them for a fancy look.

3 - buy 1 thick or thicker furring sticks and nail them to the side of the joists — make sure you go as high up the joist as you can within the realm of possibility so that they all match, these will hold drywall or wooden slabs (depending on what you choose) — meaning that if theres a pipe measure how low you can put that furring in order to hide it, and go from there with the rest of the joists so that it matches — usually you are at least going to get 4-6 inches of good ol’ height, but also keep in mind some space for foam insulation( you are gaining almost a half other foot if you are lucky [may vary from house to house])

4 - hire someone to pack foam insulation to a few inches and have them calculate just enough to finish before your thick furring sticks which are now on the sides of your joists..

5 - attach drywall to the furrings that you nailed to the sides of the joists.(paint the drywall before hand if needed to not make a mess, that way you just have to touch up the areas affected by nails)

6 - caulk where the new drywall meets the joists and you are done!

You now have added height while hiding cables and tubes and whilst having an insulation barrier, and you can see your beautified joists!

cheers!