It's really easy to get it wrong. Most get it wrong and it screams fake. Proportion, continuity, and restraint, are the guidelines to getting it right. You can't just do beams in one portion of an open concept plan. You will need to do it in the entire space. And not as many as you think either. A little goes a long way. The ceiling has to be both tall enough, and lack any other type of molding. This isn't a look that goes with 6" crown. Real actual support beams are going to be taller than wide, as virgilcarter mentioned. Most people make them too fat and wide and then use too many in wrong spots and then don't carry it over into the rest of the public space.

allison, I have to ask but understand if you'd rather not say: my DH's family is in Alabama, and I would love to know which lake you live near! His grandparents had a lake cottage at Smith Lake for years, and I fell in love w/the area (having lived my entire life in OK and TX, it was the hills and mountains that did it.) And how is this for continuing coincidence: I'm familiar w/your architect! We love his work, but have a more contemporary preference and chose an architect from Dallas instead. Your home is absolutely extraordinary (which I'm sure you've heard before), and I can't thank you enough for sharing the photos. I'm going to show your beams to my trim carpenter (I hate that title - the man is an artist of woodworking), and will ask me another question that I completely understand if you'd rather not answer: where did you purchase your cedar and spruce beams? It's getting harder by the day to find true lumber mills - my grandfather owned one in southern OK for decades, and I wish every day it was still in operation. Again, thank you all for your feedback! pic of the ceiling in question in great room, under construction: Here is a link that might be useful: construction progress from earlier this month

Satin interior polyurethane sounds good to me. It would not be shiny so you would hardly know it was there, but the smooth surface would make it harder for dust to stick and much easier to vacuum off webs and dust. Besides blocking the mildew. Make sure the wood is VERY dry before putting it on. If you wash it, don't let it be wet very long, and let the surface dry a few days in dry weather before varnishing.

Hi - do you have any pictures to share of the finished product? We're wrapping our old beams with red oak and I'm struggling on how to stain them. Thanks!