I posted this question in Building A Home, and was told to ask an engineer. It's not an engineering question, it's an interior design question, so I thought I'd ask here.

I am building a new house. It's all on paper at this point. I have a mostly open space for my main floor. The ceilings are 9'. At the very beginning, I said I wanted a beam or bulkhead between the kitchen and living room. I like open concept, but I want defined "rooms".

Now that the joist plans are in, they have put in a beam exactly where I wanted one, so I'd love to leave it exposed for an industrial look (which works with the style of house). But they've designed it 2 ways.

Option 1, the joists are completely on top of the beam, so ~12" would hang below the drywalled ceiling. Is this too much given that the drywall is at 9'?

Option 2, the joists are partially raised, so there would be ~6" of beam below the drywall. Is this too short?

I could always go 6" and then clad it to whatever size I want. But I'd rather expose the actual structure.

If you have exposed beams, how big are they?