How long do you plan to be in this house? If it will go on the market within 5 years, I'd save the tray for your forever home. You can actually do a "trompe-l'oeil" effect on the ceiling to make a faux tray ceiling with trim and paint.

http://www.hgtv.com/design/decorating/design-101/how-to-create-a-faux-tiered-ceiling

http://wishihadthat.com/hdg-faux-tray-ceiling-design.aspx

If you can afford it, do it!!! It's a beautiful feature you cannot do later, like you said.

We have a master bedroom with the same layout, also has a tray ceiling. We really like it, makes the room feel bigger than a flat 8 ft ceiling. We have built 5 homes over the years, and my advice is if you can afford the addition cost you won't be sorry. There are always thing after building that you would change, good luck with your home.

Verify with your builder how much height the tray will add. Your picture of tray is beautiful... so maybe show to your builder and ensure you will be getting the same. Tray ceilings are great in bedrooms and add great visual space. Consider ceiling fan and/some canned lights.

I like the feeling of added space, but as a whole, master tray ceilings can feel a little pretentious to me. I personally don't think they are necessary or worth spending a lot of money on, but everyone is different regarding what is important and/or worth it to them or not. If I recall correctly, the upgrade for a master tray ceiling was 3 or 4K for our new build, and I was happy to skip it and spend that money on other upgrades which were more important to me. But we also had a limited budget, and I felt fairly confident I would never miss it. If you think you might regret it later, splurge now.

@CLC I totally hear what you're saying about the pretentious factor, I thought the same thing initially! but we are a young family with three kids between ages 4-8 and this would be literally the only room in the house that isn't casual/family-oriented.. I would like my bedroom, small though it may be, to feel like a retreat at the end of a long day and have that luxurious feeling that the rest of my house is sorely lacking. I am only on the fence because of the price... love the look but I don't know yet if I will regret passing on it.

Absolutely -- treat yourself if the tray gives you that luxurious feeling. My 3 kiddos are between 4-8, too, so I know the struggle is real! ;-) The tray just doesn't quite do enough for me to justify the cost, but I am sure we upgraded other areas where other people might be very "whatever" about. That is the blessing and the curse of building -- you can make these kind of choices, but they are very stressful! I plan to make our master my "retreat" via meaningful art, paint color, crown molding, and splurge on some nice new bedding. That is enough for me to create our oasis from the munchkins, but we are all different.

Do it !

@Artiesmama that would be great! unfortunately not an option for me, I have to decide between flat 8ft ceiling or raised tray ceiling

The tray will help the room appear a bit more expansive.

I guess if it was between trey or flat 8ft, I reluctantly take trey. I don't know why I don't like mine. I don't have trim, so that might help. We also have never "done" our master since moving in. It will probably be the last room we work on. I haven't even painted or hung drapes! The rest of our house has 9ft (or higher) ceilings so I don't love the 8ft around the perimeter of my bedroom. Even my kids have vaulted ceilings in their bedroom! Also, the trey ceiling feels dated to me but that's probably exacerbated by the fact that we have not updated that room at all and our whole house was stuck in 1990 when we moved in.