You can't paint it now.

A: You need to paint all sides so that it doesn't warp with humidity, and it's too late for that now. You also can't put a clear finish on it for the same reason.

B: As the wood shrinks and swells, the unpainted tongues will show and look bad, depending on the season.

If you like the wood, why do you want to stain it?

Depends your floor tone. Wood look can be many things. I wouldn't sweat the paint issue that much, honestly. : ) Rather charming with a bit of wood escaping through . Forget stain. Pine almost always disappoints, with major blotchiness

FWIW- I've have the same dilemma happening at my house right now. Right down to the fact that my contractor also installed it unfinished. He obviously thought painting it after was fine.

It really does look so pretty! But I've decided to paint mine because of how it interacts with my wood floors. In my case my floors are so similar it looks like I meant it to match and it doesn't. I think if your floors are a white grey, or super dark you could be fine. Your beams and arch are very pretty!

Oil stain?

I like the look now and wouldn't stain it, the problem with leaving it would be the way it coordinated with the wood floor. That said, I'd either leave it and change the floor color or make the contractor paint it. One question: Did the T&G sit in the house for two weeks with heat/AC running to acclimate it to the temp/humidity? If not, it's going to shrink or swell (probably shrink) when the house is closed up and heated/cooled. If you paint, you want to paint AFTER THAT. Otherwise, you'll have lines of unpainted pine showing through. The house will be near finished and the contractor will say "You really don't notice it from down here" and won't address the issue.

You could do a white stain. I would test it out first. I've had a bad experience using oil based clear coat, it yellows really badly. Water based I found out later doesn't yellow.

I would leave it the way it is. Its very pretty. Darken your floors a bit.

Like the white pickle look of the kitchen space jalarse posted.

Hi Sarah, I wanted to ask you what you decided on? How did it turn out? Have a picture? Asking because I just had pine tongue and groove installed on my outdoor patio ceiling but it wasn’t painted. Considering a white stain, paint, or possibly a darker stain.

I'd love to see photos, as well. We are remodeling our kitchen and plan to put a v-groove on the ceiling. Was initially thinking I would paint it, but I'm liking the white stain idea now. Our floors will be oak - natural. Any thoughts on that....I'd welcome them