Guest room with tray ceiling:

Exercise room with tray ceiling:

The ductwork is basically under the part with the beam...the rest of the ceiling is boxed out to make a tray....rather than an awkward bump that everyone looks at and says, "Oh there's the duct work."

Just to the left (a real mess so I didn't take a photo) where the carpet is, there is a recess for a music nook...change in color of walls and ceiling help to define that separate space though it is open.

Craft room has just a flat ceiling as it needed no duct work space.

Also, as we didn't want the lower level to feel like a basement, we put in a full open staircase from the foyer...no door, no narrow entrance. As you descend the stairs, you see light from the exercise room....as you go up the stairs you see light from the glass front door. It really makes it feel integral to the house and not a "basement".

The other thing I love that our architect did was, as I knew I wanted carpeted stairs, he built up the edges and put in the cherry trim, so the carpet nestles nicely on the stairs and doesn't need to do the "70's wrap" that an open step would've needed. It looks very finished.

Guest room: walls Pale Moon, ceiling Cumulus Cotton, trim super white
Exercise room: walls Palladian Blue, ceiling soffit Durango dust, tray ceiling Palladian blue, trim super white
Music nook: and around stair case walls and ceiling durango dust, trim super white
Craft room: walls Adobe beige, ceiling super white, trim bone

Thanks so much for sharing your photos.
Your terrace level is just lovely!
It's light and open and inviting.
Yours is definitely not a typical "basement."

Due to our lot and the lay of our land, ours has little natural light, so it will never look like yours!
However, we hope to someday use our basement as much or more than the rest of the house.

I don't know why we didn't consider tray ceilings when we were building, but I think we could have them.
The bottom of the lowest duct work is between 8 and 9 feet high.
(This is a 10 ft. basement.)

Thanks again!
Your house is great!

MS

I remember one fairly small guest room in an interior basement space that Candice did that was maybe only 13x15...I counted and there were 21 separate sources of light!

And thanks kirkhall for the bump.