I hate the fan so will be changing it

How high are your ceilings? My parents have a cathedral ceiling in their living room and I thought beams look just fine. My ceilings are 10 feet tall and are flat. We didn't do beams and I'm glad we didn't. I didn't think it would look good with my house.

I love beams!!!! Go for it!! Also love your hood! I just did the same thing!

Beams or a light infused ceiling paint like Farrow and Ball’s Borrowed Light
http://us.farrow-ball.com/borrowed-light/colours/farrow-ball/fcp-product/100235?split=&product=&sample=&gclid=CjwKCAjw0ujYBRBDEiwAn7BKtynBrb2DXaiFxTKhVUXdmugSmWnXaXlRQnVjSaRqgpREhXZlOv7WMxoCaEwQAvD_BwE

Our ceilings are only 9 ft- kitchen is open to the family room. We have wood on the outside of the house and our floors are wood look tile. Alexandra Nickson did you do beams? If I don't do beams I feel like I need to do crown or something. We are thinking of doing the brick on the fireplace to the ceiling so maybe that will be enough? I love beams so much but don't want them to look out of place. Pic is looking into greatroom from kitchen - beams would be in front of the peninsula. It's not an overly large greatroom. It's a 2 story so that is the reason for no vaulted ceiling. The other pic is of the beams on our front porch.

Klaire- we did not do beams but I adore them! Adding crown is great too! As you can see i. My pics we did that too. At some point, likely next year we are going to put wood floors on that will tie in my hood nicely.

I would go for crown moulding. I found a pic of my house of when we built it 3 years ago and that is what we did. We discussed beams for a minute but decided we didn't think it would look right and our budget was overstretched anyway.

Here is my kitchen. We are similar in cabinet design.

So if I do crown do we do it everywhere? The greatroom, and dining? There is crown above the cabinets because they go to the ceiling but my cabinets are a creamy color ( sw nacre) and my other trim is white.

Aims your kitchen is beautiful

Ahh I thought you meant crown over your cabinets. I love crown in a room but you don’t have to do the entire space. What about doing a feature on the fireplace? We have shiplap and I love it. But you could do that or stone. Something to just make it pop a bit.

We thought about shiplap which is still a possibility. We were thinking the fireplace will be brick all the way up and around with the beam mantle but if we don’t do beams shiplap could really look good on top of the brick. I could have them paint it white or my cabinet color.

I agree with no beams and crown molding. Beams will block the view across the room and make it feel closed in especially on a 9 foot ceiling. I hav a steel structural beam in my dining room on 9 foot ceilings and we did everything we could to have it disappear so that it looked like it belonged. I still wish it wasn’t there but its holding up the house so I have learned to accept it as part of the house’s charm.

IMO phony beams always look phony and I have no idea why you chose that color for the hood in the kitchen it makes a jarring contrast with no reason.

They would be box beams. So real wood. Sorry you don’t like the hood I think it looks fabulous and ties the floor and all the other wood elements together. We have lots of stained wood elements in the house- the hood is a stained maple.

The only reason I hesitate on crown is the color difference from the cabinets and also I don’t want a formal feeling in the house - I want a very warm and welcoming feeling.

If you had vaulted ceilings, I would agree. But for 9 ft. ceilings I think it will make the space feel cramped. Also, you've already installed your recessed lighting. If you were to have designed for beams from the beginning the lighting would have been placed to accommodate the beams, not the other way around.

I don’t generally really like beams unless they are a structural element of the house - even if natural wood box beams they aren’t “real” to the house and I think never quite look right. However...if you like them it is YOUR house not mine!

9ft is a great height and gives you some flexibility.

If you have 9ft ceilings everywhere, with no variation, then using beams can add an element of coziness to the living room area as well as define the main floor areas as seperate from each other while still residing in an open plan.

On the other hand, even if you still have 9ft elsewhere or lower than that, then you could skip the beams and highlight the ceiling height in certain rooms and still get that visual interest. You can add a simple crown in certain rooms which will make the ceilings look even taller, without moving over to “formal”.

I am a big fan of varying ceiling heights, either in the structure or with visual tricks especially in open plans.

No beams. No shiplap. No prison gray. No silly landed from Mars different colored elements just for “pop”. All of that is dying to dead 2015 fads.

No beams. They’re faux, they’ll look affected in your house. There comes a time in your home when you have to stop embellishing. People often have a hard time doing that. Your cabinetry panels and your hood are enough. The style of your home doesn’t support fake beams. The beams won’t be cozy.

Regarding shiplap, I’d thought we’d seen the very last of people considering shiplap on here a couple years ago. No to shiplap for that reason, and also because of my reason in my first paragraph.

Another vote for “no” on the beams. Even though they’d be made out of real wood, they’re still phony/fake because they’re not a geniune structural element to the house.

Im also over the whole shiplap thing, but if you love it, do it in a small area above the fireplace in a way that’s easy to remove. That way if you change your mind in a few years, it won’t be the end of the world

I love decorative beams and I don't thinks it's going to look to cluttered. I say go with it! only thing I would watch out for is where your ceiling fan is going to go. it's hard to tell because your photo is at a angle so I am not sure where you are planing to put the 2 beams but it's nice to either center the fan between the beam or actaully on the beam. again I'm not sure if you put the 2 beams on either side of the fan it will be to close to your fireplace, just to keep something in mind. Here are some inspiration photos of lower ceilings with beams and I think it looks beautiful.

Thank you Matt for the photos. I really like the look of those. Without the beams or something else in the greatroom area it seems a bit underwhelming especially next to my kitchen. I also did plan on having the beams early on just not as structural elements- that was part of the reason for the hood color. There is enough room to put a beam on either side of the fan without being too close to the fireplace - the greatroom is 20 feet across. I can still move some of the recessed lighting also if I need to but need to decide now as they are finishing up the electrical next week. This is a very family oriented farmhouse in the country. We have 3 kids and want it to feel warm.

Thank you so much to everyone who took time to respond to me - I really appreciate it! I’ll post when I decide.

For what it’s worth, your house probably seems underwhelming because it’s unfinished and unfurnished. It will feel much warmer when you’ve moved in. I’m sure it will be lovely! Good luck!

I'm too late for this but I hope you did the beams! I think they would have matched your farmhouse perfectly! 9ft ceilings are fine, just adjust the height of the beams accordingly. However, I agree with others that faux beams should appear authentic/functional and be placed to look as so. For example, I would consider putting beams in all rooms on the same floor with the same ceiling height.