Paint them to match the ceiling. They will blend and not be as obviously skewed.

That doesn’t look like it’s going to work. It actually might look better if you dropped your ceilings and made them parallel to the floor to even things out.

Hide them both? What are you doing with the ceilings more generally?

Are those beams totally decorative? Is the structure of the roof some sort of scissor truss that does not need any support other than the end walls?

IMO only beams that are part of the stucture should be there in your case drywall them and paint the same as the ceiling to hide them as much as possible

I would have the higher ceiling lowered to match the lower roof line.

I would do anything possible to make the ceilings match up. Right now it looks like 2 different houses that someone tried to cram together. What you have there now looks really bad and is not something I would recommend "highlighting" with stained beams that don't even line up.

It looks like you could do as Jennifer suggested, and lower one side to match the other. If that doesn't work, then I'd drop both to some equal height.

If those are just decorative can they be removed?

I think also they are just decorative. Since the ceiling line isn't the roof line - looks like it's just suspended from the roof instead of being part of the roof. You need an expert opinion. IF it does thing, you'd need to put the wall back.

But you could probably choose which ever "centerline" was more appealing and build a new ceiling bit over the other. I'd keep the ceiling line on the fireplace side and add a new section on the kitchen side-shortening 1/2 of the kitchen ceiling to match. Sort of where indicated in the crummy drawing below. If you like the beam, add on more fake beam - it will look like it's always been there. You end up with an even ceiling line, but also aren't relocating the old beams.

I agree that the ceiling height should be the same in all your newly opened up spaces. Hopefully you had a structural engineer's OK for this remodel. Shortening the kitchen side as shown above is a good solution. We removed a decorative beam on a vaulted ceiling and it looks more modern without it.

Where is the architect and engineer in all this? This just looks wrong. The beams accentuate the issue. If they’re just decorative, remove them, and bring the ceiling down to one level.

Beams are decorative and joist are all scissor joists. All internal walls in these houses are nonload bearing.

What if we just removed the decorative beams but kept the ceiling height variation.

The higher ceiling comes from our foyer and the lower ceiling next to the fireplace will be the dining room.

Would this create a slight non-intrusive separation of spaces in an otherwise wide open floor plan?

That looks really bad to me too. I'm so sorry. I'm really not trying to be snarky and I generally follow the advice of, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

But I'm breaking that rule because you're still at the point where you can do something about this Frankenstein mish-mash.

I know you're probably tired of construction and just want it over, but please don't settle on something that will look like your framing contractor messed up and threw up some drywall hoping no one would notice.

What if you drop the ceiling only on 1 side?

@User that looks good but the side wall height is only 8' so we would lose the height and the space would look really cramped.

What if we just made that wall some sort of accent either with color or trim boards etc... see the design of the house below it has various non-90 degree elements all over that would allow an odd-shaped accent wall to stand out.

I also included another picture that shows the wall separating the dining room from the foyer better.

I would build a couple of wing walls and drop a header between the two spaces. These ceilings do not work with a completely open concept.

@Kristin Petro Interiors, Inc. ok that was one of our options would you keep the beam then or take them out? I was thinking of losing the beam in the fireplace room as it competes with the fireplace and eventually with the mantle which will be replaced with a larger darker solid wood piece.

This is the shape I get with the beams removed. The beam on the lower peak Has to go because it looks unsupported. The upper beam at least dies into the lower ceiling.

Actually without the beams you see changes of ceiling height and intersections between the two because of dormers and such in open plan ceilings all the time. This is not my favorite look because I am not an open plan person, but I think it is the beams that throw off how it looks more than anything else.

It also looks like trying to match them up will affect to door to the hallway?…no beams best bet