You asked about this specific ceiling. Combined with all that's going on in that room, that ceiling goes too far for me and that's saying a lot. I do love the look of a decorated ceiling and this one could have been spectacular without all of the action going on under it.

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.

I selected Neither - Reason. I think that particular room looks great because a huge amount of expense has gone into making that room picture perfect. It is unrealistic to think that the average home buyer / owner will have that kind of money to invest in a room. Generally I would never put wall paper on a ceiling. The only thing that has made this room work is that they have been able to invest a lot of money into making sure this room is "show room" quality by matching the paper and the carpet and all the furnishings. It is not a homely room. It is a room for a palace or for the rich and famous. You could not relax in this room and I do not think the average family would ever allow their family to use this room - most of us do not have "special occasion" rooms.

Hi Jeannie, Just following up with your enquiry. The real estate agent valued this property (in its original state) at $2,000,000. He then recommended to the owner to update interiors (& the rest!)- which is where we came in. Our refresh only cost the owner $60,000 for all the trades in the description. It sold for $2,558,000 on the weekend! So yes, the price obtained completely covered the renovation and staging costs a few times over! Owner is over the moon.