I can't access your photos.

Unfortunately, your photos don't seem to be accessible. Without seeing pictures, my only idea would be to add a drywall box around the beam and paint it either the ceiling or wall color, whichever would allow it to blend in better.

I can't see the pictures either. I also cannot understand why it stops in the hallway, without a wall to support the end. Is it cantilevered to support a wall upstairs that sits where it ends? If not, could at least that bit be taken off or at least extended to the wall on the other side of the hall? Or am I misinterpreting the description?

Oops sorry, here are the photos.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2505955847859&l=5dff8804e7

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2505954127816&l=cd6003e7ff

I was also confused about why the end stops in the hallway, with no post to support it. What I discovered is that it is bolted straight through the ceiling into the roof trusses, to prevent the trusses from splaying with heavy snow loads.

It would be nice to see the pics - why don't you just post your pics on this post instead of linking folks to facebook - not everyone has a facebook profile or wants one.

In this photo, you can see how the beam is located between the kitchen and the living room area. I apologize for the photo not really showing the beam clearly. I took this photo before we moved in 3 years ago. I plan to take some more specific beam photos when I get home. I am away from home for work, but wanted to start gathering ideas now.

Also, side note: The cabinets and flooring shown in this photo are GONE GONE GONE. Happiest days of my life, ripping those out! :)

In this photo, you can just barely see how the beam ends in the hallway, if you look at the top of the right-hand wall in the hallway. The beam just sits there, protruding about 12" into the hallway, with no supporting post or anything. I had a thought that we might box the beam in with drywall, and create an arched entry into the hallway, which would disguise the protruding end of the beam relatively well and make it almost look like it should be there, perhaps with an architectural post element on either side of the hall entrance. Something like this: http://cdn.decorpad.com/photos/2014/06/11/m_840a9a337022.jpg

I would cover it with drywall and make a division between the kitchen and the rest of the space like a very large trimmed out doorway.

I would definitely snap a better photo of the beam in question and the space as a whole when you can. Everyone here has such great ideas as long as you give them the fodder. And now that I've compared us all to cows, I will offer suggestions based on the little I can see. You could drywall around it as mentioned above. You could paint it the same as the ceiling. You could do a wood veneer in a stain of your choice to keep a more rustic look. You know it has to stay, so design around it and then when you get your pretty new kitchen installed, it might not even bother you anymore. It might help to post what look you're going for in your new kitchen... Inspiration photos or materials etc. Also, you said it's getting in the way of your reno... Do you just mean aesthetically or are you changing the layout of the kitchen?

Also, I used to live in Kalispell too!

I don't know if, with the protrusion you could do something like this:

I really like that idea, actually. I hadn't considered doing something like that, because I like the wide open spaces that we have. It's one of the redeeming qualities about this sad little dark kitchen. But if we did something like the illustration above, we could keep the open feel to the floor plan, while delineating the space just a little bit AND hiding the ugly beam. Cool idea!!

Sundance,

Small world! How long were you in Kalispell?

Here is the design for our kitchen reno, so yes, we are changing the layout of the kitchen, but we're not tearing out walls or anything drastic like that. I do think the beam will become an even greater eyesore with our new pretty kitchen installed! Mostly, the location of the beam is what bothers me the most. It's not even terminated inside a wall, which I could deal with. It terminates on the outside of a wall, in a silly place at the hallway entrance, which is what really drives me bonkers. If I box it in, we will still have a silly looking protrusion into an otherwise smooth hallway wall. Ugh!

I don't see a major problem here. You can do as palimpsest suggests or you can wrap the beam to make it more of a soffit.

In my kitchen/fr area, we added a soffit to visually separate the two spaces without an actual separation.

And you can add a header at the top of the hallway to help conceal the fact that the beam continues into the space.

Rather than a problem I think you will be happy with the results of openness+better definition.

That beam is like the HVAC venting that most of us have in our houses. You box it in with drywall and paint it the same color as the ceiling and it goes away visually.

We painted our beams the same color as the ceiling and they just disappeared. Originally they were rustic looking dark stained wood.
We did not box them in....just caulked, with paintable caulk, where the beams met the ceiling and painted all the white of the ceiling.