Paint beams or leave them?

[Okite]

We're in the process of decorating our lounge. It's a very large room but can be quite dark in winter, despite windows on two sides.
Our house is an old building but the lounge is a comparatively modern extension, but had beams put in to match the older part of the house.
What we can't decide is whether to paint them or not, they are varnished dark brown at the moment. In an ideal world we'd probably have them stripped but we don't have the money (or patience for the mess!) for that right now. So should we paint them? And if so, what colour? White to blend in with the rest of the ceiling? Or a pale stoney grey maybe? We've been prevaricating about this for months now!

I'd paint them white, especially as you said it has a tendency to be a dark room

I would definitely paint those white!

Thanks, 100% for white then! 😄

Yep def paint white

I'd mist coat them with white for now if you can't face too much mess, but then one by one strip and wax or oil them.

We have similar in an extension and painted them white. Makes a big difference to the light in the room.

I'd have them sandblasted back to the original pale wood. That's what we did and it's lovely. I wouldn't paint them , no.

I once owned a Tudor cottage and I painted all of the beams white, many people were horrified. Surprised everyone is saying do it.

These aren't Tudor beams though, are they.

I'd paint them

Paint them

These aren't Tudor beams though, are they.
No, these are entirely fake and not in the least structural. If I had the money I'd probably actually have them removed and the entire ceiling replastered. I'm not intending to touch the original beams elsewhere, they are in rooms with big stone inglenook fireplaces or stone walls and look right. We can't afford sandblasting at the moment.

Definitely paint! They are a bit obviously fake, so minimising is probably the way to go!