I love the general concept of beams and adding beams, but in this space with the ceiling as it is in the drawing, I think adding beams at lower levels makes things too busy architecturally, considering the soffitt and all of the other planes, angles, and openings.

we need to use two vertical beams on either side of our kitchen island. so could make this a feature alternatively could not have them attached to our island. any ideas or images would be appreciated

It is a peaked roof with Macracarpa beams that look out of date now. Dark deep wine coloured carpet with similar shades in the curtains. what would u suggest to paint the beams? alabaster like the ceiling, or quarter linen like the walls.

So we are slowly working to tidy/renovate our house. We are not aiming for white/ultra modern but trying to retain some of the original features (like the dark beams). I have visons for much of the house but still not clear on what do to with these doors. I like the idea of doors opening to the room from the entrance but as you can see, with the sofas it's a pain and restricts the space - with a gap behind one door and the other just hanging open. I can close one to the wall behind the sofa but when little folk go to bed we tend to close it to keep noise down. So I thought about folding but not sure they are OK or not. We could do sliding but we already have glass sliding doors on the other side so it might look odd? Thoughts? The other thing is we dont have as many door options in New Zealand and we.dont have a huge budget. Any thoughts? Thanks