I have high ceilings and a non cottage so my situation may be a bit different. However, for new builds when you may not be exactly sure of the wall color you want but you do know the color direction it's very cost effective to have it all painted in the tint you want on your ceiling. If the painters are spraying and they do not have to stop and clean out the guns it's cheaper, if they do they will charge dearly. By having it all a tint in the color direction you want to go you can then take your time figuring out the wall's exact color and leisurely go about painting them over time if you feel the need. This way you do not have to worry about re-painting the ceiling which is literally a pain in the neck.

Constanceann, don' be afraid, it will look amazing. I've seen that look time and time again, and it works beautifully. The color breaks up the whites and the whites make the color pop. You don't have anything to loose if you put up the bead board first in white, if you don't like it, you can paint it. If you do decide to paint it, I'd go with just a darker white, or a VERY light light gray on the ceiling, and still leave the bead board white. Here's a link with some pictures that may help, not exactly what you're thinking of doing but still a good visual. Here is a link that might be useful: country cottage

As we speak, I'm having my guest bath ceiling painted the same color as the walls, SW Antique White. I have a south-facing window in the tub alcove and my ceilings are 9 ft. When I had my entire interior painted 5 years ago, I chickened out in the first couple of rooms and had the ceilings painted white. It looks okay, but you see a white ceiling. In my hall and open space living area with vaulted ceiling, it would have been weird and difficult changing colors so I had it all painted the same. I love it. It envelopes the rooms. The light often makes the ceiling look lighter or darker. Sometimes the intersecting planes just disappear. That's my favorite look. I say go for it and if you hate it, repaint it. I hate painting ceilings. :)

oh yes, they can't play with the paint unless they have certain amount of it..you need to make a separate sample. lots of money in our case, yes. (our GC included 3 samples per room; but we needed more..)) we have a main space (entry, living, dining, kitchen, corridor)-that's one color plus one corresponding ceiling color then a family room: another color plus ceiling color then two kids/guest baths-two different colors plus two ceiling colors, accordingly then four bedrooms-4 colors plus 4 ceiling colors then a master bath -yet another wall color plus a ceiling color it sounds like a mishmash but it's not. I put all the samples together(they were on paper), and moved them around the house..and stared at them for a day or two. to see whether they flow and work with each other they did because of the light changing throughout the day, some of them read as very close colors sometimes. Interestingly, I do remember every name of every paint. Working on them so hard. But I have it on a list too the problem with tweaking the formula-harder to match within X years if you don't remember the color, yet still like the paint. You can ask though to open an account in the store so they put your custom colors in their system. Affinity is great quality..used it in some rooms in our previous place. The one we've got now-should be cool too but they bought a lower-grade paint. I don't think it's on our GC (he's an extremely transparent guy, and he'd give us a choice) rather think it's on the painting sub. We figured it out by pure chance and it was too late by then. Let me tell you-the difference in how it holds is striking. I'm livid sometimes thinking about it. Actually my husband wanted to repaint with higher quality paints everything before moving in..but it would mean another couple of thousands probably more..and we had to move fast, and I was tired as hell.