Brainstorm with Ashley
I love the trim running down but am not sure if it will work in our space. At present, the pantry and French doors would probably be in the way. I’ll post an image to show you beam with island, but I’m not sure how it would scale. I also like this simple elegance more than the rustic beams in what I will post.
These beams run from great room to kitchen. Here is an important note about beams! They are not engineered into the space and are very heavy. I'm not sure how hard it would be to engineer in beams. The good news is that there are faux beams. I don't know a lot about that and don't know how much I would love them, but it is something I recently learned. You just can't bolt a beam up there. Ashley thinks this works nicely for our space.
Not the greatest picture, but here is the concept. Obviously this is more modern and I'd want to trim out more transitional as you have. The beams would need to be centered on the island so it doesn't run between corner seating. As I write this, I'm realizing there are a lot of ways it would have to work and it simply might not make sense at all. I do love the look on your post and it reminded me of these others. They do have a peninsula and I'm guessing a bigger kitchen so thinking...
Another entry with stairs. Though flip sides and window in stairs faces same direction as front door so won't be as visible. This is a little busy for my tastes, but it helps me envision. We will likely not be splurging for wood stairs--they are super expensive. Also, there is a den off our entry so that will impact the look and feel. When I see a space like this, though, I feel encouraged :) I keep jumping on and off the computer as I think of things. I'm going to have to lock myself out of the office!!!
Okay. Obviously this won't be the style of our stairway. I'm sure it's pricey and we aren't going modern. I'm sending it simply because it probably does a good job of showing what can be seen of a staircase from what looks like a 9' ceiling. No window, just walls. The stairs will also be flipped with the upper landing close to the entry.
I actually like this (might be a little to deep for our scale) and don't think it is quite like furring down. It does lower the ceiling above the kitchen cabinets, The biggest question is where to do it. Maybe kitchen only. If we run it over into the dining space, I think we could have complications with French doors and lines. It might also accentuate just how small our kitchen is ;) Basically, our island is only two stool widths, though it is fairly square..
This is that space I love, but I'm not sure if we will be able to do this much upgrading. I also don't know how this is scaled. There is a chance it is 9' but the molding + transoms makes me wonder if it is 10'. Our entertainment center will be different. You may remember we have a bench seat on one side with bigger windows, and then windows above the other side. I think we will have the neighbors stand of trees through those plus a little bit of western sun.
There is also this approach... where you focus on crown molding and do a beam of sorts to separate spaces...? Does that make sense?
Q