It may be helpful for us to see a visual of the layout. We are planning a home with a great room open to the kitchen and breakfast nook and our architect said the ceiling treatment should remain the same between the rooms. We are planning a white painted coffered/beam ceiling. I thought it might work better to use different ceiling heights/treatments between each space since very little separates the rooms otherwise - architecturally speaking. I think I will trust my architect on this one, though.

Hmmm. My architect said I could easily do white in one room and wood stain in the other, but didn't think I should use two different color stains (which is what I want to do). I wonder if the stain colors were pretty different (gray and dark wood) if that wouldn't be okay. But I think white coffered in one room and stained beam in another is done pretty regularly.

I have wood beam details on my kitchen ceiling. There is V groove pine as the base with 3x6 beams at 90degree angles to the v groove. The 3x6 beams are over 100 years old but the the v groove is new, therefore I stained the v groove but only put a clear coat on the reclaimed beams. I think it looks great but everyone has different tastes so others may not like it. I'll post a picture later.

Here is the photo showing the contrast. I think a light and dark stain would give the same effect with more detail. Maybe you could use 2 different species of wood?

Here are 3 different stains together.

https://www.houzz.com/photos/deborah-leamann-traditional-kitchen-philadelphia-phvw-vp~218319-Leamann-traditional-kitchen-philadelphia

BTW check out Houzz when you get the chance. Lots of good ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Houzz

Oh I've spent hours on Houzz. I recommended it to a couple people and both of their comments to me were along the lines of "I don't know whether to thank you or kill you." I love that site but I can wile away the hours there, for sure!

Thanks for the link - I like that beam design, too and I hadn't seen it yet. Unusual.