Thanks for these great ideas. The quilting in the sofa would be a great reflection of the ceiling. I love the Japanese screen on the Living Room wall. Would something like that need a more opulent frame as suggested by AMN. The current curtains are quite a rich Thai silk fabric in a bronze colour. They seem a bit dark for the ceiling. I prefer carpet in the bedroom for warmth underfoot in winter. What colour would work with this scheme? Should we go lighter to brighten the room or darker?

Would love to see what the kitchen looks like but I think if anything the lounge needs lightening and not darkening as if I'm right, you have a dining table to the right of the photo where you would have meals. Does the kitchen area open to this table and room??? Not sure what the lights are doing over the tv but I would remove them and perhaps if you want some sort of new feature or accent colour, you could paint the wall behind the tv a nice charcoal grey and hang the tv off the wall and perhaps reposition the buffet somewhere else. However, if the lounge is "brown" in keeping with the other furniture you already have, which by the way is my favourite colour, then a charcoal colour won't go well, you would have to consider perhaps a deep brown like Dulux Beauty Spot and then maybe Dulux Hog Bristle for the walls and a nice white for the ceiling. I live in the country and will have a ceiling fan (no light) in most rooms to minimize use of the AC but if you don't need it, then a nice light fitting would look better. Perhaps a few more photo's of the layout of the house would help with other readers and their opinions of what might best work for you. If the kitchen is completely seperate from the lounge, then you can be different in this room but if you love brown or timber furniture, I'm surprised you went for black and white!!

Cloudyhaze....I think all of the options look good, but it just depends on the look you personally wish to have for your house, because painting the ceiling white will COMPLETELY change the look. My sister has just bought a place that had brick walls and exposed ceilings that had the beams painted mission brown and the ceiling was in some form of raw chipboard type material. She wanted to brighten the place up before she moved in and got it all painted white. It looks beautiful, but I personally would have thought of other options before painting the brick etc. She got a quote for plastering (sheeting) the sections in between the exposed ceiling beams and it was a lot more expensive than painting. If you are keen to paint just the panelling in the ceiling, then I would get additional quotes. I am no painter but I would suspect if it has shellac on it, it will just need an initial sealer on it, before putting on the 2 coats of flat ceiling paint. I think all of the options will look beautiful, because the high ceilings are the feature.........it just depends on whether you are going for a more rustic look, mid-century look , more modern look...I am not sure of what all the designs are called. Good Luck. Your house is gorgeous. My sister lives on Gold Coast BTW.

Are you repainting the walls also? If not, then probably the worst would be splattering paint onto them and doubling your work... Otherwise, get a good quality primer for 1-2 coats (depending in how well the pink plaster gets covered) and lightly sand/wipe down in between or at least before starting top coat. As suggested above, use a roller on a long handle and we have found alternating the direction you roll it on for each coat helps achieve an even coverage (eg N-S then E-W). Having good lighting and someone to stand back and point out areas while still wet that need additional light touch up to remove excess lines or dried paint flecks helps (I usually do the cutting in and then take on the role of spotter while super tall hubby does the hard work). Have to agree with quality tools helping - I have found Monarch precision brushes excellent for cutting in (approx $20 so not too pricey in the scheme of things).