Those are gorgeous.

Or maybe change the wall color? And leave the beams be?

Your beams are a gorgeous and very expensive architectural feature. But, at the end of the day this is your home and it needs to make you happy. Can you take a wider angle shot of your room? That way we can give better advice about the beams, the fireplace, and the overall brightness.

Here are some more angles sorry about the mess!

And here's what I've purchased for the room thus far

Mine before And After

I would completely change that fireplace out before I touched those beams. Someone did a lot of work there and they are beautiful. I would do a fireplace that goes to ceiling and more narrow. It will add height to the room. I'd also use stacked stone in a lighter shade and lighter paint. You can always change them later. Fireplace is date as is, anyway. Beams are classic.

The beams really are a great classic look.

Different lighting might help. You could invest in several floor lamps that are the aim upward variety.

If, however, the "dark" is just too dark for your taste, you could leave the beams themselves natural and paint the wood between them white to lighten the room. Use the better painter's tape so the white doesn't bleed onto the beams themselves.

if you decide to paint, use a shellac or alcohol based primer and get it into all of the cracks. These types of primers stick to anything and anything sticks to them. They also dry very quickly. Sherwin Williams color Heron Plume is a grayish white that the eye will see as white, but it's not a stark white and it won't go yellow like some whites do.

All the dark ceilings felt oppressive to us. Many people are against painting original wood, but it modernized, lightened and visually "lifted" our ceilings. We wouldn't go back to our early 70's color. IMO no amount of up lights and decorating tips can cure the feeling of the dark ceiling pushing down on your head.

I could be wrong, but your ceiling and beams look to me like they were stained dark. You could try to white- or grey-wash them, which we have done to knotty pine. It came out beautiful, but took a number of tries to get just right. You will have to try it in an inconspicuous spot, and see how it goes on. I too like the suggestion of lightening the ceiling and leaving the beams the way there are. And lighting would certainly help...!

The ceiling is beautiful. I would look at a lot of computer generated options before I would decide to paint that. Lighten up with the other items. It looks like it is high. If it was a lower ceiling it would feel more heavy. How is the room used? Is it mostly conversation and TV or more for dining or reading? It is classic and beautiful; once you paint it, you can't go back.

The wood ceiling is gorgeous! Lighten up the fireplace, paint (including the dark yellow in the other room), the stairs, etc... before you consider painting the ceiling.

I agree it's really nice! I would try lightening some of the other items mentioned first to see if it helps. As pretty as it is, the ceiling does look a little heavy to me. How high is it?

We have a beamed ceiling in our family room that I love. However, the ceilings are only about 8 1/2'. The beams and ceiling were already painted white when we moved in. In our case we kept the entire room white which seems to help "raise" the ceiling some. Lots of windows and light in the room, too.

Paint the inner wood an off white or white that's shiny that will show off the grooves in the wood. Keep the main beams natural to make them really pop and make the room feel more cozy than painting all the wood. Works like magic! Makes for a Bright and airy ceiling with character and charm