Help needed matching wood on ceiling!

Hello everyone.

Here are two pictures of our living room:
http://treygreyjoy.com/miscimages/homepics/13_Family_Room_Fireplace.jpg
http://treygreyjoy.com/miscimages/homepics/14_Family_Room.jpg

As you can see, there is a lot of dark wood in the ceiling and used as trim around the windows and baseboards.

We would like to put in hardwood flooring, however, we are afraid that if we match the existing wood, the room will be too dark and appear smaller.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Would you forgo the installation of hardwood floors, try to match the existing wood, or combine it with a lighter shade? Ideally I would love to attempt to combine it with a lighter wood on the floor, but I am at a bit of a loss as to how to handle to walls in order to bring the two woods together.
The most drastic option would be to strip or replace the existing wood.
The wallpaper is also coming off the walls.

In a related question, do you think an interior decorater would be of help? Most of their advertisements seem to focus on paint, furniture and window treatments. I am not sure if they delve into the topics of hardwood flooring.

Just looking to see what others might do in this situation. The primary motivation for removing the carpet is to increase the value of the house, so I dont want to do anything too crazy that would put off potential buyers.

Thanks for any input!

You have an impressive living room but a designers nightmare. I would cover the fireplace with a granite 12x12 tile to give the room a more modern feel and less rustic. Are you sure that there isn't hard wood floor under the carpet? its hard to believe that the room was originally carpeted after spending all that money on the rest of it. If not a light colored stone tile with area rugs would look nice. and ditch the wall paper.

Great idea on the fireplace! That hadnt even crossed my mind.

Thats right, no hardwood under the carpet. I believe the reason why is the builder, who is a professional builder, raised his children in this house and really went all out on his new house. I imagine he thought the kids would just tear up a hardwood floor .

Another good idea with the stone floor. I floated the idea to my wife, but we werent sure how common stone tile was.

Hmmmmm... There is not much you can do to take away the rustic look that has been crated by the ceilings in the two rooms. The size and open space will always be very apparent regardless of what you do to the walls, floor or fireplace.
I would not be afraid of adding a hardwood floor if you want one... I assume you will be using "area" rugs to cover a large part of the floor and should be able to find some design that would compliment the room.
Interior decoraters will be of little help to you regarding hardwood floors.
You may want to look thru some magazines with the idea of finishing the room to maintain the same open, rustic look with the accents set to your individual tastes... I can not think of any way to take away from the ceiling and open space.