Look at cladding your wall rather than just painting it. Metaline has some beautiful colours and could create this red wall look, but perhaps a better colour choice for you. I like the idea of a band of mirror wrapping it on all four sides, at some height of your liking. It would almost help dissolve the column and make the mirrored section disappear. If all that sounds scary, paint wide horizontal bands around it on all four sides, one stripe in a metallic finish paint, perhaps in a bronze etc teamed with a deep eggplant purple like one called double bass by dulux.

I never like walking in a front door and looking at everyone at the dining table. You could consider having the support post for the beam, up at the dining end of the room and enclose it with some pretty glass. That would, in effect, give you an un-obtrusive sort of foyer, that still allowed light to penetrate, while closing off the dining room from view and leading you into the open lounge/kitchen. Google Sarah Richardson split house photos. You will have to use your imagination, but I think you'll get the idea. Pretend that the double doors in the photo are your front main entrance. Good luck.

My initial reaction is that it would not be a good idea, but then again it might entirely depend of the space really. Can you post photo of your room?

Thanks, I’m adding wallpaper in the mix too, a floor lamp does make sense on the side as it is quite bare. The baby rocker will btw be removed :-)