Don’t do it. Rigid symmetry with asymmetrical elements never looks right.

you'd do the entire ceiling, but you'd place the beams to where you'd be able to center your light on the fireplace. does that make sense?

draw it out on a piece of paper.

you see how the outer portions are closer together than the main middle portion?

Or, you'd do something like this. balance it on the fireplace, but do a solid run over the hallway:

see how they did a solid piece over the walking area?

See how they just did the main room and dropped the portion over the hallway?

this is basically like yours. w/the hallway. They didn't adjust the trim beams since they're all the same.

I'll also say do the cans in the beams like they have here

I prefer the look in that second photo that @Beth H. :shared. I do not like the lowered bulkhead one. I'd say either building a wall with large openings or just having the final beam that separates the ceiling area looks good. The off centered one where they did the entire room, would definitely bother me.

I need to see the placement of your fireplace but off the top of my head no coffered ceiling how would they even do the ceiling to look right . Try it on a piece of paper draw the room to scale and start adding the coffering you will soon find that there is no way to make it work with an off fireplace .

I have a similar layout and tried every which way to put in a coffered ceiling in my living room. In the end I decided against it since it would never be centered properly and I'm glad I didn't put it in.

Spend the money you'll save by not doing it on an over the top chandelier and a mirror over the mantel to reflect/double it!

Always design the space that will have beams with the beam layout in mind. Do not seek symmetry, seek balance. Symmetry is an easy to obtain balance. If your space is already designed without the beams and you wish to add beams, seek the services of a talented local designer to avoid a train wreck.

I'd skip the coffered ceiling entirely. Will never look quite right. And your room doesn't need a coffered ceiling, if it looks like what you pictured, it won't suit.

Thank you everyone for all of your suggestions and input. I really appreciate all the photos too; these were extremely helpful as I’m a very visual person. Our builder includes a coffered ceiling or other custom ceiling treatment in their standards, so we are just thinking through all our options and what makes the most sense for our layout. Thanks again to everyone for your advice!

Mark said it well. If you do it, I'd hands down have the coffers align with the fireplace. Depending on what else is going on, maybe the coffers can spin 45 degrees, in which where they terminate would still have to align... Can play with the coffer size...

If it doesn't work, don't force it. They look so nice when they're designed well, but they bug the piss out of me when they don't

This is why we changed the fireplace to the side wall in our plan. It's between the French doors on the outside wall instead of at the end of the room. The "hallway" is part of the room. The coffers will hopefully line up perfectly. It looks perfect in the plan.

What I am concerned about is how to get cans lined up in each square when we have no idea what will be in the way (ceiling/floor joist, plumbing, electrical, etc.) I think I like the idea of putting lights in the actual coffered trim work. That looks expensive! Thanks for that idea, Beth H!

I agree with @Mark Bischak, Architect that the can lights in beams not only take away from the illusion of them being real beams, but the overall look in general.

@Beth H. : the photo with the grey/blue built ins and stained beams. Where is it from? I'm trying to save it, to my computer or even my idea book, but it won't let me.

Good point, Mark! We shall not do that. I've already mentioned it to the lighting gal at Ferguson when discussing our can needs. She had never seen that done. We will stick to trying to have them in each square. What do you mean about the trim and beams being poorly proportioned?

Kat - To save photos from this site, I always Print a Screen Shot, open up PAINT, crop the photo, and then Save to my computer.