I chose other because I think it depends on the building. Both photos above (and Victoria Harrison's with her post) are gorgeous and building appropriate - is there anything worse than exposed beams in the wrong setting? Maybe painted ones in the wrong setting, lol! Either way, in the wrong setting exposed or painted beams send the wrong message.

Karin, thanks for your suggestion . The bricks surrounding the fireplace and forming the canopy are over 200 years old and each one is handmade. Although you can't see from the picture, each one is unique with different shading, sizing and surface markings. This style is very traditional in the part of France where we live. Where we can, we are trying to restore and retain the original features of the house. If we painted the bricks we would destroy something that took a craftsman almost a month to restore . The bricks had been cemented over at some point in the last 50 years and we rediscovered them when we restored the fireplace . Many of the original bricks couldnt be saved so we toured salvage yards to find authentic replacements. The entire house is over 250 years old so each room and every feature in each room has a different story to tell. The roofing timbers for example came from the hull of a ship and date from about 1700. When the ship was no longer in use the timbers were salvaged for the roof. How they got them here is a mystery. We are 150 km from the sea. That's a long journey by horse and cart.

These tie in so well with the beautiful original beams, what an improvement!

400 square meters of oak cladding being supplied to this amazing venue