Would you box in these steel beams? (Photo attached)

[weepingwillow22]

We are having a kitchen extension built. It will be a large open plan space with black aluminium windows and a modern handleless kitchen, pale grey porcelain floors and mainly white walls. There are two large steel beams in the roof where we have taken out walls.

I am tempted to make a feature of them and paint them a jazzy colour instead of boxing them in but am wondering if this look will date quickly.

What do people think? To box or not to box? If anyone has any pictures of steel beams on display I would love to see them.

They can sometimes look really great when just simply painted. I know someone who has done this and it looks excellent

I'd put paperbacks in them, but I am always trying to squeeze more book space into my house. Like this www.themodernhouse.com/sales-list/lower-clapton-road/?utm_source=instagram&utm_content=linktree&utm_medium=social&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linktree&utm_campaign=for%20sale%3A%20lower%20clapton%20road,%20london%20e5

I would personally leave them on display. I don’t see the point of boxing them in as you would still know they are there?...lots of pictures in Pinterest if you just type steel beams. An example pic attached

MsRinky that is an amazing idea. We are about to do an extension. Wonder if I can convince DH? You can never have enough books!

I would leave them.
I like that look.
They can always be boxed in later.
Check whether you need them to be painted in special fireproof paint.

I would box them in. Steel girders are not homely, in my opinion.

I'd leave them as they are. If you're not happy then get them boxed in later. Not a big job in scheme of things.

Either way, that looks amazing

You need to check building regs requirements; ours are to be boxed in with fireboard. You may be able to get paint which would protect them too.

We have had similar done. Just bear in mind (I wasn’t, but you may already be) that if you paint them it has to be in a special fire retardant paint which is significantly more expensive than just boxing them in.

We had similar and I wanted to leave them exposed but wasn't allowed to - the builders said they had to be boxed in due to building regs.

PPs are right about the fire resistant paint. We are doing this in our extension now, and I love the exposed beams! My vote would be to leave them on show.

Just to add, in our case it has cost us less to leave them exposed than have them boxed in - but I don’t know specifics about the cost of the paint versus fire resistant plasterboard.

I suppose they are an industrial look but I’m not sure I’d paint them a darker colour. I’m not a huge fan of even wooden beams if they’re dark.

We dropped our ceiling so we couldn't see them at all! We now have a flat uninterrupted ceiling with recessed lights.

If you're having very clean lines, I'd just have the ceiling lower do you can't see them. If you leave them exposed they're a pain to keep clean, and if you box them in it stops your nice uncluttered look.

I'm feeling glitter 😄

Seriously, I'd leave them. They fit with the scheme you've described.

I would leave them exposed and experiment with a few paint samples, to see which colours and shades look best.
I like the look.

Either paint them or reduce the ceiling, don’t box them in.

I have beams to re enforce the ceiling beams, and we painted them a very pale gold to blend in with the oak beams they are attached to, and it works very well.

Thanks all. So the verdict seems to be to leave them on display and use the fire retardant paint. I just need to convince my OH and our builder, neither of which were keen!

We are also just about to do an extension and have the same issue. Do we box in or leave exposed and also going for a simple modern clean look

@victoriasponge678 if you haven't yet started you could look at releasing the beams into your exciting ceiling space. We've done this where we've removed supporting walls and it looks really neat. More expensive though as there's more work involved.

Goodness me, autocorrect was not kind to me.
Recessing the beams into your existing ceiling space

If you want to try make a feature out of them then go for it. If it doesn't work out then box them in, no harm done.

I love the look of leaving them on display, but I don't like dusting so I'd have them boxed in. In a kitchen they'll end up with that horrible greasy dust on them, like you get on the top of kitchen cupboards.