Painting those beams would be sacrilegious. And ruin the value of the home completely. Focus on adding light to the room. Lamps and uplighting. NO prison gray. Its time is done because it clashes with so many woods and natural elements.

I would definitely not paint, I would sand them and stain to the color you need.

This is the look I would love for it to be close to:

with maybe slightly lighter gray walls than that (we're thinking either gray or white walls).

Beams are beautiful I would not lighten them. The beams you posted as your inspiration are NOT the same style. Your beams will never be rustic, reclaimed looking. Your beams are classic and strong looking and fit the style of the space.

Right, I totally get that it is a style and could work ok if you like that style, but it is much too dark for our preference. So right now our options are to paint or to sand. Just trying to get advice about those two processes. Thank you for your thoughts though! It's always interesting to hear people's preferences.

I guess I'm the outlier but I think they are wayyyy too dark. Stripping them is an incredible amount of work or $$$$, I would paint them white immediately. They are just pine right?

That after photo is beautiful, thanks for sharing it!

My husband is at the house now and just sent me these pictures - he tested a spot to see what it would look like sanded (since we knew we would sand or paint). Not sure what type of wood - if pine is the most common, it's probably pine haha. Don't mind the white paper on the other beam!

What if you paint the ceiling a color instead of white so the beams don't feel so heavy? It would be a LOT less work,

If you have the patience to sand them down go ahead me I wouldn't , They are too dark ,paint them . Is this a Tudor house ?

The beams are gorgeous!!!! I love them striped. That is a lot of work but you will be thrilled at the end. You just moved in so should be there for a considerable amount of time. It will be well worth it. I say that but I am not doing the work. Those beams are and certainly can be rustic.
Your previous photos are nice but I do think the dark beams are all you see. I did like the Pro's pictures of painted beams and if mid way through you say screw it and paint them okay. But I would try my hardest to strip and poly.

Genevieve, It's a raised ranch.

I TOOK A LOOK AT THE INTERIOR OF A Tudor HOUSE Sorry I had caps lock on :) the beams are dark so in your case paint the walls with a warm colour that white is too stark and makes those beams give out a sore eye .

I assume a Raised Ranch with Tudor interior ,if so work with it don't deface it or it will look like a barn .

you will need to get furniture probably ?

Hmmm. Not sure. It doesn't have that squared style on the ceiling anywhere in the house. About 8 yrs ago the previous owner vaulted the ceiling and added/exposed those beams and stained them dark

And yes, we need to get pretty much EVERYTHING, coming from a tiny apartment!

Ok even if its not Tudor it very well could be a assimilation toward it , look on Houzz and you will come up with wonderful ideas ,lets be realistic here ,sanding all those beams down will sooner be a Project that you will hate because there are just too many of them , the walls can be painted according to rugs and furniture ,live with it for a bit and take your time on making decisions that you may regret later,

I also like both of these looks:

I think we'll probably try sanding a bit more and see what it looks like. Then we'll decide from there.

I would lightly sand them and apply a dry brush white wash over them...

I like dark beans and have them on my ceiling, but the ceiling is warm gray that looks better with them I think. If you doing want to consider a bit darker ceiling come, I would paint. sanding seems like too much work.

I love them sanded to natural!

I wouldn't paint them! If it is for sure down to sanding or painting then sand them. I think they look great sanded as well from your photo. Definitely lightens them up.
I do spy some dark kitchen cabinets though that would also likely need to be swapped out as I am not a fan of the contrast happening there.

My vote is for sand (since leaving them as is has been removed as an option).

Hi, @lemonzip I am about to do the same thing and wondering what you ended up doing? I would love an update, progress pic, or before/after!

I think i am going to sand them first and see how they look. If it is terrible, I will paint them.

Thank you for any pics, tips, or advice.

Amy

Yes, @Amy we ended up sanding the main beam and painting the side beams white. The beams were a little difficult to paint because the tannins kept soaking through but once we discovered zinsser b-i-n primer, it went much quicker. It was difficult to sand them, and I was worried if we sanded them all it would still fee to heavy so we went with the center one only, and painted the rest. We love it!

this is what it looked like when we bought it:

@lemonzip What is the name/brand of the new wall color?

Paint it white. I love your inspiration photos but your beams aren’t the same dimensions (beefy) so a light natural color won’t give you the effect you’re wanting. Paint white like the trim and it’ll look great!

" Paint it white. "

@Lidia, the OP did this 5 years ago, long since finished I would imagine.

Would love to see how the project turned out.