What does the rest of the house look like? Is it all wood ceilings and walls?

I'd probably start with painting the ceiling white, unless there are wood ceilings throughout (in which case I might defer to the style of the house and leave them wood). Do the changes incrementally, then reevaluate.

If wood walls and ceilings are a hallmark of the house beyond the kitchen, I might look at painting or replacing the cabinets with painted ones and leaving the walls and ceilings as they are. Cabinets will be changed many times over the course of a house's life, whereas wood walls and ceilings could well be part of the fundamental character of the house, if that makes sense.

If you do paint the ceilings, you will have to take extra care with all the knots, as they can often bleed through paint.

@cawaps thanks for the input. The most of the downstairs is raised panels. The dining room and master bedroom have painted raised panels up to the chair rail then drywall. The ceilings are drywall. The main living area is painted raised panels with a wood ceiling. Our mud room is all drywall, as is the sunroom and upstair bedrooms. Here is a pic of the staircase which is right outside the kitchen. The plan would be to paint it the same color white, Benjamin Moore’s Standish white I think it is.

I say paint!

Listen to Flo!

We recently renovated a similar home with extremely high fir ceilings. We painted, though I had many hard words with my contractor over it. He thought it was a crime, but I felt the ceiling just weighing down on me. We did keep the beams. And a boatload of wood trim I still don’t care for. You will need a very good and patient painter, and a lot of primer stippled into the knots.

If altering the house so dramatically troubles you, one option you might consider is to cover the wood with thin drywall. It preserves the wood beneath, and makes the painting process much easier. But. Drywall. Dust. Money . . .

Gorgeous! However, I am not a fan of the black and white floor at all. Especially how it is halfway into the kitchen. I would consider doing the whole kitchen and dining room in a simple, light tile. New lighter countertops too. I think you need better lighting, and more of it. What if you added some curtains to the windows in back of the bar chairs? Then if I was still not happy, I’d think about whitewashing the ceiling.

I would agree start by painting the ceiling and then decide if you want more done.But before that get rid of the fairy lights and get more good LED lighting in there . I like 4000K for kitchens and then choose a ceiling color. Yes you will need to prep those ceilings before painting it will be a big job but IMO well worth it.As for the floor I don’t like that it is 2 different ones in the space and I would add some fun stools in a color or paint the ones you have.

You have a lighting problem. The ceiling is dark. Not because it’s wood. Because it’s improperly lit. Wrapping twinkle lights around the beams isn’t a first choice response. Get an electrician and lighting designer in there to provide more lumens for the whole space. Uplifting can fix a lot of this. Under cabinet lighting. More general lighting.

Painting that ceiling, in a dark room, is just going to make it look dingy. It will still be dark. Because it needs light first. Not paint.

Not at all a checked floor fan for this. It’s too busy and contrasty. It competes with the wood, and makes the wood look worse as your eye is drawn it it’s high contrast.

I think I am of an opposite opinion... I LOVE the wood and the fun of the twinkle lights as a decoration. I would paint the walls before touching the ceiling, maybe do a tile splash and change the floors. You could even consider painting just those uppers by the ref to lighten the space. Get some paint and put it on posterboard and tape it to the cabinets, the walls, the backsplash and see what you think. Also try to get some hanging fixtures in there for light.

Do any changes SLOWLY. Once you start painting wood you can't go back!

Please post after photos!

Personally I'm not a fan of all wood anything. I don't think its the wood that I don't like, its the brown everywhere or wood everywhere look. But that just me. My first thought was don't paint that pretty wood ceiling, but I really do like that photo Flo posted above. Now that looks nice, light and airy. But the natural light helps with that too. I also have the lights like yours. Nine of them and its still not enough light. I personally love the twinkle lights on the beams. Its different and fun. I like the idea someone had above about covering it w/drywall, however I'd choose something different to preserve the wood. Perhaps ship lap? I'm just throwing stuff out there w/no experience in this but when it was mentioned, I thought ship lap.

I would not touch those ceilings. They are stunning, and give real character to the kitchen. I would paint the walls and cabinets instead.

I have always loved this remodel by Studio McGee:

And here’s the before:

Search on youtube: Sarah Richardson Design Life; Contemporary Chalet. Not sure if your entire house is beamed like the kitchen but I think what she did, hearing her logic will give you direction. I like some of the rooms she did paint wise and other's I am not so sure but it is a great before and after story for those wondering what to do. If I had your kitchen I would start slow. Painting the walls/back splash but not the cabinetry or beams and ceiling first see how that helps. Perhaps a lighter not wood material for the counters... It is dark and I would want to lighten up but it is sooo beautiful at the same time.

Ugh. So tough. Your house is gorgeous, so a good problem to have. I like the comments saying to go slow. All of the elements are beautiful, there is just too much of the same thing. I agree that the floor is a problem, especially the way it is halfway in to the kitchen. A brighter backsplash for sure. And I think the easiest, least irreversible, step would be to paint the wall panels and the windows. At that point you may have just enough contrast to highlight all of that glorious woodwork!

cabs are beautiful, and so is the ceiling and beams. But I think painting just the interior portion (leave the beams as is) would look beautiful!

I'd also bring in some white countertops and a light tile splash. The butcher block you currently have is the buzzkill in that kitchen. everything else is stunning.

Oh, and new hardware. the last thing you need is wood knobs w/all that wood! Ditto the chairs.

use your imagination and substitute this ceiling w/yours

or, just imagine the wood beams across this ceiling.

just look at the white countertop on the cherry island. a lighter countertop would look beautiful w/your cabs

countertops

something light like this marble would be stunning

Yes, start slowly. I would upgrade the lighting first; LEDs overhead and under the upper cabs. Declutter (especially the fridge) and then paint the bar stools in a joyful color. Those are easy fixes. Then move on to unifying the flooring. If all of that doesn't brighten it sufficiently, start working from the bottom up by painting to match your Standish White on the left wall first, then on the island base, and last on the lower cabs. Paint these places one at a time and live with them for a while. Take a step by step approach and let the effect of the paint settle in before moving on to the next item to paint. Don't forget the 20-80 rule (80% of the project will be prep and 20 will be the actual painting.)

i don’t terribly like your kitchen layout. Of course it’s very expensive, but a redo of the whole kitchen would be more optimal to me.

if that’s not a possibility then in your shoes I might hire a designer If you have doubts about next steps. I feel like you have a lot of options.

Hahaha. Thank you everyone, I love all the opinions. The floor we like and is staying. When we did the floor a years back we had many discussions about keeping the wood or replacing the tile. We, and I was the strongest, decided to keep the original layout and just flow it into the new mud room.

The twinkle lights are there for decoration, my wife and kids like them. We actually do have under cabinet lighting, and some lights over the windows. I should have tuned them on.

We were a day away from putting in 3 skylights a few years ago, when the contractor told me he would have to go through the roof because of the wood ceiling, we couldn’t finding any shingles to match and didn’t want a patchwork roof so we skipped them.

These images are great inspiration, and I love the rough photoshop, gives me lots to think about.

Thank you all.

why don't you just try new, lighter countertops (either a marble or a quartz that looks like marble)

or maybe even a quartzite, (this would look killer w/the floors and your wood)

and new hardware. and maybe a tile backsplash.

Try those three things before doing any painting and see how it looks