leave it wood as a gentle contrast to the walls

I say leave it! It works great for a beach house too!

I think the ceiling looks great as is! The light wood provides a good contrast to the white walls.

As a beach house, I'd be toning it down a little but not totally white. Gives some nice sandy feel to the rest of the house. Tones at the beach are usually grey, whites, sand and blues. So yeah, kind of whitewash it but not lose the sand colour.

Thank you all for votes and comments! We're going to leave it exposed wood. That's the way we were leaning, but it was really nice getting confirmation from all of you experts. -Ron

We're a bit late to the thread but we believe you made a great decision in leaving the wood exposed. It adds a nice look to the space.