Arches are very much “back“ and trending. You can easily google this.

I would not alter the front door or windows.

Arches are obviously a prominent feature in the interior (and exterior) of this house. So I think you would benefit from having actual design help, before you just willy nilly rip all of the arches and columns out.

Your instinct to seek design help is on point - and that is why you came here. But you need one on one help, and preferably from a designer who is not ”anti-arches”.

These are not atttractive arches. I would remove them all.

Again, you need design help - from someone who understands the style... and from someone who is not “anti-arches.”

Arches are an extremely prominent feature on the inside as well as on the outside of this house.

They don’t have to be though. You can either embrace them and go all in or if you don’t like them get rid of them. Both options are totally fine and one should choose what they want and how they want the house to come together

It would be a massive task (not to mention a substantial expense) to elimate every arch from this house.

And if you want ”modern” ? Arches are a classic that is very much trending right now. Google it.

Going through a major undertaking to square everything up on this house is not going to make the house modern.

Lack of arches doesn’t mean modern. Someone might just find them quite dated and ugly. Doesn’t matter if they are popular for a moment. OP needs to decode what they want on a home.

Obviously OP needs to decide what they want to do. But they came here looking for ideas and options.

And there is nothing about arches that is ”ugly” or ”dated” . That is your PERSONAL opinion and bias - as well as your apparent limited understanding of architecture.

Whether arches were currently trending now, as they are - or whether they were not - arches are a shape that has been used in architecture for some time now.

Do you have a lot of arches in your home and feel attacked by this? I said someone “might” find them dated and ugly. As in it is most definitely a personal opinion and that they wouldn’t care if it was popular, trending, in architecture from eons ago. So again up to OP to decide what direction they want to go and what home they want.

Overly arched interiors (as this clearly is) came from the turn of the century's obsession with all things Tuscan. It mostly showed up in kitchens but these arches--not a feature found in modest suburban homes before then became THE THING. They are part of the McMansion syndrome. If you love the look of course keep and embrace them and celebrate them. When one gets defensive about it--well it signals ya do know they are dated but you love them so are offended they aren't what buyers are looking for now.

I live in a townhouse in NYC that was built in 1940. No arches here - but I am definitely not opposed to arches.

Once again, OP, I advise you to seek design guidance for how to proceed with this house.

In general I think that when people remove everything that delineates spaces from each other, you end up with a big vaguely-shaped room that is hard to deal with. Although these may not be load bearing they may also disguise some slight variations in ceiling height that weren't that important because they were separated by these column supported soffits.

I wouldn't just attack this as a project, I would get an interior architect or designer involved to do some selective changes.

But as I have said before, there are a lot of relatively recent but out of fashion details that really make the house what it is, and removing them to "update" does not necessarily turn the house into anything "better", just different.

As for arches, this is not really my favorite style, but on the other hand, I love this brutalist in my neighborhood with 47 =/- arches in one elevation.

These comments have gone in a very strange direction! Who cares about the history of arches or what is or is not in now. The OP asked for an opinion and is getting it from multiple perspectives.

1. It is great that you are addressing this as you are changing the floor. Just the right time!

2. Even if you remove all of the ceiling arches, you will still be left with plenty arched windows through out so there is no getting rid of them all. But reducing them would be nice. This feels a bit like someone binged on arches and didn't know when to stop.

3. Do think about how to signal the sunken living room floor. The pillars do provide a signal that a step down is happening. You want to prevent accidents. Think about how to do that. A railing? Some planters spaced every so often?

4. There are so many ways to indicate a room within this big open space after arches and pillars are removed. Area rugs, lighting, furniture arrangement. I think you can still have distinct areas here without the columns and arches.

Fantastic, huge mirror by the way!

There is potential fun here.

These are not beautiful arches. There are too many of them. Fine as exterior. Not at all fine on the interior. They are not scaled correctly, the columns nothing more than cheap builder grade. Lose them, and play up the EXTERIOR arches

Really rather than wholesale removal, I was thinking of something a little more selective. I think when you define an open irregular space only by furniture groupings it started to look like a Raymour and Flanigan furniture showroom. This isn't an urban loft, it's a suburban house.

I might selectively close up the dining "pavilion" to balance the room on the other side at least next to the front door, and leave some delineation maybe with a more elliptical arch over that two step area down into the LR. With better columns that are bigger and with larger capitals. One thing they almost always get wrong is that the top of the column is supposed to be bigger and project out from the arch on top of it. The arch isn't supposed to be thicker than the column it sits on .

As for whether something is cheap builder grade or not, whatever it is, it is the level of the building materials that were used throughout and they should be of consistent quality throughout the house.

If you take everything out, what you are left with is shown below. When I was in design school instructors would say about spaces like this: This is not a room, this is a Blob. This is not a nice shape, it just goes everywhere

But it you left some delineation you could have something more like this:

Very nice home! I too would remove the pillars and if possible raise the floor in the living room.

Short of removing in total?

Or adding walls?

Use the arch..............and use glass.

Nobody argues an arch has returned, but nothing repeats exactly, and remains "modern", and more effective ways exist to play up a "good thing" with out posts OR drywall header maximus lol

Make sure none of the Arches are structural

Those are great examples Jan!

I'd vote for removing some arches. Think about how you are going to delineate space. For example, the room (a dining room?) to the right of the door. Would it just become part of your hall? Or would you put, say, back-to-back credenzas, one for the DR and the other for the hall. Maybe you want the two columns and arch next to the door, but not the ones along the corridor or hall.

Once you figure out which columns provide structural support, wind some blue painter tape a few times around them and take some new photos. It will be much, much easier to imagine the result of removing some of the columns. It will also be easier to imagine new structural support beams.

This is a job for a professional. Spend the money and hire a professional to do some mock ups for you and to deal with what structural and what is not. Have them present several options on removal and partial removal and choose based on actual mock ups of the space. Do it before you get the floor laid obviously.

Plus I have 13 ft ceilings in the living room now vs 8’ at best with the arches

I will post more pictures when it is finished next week

FYI : As I mentioned before none of them were load bearing . all were decorative

Looking forward.

Much improved.

So much better... looking forward to the finished look!

What a great space you have now w/o all the barriers!!!

that looks much bigger now and you have the fun part now decorating show us the results when completed again

100% better! All of the arches were decorative? Holy moly definitely overkill. And you’re right the windows now shine as the architectural feature.

I’ll be lurking here to see what other decisions you make with the space.

So happy that the arches were all decorative! Looking forward to see what you do next . . .

Dining room question
Would you paint all the sloped ceiling in the ceiling color or the wall color

WALL!! : )

There's a part of me that likes it all one color the ceiling and the wall there cuz if you paint the ceiling darker than the walls you're drawing attention to the ceiling which is sometimes good especially if you have a pretty light up there and it could also make the ceiling film bigger but if you bring the ceiling down to the wall it can make it feel cozy but it also can make it feel confined I vote for the wall color with the ceiling all in one but if you want your ceiling to make a different kind of statement with the light then paint it but if you painted the lighter color the ceiling it'll still make a statement it doesn't have to be dark to make the statement is that going to be the dining room? And if it's the dining room you might want the ceiling darker to fill more intimate

If you don't do as Jan insists your ceilings will be back to "8' at best"!!! I can't get over the CLUTTER those arches were. What a great space now!!!

^^^

That's a fact lol, both.

Yes… paint the slope the same as the wall… you need to disappear that architectural “feature”. The room is pretty busy architecturally as it is. You don’t need to emphasize any more angles.

We got lucky the white tile is coming up including the mortar like butter

Painted the slope as the wall , thoughts ?

It looks great!

That looks nice!

Looks good.!! There is no REASON for the slope to be a different color. All it will do, is visually lower the ceiling.

Lol......you didn't believe me the first time ?: )

Connie—What color are the walls painted, please?

The wall color is SW Egret white

Yes it looks excellent. The angle already makes it look slightly different so it’s great that you did it all one color. Good choice on the Sherwin-Williams.