Are you using low voltage or incandescent lighting? If you use low voltage, you can rotate the light bulb in the socket and also vary the width and intensity, color, etc. of the light beaming from the ceiling to acheive the desired lighting requirement. What do you plan to utilize the ceiling lights for? a walkway, reading, general lighting, etc? Remember to take the angle of the lights you have beaming toward the fireplace and make sure the beam clears the mantle. too many times, people put the lights up there and forget the extension of the mantle and it blocks the fireplace they wanted to light up. Just a thought. Low voltage or adjustable ceiling lights will/can correct this if it's already installed. This is a picture of my living room with a vaulted ceiling only to approximately 13-14 feet. We placed a "square" pattern of 4 lights around the seating area to illuminate that, then a "curved" pattern of 4 lights illuminating a preceived walkway thru the room, then we placed two lights to beam into the fireplace, and 4 more lights to illuminate the entrance of each patio door extending off of this room. Our lights are low voltage and you can see the size of them in the far back area of this room. This is the pre-finished ceiling, hopefully, altho blurry, you can pick out the way we put the lights. Think about furniture placement and where your guests will sit, you don't want a beam of light blinding them, you want the room to feel illuminated, yet soft and inviting. Too much information, sorry, but I remember dreaming many nights about my lighting plan and I know it's importance to light a room the way you will actually live and utilize that room. If you have more questions, I can try and take a picture of the ceiling itself to show you the layout of our lights. V

The rise in your ceiling is so gentle that I don't think it needs to be featured. If you are choosing a soft neutral color for your walls, I would paint the ceiling the same color, to make the shape of the walls seem more natural. Your room needs better lighting almost everywhere, and I agree that you need a larger, lower chandelier over your table. I'd also recommend the following steps, before you make a big investment in furniture. Move the big picture toward the corner cabinet, so that its center lines up with the center of the table, and hang it lower, so that the top of the frame lines up with the top of your china cabinet. If your corner cabinet is not a valuable antique, paint the inside to match the wall, which will lighten the look of that corner. Take everything off the top of it, too. Try shifting your loveseat another foot away from the wall, and move the console that is now along the long wall to stand behind the loveseat, facing into the dining room. Use that wall like an art gallery, and cover it with pictures you like, and your children's drawings in inexpensive frames. Add a more substantial end table between the loveseat and the wall, with a larger lamp. Try shifting your larger sofa forward into the room, at least a foot away from the railing, add a skinny table behind it, and a nice pair of floor lamps to stand behind the outer ends of the sofa. Find a big, rectangular mirror and hang that vertically over your drop-leaf table in the living room. It will open that wall visually, break up the space, and reflect light from the window into the room, as well as add some sparkle and glow. Consider replacing the two unrelated shelf cabinets in that end of the room with a pair of very tall, slender bookcases painted to match your walls, perhaps with a deep contrasting color inside the boxes. Move everything that's now in and on top of your two cases, as well as all the photos on the table, into those bookcases, to unclutter the surfaces, and pull all those things into some sort of order. Then you'll have room to put a lamp on that table as well. Those changes should pull your nice things together better, and solve the light issue, and then you will know what else you want to do.

I was confused about what you were asking but I think that I get it now? You want to define the space between the great room and dining room by adding a wall with a large cased opening? If so, that's really easy to add during the framing stage (although it's easy enough to do even after a house is finished.) With this floor plan, I think it is a really good idea. It will define the space and give you some wall space that will facilitate furniture arranging and areas for art work, etc. And still feel open-ish and give good flow. (As well as support for the ceiling structure above.) Minimal expense to frame (but the millwork to case can get pretty expensive.)

UPDATE: We spoke to a contractor about removing this wall and it can be done with a header. The ceiling on the other side is a standard 8ft ceiling which we could separate with the header. only issue we have now is that we want to change the orientation of the dining room. we basically want the dining table to be turned to run perpendicular to the new header. the "dining room" area would now have 2 ceiling heights. Our options are to vault the dining room area to match the living room (half vault) or lower the ceiling. Has anyone seen an open area that is vaulted with the exception of the ceiling over the kitchen?