need ceiling ideas for basement

hello,


I'm looking for a real quick and easy creative solution for a ceiling in the basement. Just wondering if anyone has done something out of the ordinary. I only have about 600sqft to cover so its not much of a project. I will be moving in about 2 years so I don't want to put hardly any money into it. We do hang out in the basement tho and just want to brighten things up a bit. Any ideas welcome, and I do mean ANY!!

Thanks,
ron

 

anyone, anyone??

 

Alot of people are going for an industrial look lately

Basically clean up all the floor joists, wires, pipes etc and then paint them all. You can use accent colors on vents and pipes for instance to make it more lively.

Also you can get that tectured spray on stuff, I am not sure what it is called.

 

You could hang some cheap fabric from the joists.

 

I thought about the fabric. I like this idea, but a few questions...what to do around the can lighting I have between the joists? I know I can cut a hole in the fabric, but I'm worried about the fabric catching on fire. Also the heat ducting. Does it get hot enough that I should worry if I go this route??

ron

 

i have seen ceilings where they put up garden lattice-you could do the unfinished and paint yourself or the plastic white-easy to cut and paint and just screw on to joist.

 

Half of my basement ceiling was done with sheetrock before I bought the place. In my opinion this was a huge mistake. I becomes a nightmare when you want to redo lighting or wiring or plumbing or gas lines.

So for the other half I decided to do a "hung" ceiling because it is so easy to get into it and make changes. This was about 15 years ago when I had no money.

I wound up doing this: I bought someone else's hung ceiling channels used and got a few more pieces new. Any ones that were not real pretty, I spray painted white to make them look new. Total cost including the spray paint - $20. Hanging all the rails took a little time but it was very easy to do.

The expensive part of a hung ceiling is the panels which would have made the project go over my limit. Instead, I bought 1/4" chipboard sheets at a discount place ($3.80 each) and cut them into 2'x4' pieces (actually slightly smaller so they would fit right). I got 8 ceiling tiles per sheet. I painted the chippy side of each one with a long-napped roller using slightly off-white paint that I bought in a 5 gallon pale at the same discount lumber place for $3 from their odd lots clearance.

The texture of the chipboard painted makes a really interesting look and have never regretted doing it this way.

You may not be as broke as I was back then where it became worth it to make my own tiles, but even if I had the cash to do anything I wanted with a basement ceiling, I would absolutely do a hung ceiling.

 

We had a guy at work use vinyl soffit.It was inexpensive plus you could unzip it ,should you require to get back to the wires or plumbing.

 

Your solution sounds very interesting.

If you can get pictures of it, I would very much like to see what it looks like. If you can't find a way to post them here for everyone, you could send me a personal message with them attached.

Thanks.