I think when you get more up you will see more of the lighter color. It is a beautiful product. Here is a picture from Pinterest and you can look for more there.

Are you still planning on decorative trusses? What material will they be made of? You are going to have a really busy ceiling.

Unfortunately, this material is better suited to the inside of a barn than as a finished ceiling in your house.

My suggestion is white paint. Stop the install, paint what's on the ceiling now, paint the remainder before install. But painting requires sealing the knots, priming and then applying a finish coat or two.

If you don't paint or whitewash, it still needs a finish, unless you are going for that live in a barn look.

Now is the time to fix this.

Why paint that pretty wood? I would just finish it with a clear coat and clean it up, it but let it show its colors. If not why buy blue wood? but I would stop the installation.

Stop the install immediately.

You need to finish the DESIGN first, instead of being so pinball reactive to everything and bouncing from one idea to the next without tying anything together. Or thinking through the consequences of bad reactive decisions. Like installing expensive unfinished wood and thinking you'll "fix" the issue later.

This is mostly what we saw when looking at the wood before purchasing. I never saw such dark boards till they installed it on the house.

Is it possible fresh cut is lighter? Maybe a wood bleach could help? I am just totally brainstorming but if you are truly unhappy I would stop installing it until it is figured out. Did you look through the boards and see they are all dark? Or are there variegated batches and you got a lot of dark ones?

https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/documents/bib94923.pdf

It gives different methods of bleaching a study done in 2005 to remove a lot of the blue. There may be better methods now. Some caused a yellowing of the lighter part.

Here is a portion and the summary.

I hope you can read it.

From what I’m reading whitewashing would be the route to go if you want it lighter. Latex Primer mixed with a lot of water but get profession advice.

‘Here is a sample of before and after on a table

honestly - I would continue along (making sure to remove the stamps / ink marks!) and I think it will be a statement. Otherwise - it's just a plain ild ceiling. Add some uprights to brighten things up and show off that color.

that before / after on the tables above makes the whole idea of the color variation a moot point and I would DEFINITELY not do that.

The tables look to be very white which I think can be controlled on the thickness of the whitewash. It would take making samples to figure it out. Personally I like the blue but it is hard when you expect one thing and it turns out another. It is a matter of preference. The tables were also lighter blue to begin.

Unfortunately when your dealing with natural products there is going to be variation. We've used wormy maple to make several different pieces of furniture in our house and no 2 boards were alike. Some had lots of dark staining others had hardly any staining.

I'm surprised there is no finish being put on those boards. We live in a log cabin with lots of pine. Interior walls that weren't log were sided and everything had a matte varnish applied to it.

Maybe once your house is done and everything is in you will grow to love it.

There is a product/stain called Penofin that comes in a lighter color and they have used it on beetle blue pine if you decide to finish it. They used Verde or Mist colors. Maybe googling it would help.

sorry - up-LIGHTS (dang autocorrect). Shine more light on the ceiling to lighten it up - don't do it with stain.

I think that dramatic lighting can help here, instead of abandoning your vision.

I like it, I'd just install it and leave as-is. Sometimes things look different when you get it or in your setting, especially once all of your choices have to harmonize together. See if it grows on you, then worst case put a different finish on it later

It has to be sanded and finished BEFORE it is installed. You're not doing that upside down on scaffolding like it's the ceiling of the Sistine. You can NOT install unfinished wood.

I think what your getting is pretty.

Brad, I would have been thrilled to have mine turn out like that but as you can see by my pictures it's much darker in many spots.

You've all been very helpful. I am going to try to take the dark with the light, the bad with the good, and look forward to moving in, knowing that down the road there are some alternatives if I still don't like it. Just as in life, if I don't focus on the dark places, I feel better about it. Thanks for all your input!

You have something that is truly unique and a fabulous product from Mother Nature. Embrace it and love it. If you work with it as you finish the house, I honestly think it will be spectacular.

I think it looks beautiful!!

I agree with others. It looks beautiful!

I hope you post pictures when your house is done and everything is in. I love the ceiling.

It is beautiful! I love the color variability! I would not white wash it! Stop doubting yourself. It is way more interesting than a monotone wood ceiling.

We are currently building and putting beetle kill pine on our ceiling as well. Can I ask what kind/color of flooring did you put in? I'm worried it's going to look dark in the room with the ceiling so probably should go light?? Are you liking the ceiling now that you've had it for awhile?

We are building right now as well, and looking at the beetle kill pine on our cabin ceiling as well. What color cabinets and floor did you go with? Would love to see some pictures.

I am also indecisive and not sure how it will look!!

I think it looks gorgeous! Wow. Just built a beetle kill pine barn door. This wood is spectacular. You are blessed to have a ceiling like that!

Did you use it on your ceiling?

I have beetle kill throughout my home, remodeled attic all in beetle kill, doing my bedroom ceiling in beetle kill. I'm always looking for boards with more blue. I finally found boards with red and green in them. Your ceiling is beautiful, love all the blue.

My freaking builder order an entire house of this stuff and I hate it. I am also trying to see pictures of it white washed when I stumbled across your post. 😩 Just saying at least it is one ceiling and not your entire house.

Hi Carlotta,

Long story short, my builder also bought us the blue pine beetle. It was purchased before covid and we are now finishing the build. I was very concerned about the steaks looking dark or blue and the orange standing out with a clear oil stain. I didnt want to go too dark so stayed away from colored stains. We ended up using a clear but it is water based and the steaks look light grey which I like better. I will let you know how it looks when they install it starting this week.

LOL..it is our entire ceiling as well!

Our builds are very similar and we used blue pine for our ceiling also. We used a water based sealant and put 16points of black in it. It toned the yellow color down and gave it a more neutral color. You can whitewash it the same way. I will be using the same sealer and stain for the trim work. I love your patchwork colors. It opens you up to so many options for decorating :)

@Violet Wilson, that looks great. Can you tell me what sealant and stain you used? Thanks!