They are both beautiful treatments, but exposed beams would be more appropriate for a modern day ranch. The coffered ceiling would be more appropriate for a modern interpretation of a craftsman, Victorian, Georgian, etc. style of architecture.

In short, I think it will look very odd to do both in a modern ranch. Perhaps some of our architectural experts will be along shortly to weigh in on the matter.

You want to establish a consistent design for the whole home. Not throw everything and the kitchen sink at it. That’s major tacky.

Your architect should be telling you a resounding NO on kitchen sink designing.

The goal is to make the house look stunning, not to get everything you like and have always wanted. Discipline in selecting finishes/details will result in a beautiful house. Lack of discipline will result in a hodgepodge of ideas and the house loses its ability to wow.

Thank you all for the input. That was my assumption, but needed a second opinion! So I lean to the rough beams to give it a more classic and timeless feel. The exterior will be craftsman, black and white primarily, and I want to keep it from leaning to the modern side. Beams seem better because otherwise, what would I do with the vaulted ceiling in the dining room?

Your question paints an ugly picture in my mind.

When I wrote "modern ranch", I only meant a ranch house built in the modern day - as in 2018. In terms of a "classic and timeless" feel, you can best achieve that by looking to the style of architecture you seek to emulate and staying true to it.

If you're working with a licensed or otherwise highly reputable architect on this new house, she should be able to guide you in all of your decisions. And that means saying, "No", if your ideas compromise the integrity of the architectural design.

Don't say ranch and then say craftsman. The details don't translate from one to the other.

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I'm glad you are going to avoid design elements that make your house look like a sampler of building styles rather than something that has a unifying theme. Remember the architectural adage: "Less is more."

You’ve gotten some good advice here.
I’m gonna just add that you may want to peruse The McMansion Hell website. At the very least it will be entertaining, but at best you will get a good idea of why “a bit of everything” in design leads to a very bad outcome

Sorry but black and white exterior is not craftsman at all. I would suggest you post your plans because the best way to muck up a classic ranch house is to paste on craftsman details and then further muck it up by painting it black and white

"...Would that look really strange to do both in the same house??..."

Yes. Beyond really strange...way beyond.

As for using "beams", keep in mind beams are supposed to be structural elements, not design elements. This means they should be installed in a manner which at least suggests the beams are truly structural.

Among other things, this often means installed in a space in the short direction, not the long direction. That's a structural decision, you see.

Don't do this sort of fru-fru stuff:

You need to pick a style ans stick with it through the whole house , 12’ ceilings do nothing but gobble heating and cooling dollars and every time you change ceiling height you spend money. You not only need an architect that speaks up but an interior designer to help with all these mixed up wants. There is a house where I live that has everything they saw in magazines they liked it is a horrible mess with no cohesiveness at all and most of it makes no sense.

@BeverlyFLADeziner — the beams in your last pic scream McModern to me.

Your architect should be giving you strong guidance here as to how to create a home that says authentic and classic. What input has she offered to you regarding the overall design?

There's always an exception to the "rule": Vaulted exposed beam ceiling.

Schnabel House by Frank Gehry

This was Gehry's house, early in the onset of Post Modernism, which questioned and threw out virtually any and everything which made logical sense and which pre-dated the PM movement.

Almost every "new" movement in art and architecture began by turning its back on whatever proceeded it, and re-invented all things in the quest to be "new".

This is also an example of why many "movements" may not always have staying power. Does anyone today fondly recall (or even remember) Post Modernism?

Definitely want to choose one style for the whole home. Mixing and matching isn't going to look great.

Tricked out ceilings are nice in one room. No more than that. I agree with the above.

Does anyone today fondly recall (or even remember) Post Modernism?

Impossible to forget!

One of many "melting" sculptures by Gehry.

And soon coming, an 82 and 92-storey twin tower condo project in downtown Toronto. (These will add to four the only buildings that Gehry said were worth conserving in the entire city.)

Mr. Gehery has always been a modest man.

Gehry threw a huge tantrum when he was asked to slightly revised his design scheme which would save a bit of Los Angeles architectural history. Not to mention the grotesque nature of his vision which sits squat at the entrance to Laurel Canyon.

Before the aid of computer-aided design and drafting, Mr. Gehry's designs would have been impossible.

I'm told that his office was a leader in developing computer aided design and drafting. Can you imagine trying to manually draft and dimension the drawings for that project?

Ha! I wonder what the other 4 buildings worth conserving were.

I’m guessing NOT the brutalist peacock-shaped Robarts Library

CA is greedy with the plethora of Gehrys. We only have the one. But it is a stunning achievement to have happen for a place like MS, especially considering Katrina.

Could we get back on topic.

The topic has been answered. More than once. Everyone agreed. No kitchen sink designing. Now it’s time for thread drift.

Thanks, Sophie for giving me license to wander....

@Virgil: I've always wondered if Frank Gehry intentionally designed buildings to look the way his do, or if they keep employing the same low-bid contractor with a busted level to build them.

I like the busted level look of them. The organic flow to them. The sense of the building being almost a sentient organic being. Same with Zaha Hadid’s work. Some looks like you are 3D printing a new biological organism.

Reminds me of the flow and organic look of Ape City in the original Planet of the Apes. Which I thought was brilliant set design. Kohn Pedersen Fox’s work on the Petersen Automotive Museum’s facade is a direct almost homage to Gehry’s influence, and unlike most of their work.

As the French say, chacun a son gooooooooooooo (well, sort of.) I'm a fan of the original Planet of the Apes, too.

I mis-spoke. Gehry is a deconstructivist.

The 1973 Robarts Library in downtown Toronto is a brutalist masterpiece, though now marred by a recent glasshouse thing on one side.

I wonder what the other 4 buildings worth conserving were

Only two--Old City Hall, as he was married there, and the nearly two centuries old Osgoode Hall, as Gehry once did some business there.

[I had the pleasure of touring the Clock Tower before it was permanently closed to the public.]

I’m building Modern Hamptons style home a d we have raked ceiling living space which will be a painted shiplap look and it abuts a flat ceiling dining room. The builder has opted to put a coffered ceilings in that space. Will this be too much? Should I just keep the raked ceiling as the feature part of this large room?