Leave the ceiling unpainted.

Leave the ceiling and the trim but what wood is the ceiling? IMO 3 kinds of wood are too many so at most 2 and in a perfect world one for a nice contemporary space .Less is always more in contemporary design

I will never for the life of me understand the isolated little balcony that no one can reach above a front-door - the ones below those giant windows. Like, do you put the same flooring there, or just drywall the top as if it's a part of the wall? Curious what the architects on these forums recommend for those.

Nothing wrong with ceiling and trim. The wall color is a no for me, along with the carpet.......and the boxy "air lock"

What does the entry door look like?

As with all new homes? Get moved in, first.

The rush to make decisions, especially regarding a kitchen can be perilous. Life is a journey, not a destination. Give the new place and yourself some time to fully digest and plan

The only thing that's a good idea to do before you move in is the floors since you practically have to move out to replace flooring later. I love the ceiling, but I'm not sure how it's going to look with white oak floors. Do you have a sample of the flooring you could post? I'm afraid the tone of the floor will not work with the ceiling which looks like knotty pine. The stair rail is a cheap '80s-'90s builder solution that you shouldn't be afraid to change.

Agree on the stair. A capped knee wall, simple drywall and the cheap thing is gone : )

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The boxed in entry will be removed, stairs are being relocated to back of house with new railings. I appreciate the tip about limiting number of wood types. Maybe paint window trim white, and do light wood floorlike.

With the rise in popularity of luxury vinyl plank, what to do with all these 1970s-1980s contemporary/shed style houses with wood ceilings is going to be difficult, because most of them were designed for carpeted living rooms.

LVP is realistic, but it's not so realistic that you think it's really wood when it's in the same room with a lot of real wood.

The rooms that I have re-done with wood ceilings, we've put in real wood floors, but very plain low -variation strip flooring to look more monolithic compared to the ceiling.

This sort of house would be perfect for very plain stone look luxury vinyl, something that looked like low variation bluestone or limestone, but many of the stone options available are even more obnoxious than the "every-board-a-different-color" LVP styles offered by most companies.

I would be 100% on board with LVP/LVT if they offered a variety of wood looks that were as uniform as site-finished wood flooring or a very uniform stone. But there don't seem to be many of those options.

As for the millwork around the windows, I would probably paint the walls and the baseboards and window/door trim all the same color. It's a scheme very consistent with the era of the house.

With regard to the handrail, The real problem with these is that they aren't particularly "graspable" by current standards. Of course it's there to prevent you from falling off the edge, but it should also be easily grabbed to prevent you from falling on the stairs if you stumble, and a wide board is not really adequate for that.

Thank you for your interesting insights about LPV and the challenge of mixing different finishes and woods, palimpsest. So true. So many Dilemmas are about introducing new finishes that don't work with existing finishes and features that do work. We're hearing about cabinets in yet another fininish. If new wood floors are coming in, and the real wood light ceiling and trims remain, then floors should echo that for a unified, harmonious look. Ditto cabinets. Owner can then use furnishings, rugs, and art to add individuality, color, possible pattern, and texture to the space. To me, real wood, which is already there in a what looks like a lake setting, is the way to go provided that it harmonizes with wood ceiling.

With the grey color scheme you are proposing, I would not leave the ceiling as is. If you went with a warmer neutral palette (which I would recommend over grey), your natural wood ceilings will look wonderful.

Thought I was done with this but found some photos that show wood ceiling and floors "talking" to each other in a modern way:

Here's one with gray stone fireplace light wood floors to echo light wood ceiling and wood trim windows similar to OPs.

You'll have to decide what material to place on the floor.

I'd paint out the window trim and keep the ceiling

I'd eliminate the drywall vestibule

Matching wood on the floor could work

Gray tile on the floor could work.

Dark stained wood on the floor would not work.

Large formate tile designed to look like polished concrete floors might be a good selection.

The wood ceiling is a beautiful frame to that view. I would keep it and try to match it for the floors.