First post here...so be gentle. :) We bought a house with an unfinished basement in the summer of 2008. We're getting around to putting some finishing touches on it. Everything but the bathroom has drywall up, all of the outlets are wired and whatever has drywall up has been primed and most of it has been painted (ceiling and carpet yet to come when everything else is done). To my question... Some of the areas in the basement have concrete walls (some floor-to-ceiling while others are "half" walls). I've uploaded some images for illustration purposes. The hallways are primarily drywall and we put bead board on the bottom half and chair rail to "edge" the top of it. We primed it with "new drywall" primer and painted the primed drywall "Wickerware" (a Behr shade of yellow). There is a concrete corner where the concrete runs from the floor to the ceiling as seen [URL="http://img253.imageshack.us/i/1085297.jpg/"]here[/URL]. [IMG]http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/1045/1085297.jpg[/IMG] How would you paint it? All the same color (in this case, Wickerware)? As an accent wall (i.e. a complimenting color such as grey -- we found one we liked called "Lion")? And when you paint it, would you use any kind of texture first (i.e. a Behr textured paint) to try to hide any of the concrete pores (to eliminate the "basement feel")? Would you bead board it at all? If so, to the same height as the rest of the hallway? Or would you put bead board from floor to ceiling (even though supposedly you can only get it in 8-foot tall sheets)? My wife wants it so it doesn't "feel" like a basement...but part of me thinks that the more you try to "hide" it, the more you have people wondering what we're trying to hide. Then again, I personally think if you have painted the drywall a flat (non-textured) yellow and the concrete a textured yellow, it will feel "weird" since they are the same color but a different texture. Also, there is a "bedroom" that has a similar situation -- but instead of being floor-to-ceiling concrete, it's only about halfway up the wall and is shaped like an "L" on its side (i.e. the concrete runs higher up the wall at one point along the wall than at another). It sticks out about two inches from where the drywall is (we didn't build the wall out, nor do we want to if we can help it). Same question applies here...would you do the drywall one color and accent color and/or with texture for the concrete? Or just bead board over it and then put a chair rail/edging on the top that would cover the two inch ledge? Thanks for any and all feedback. Image [URL="http://img641.imageshack.us/i/1085299.jpg/"]here[/URL], [URL="http://img294.imageshack.us/i/1085300.jpg/"]here[/URL] and [URL="http://img146.imageshack.us/i/1085301.jpg/"]here[/URL]. (NOTE: The vertical area behind the ladder is a drywalled "boxed out" area covering some pipes and not concrete. In the last image, you'll see how it really "falls off" in the corner and only goes a few feet along the windowed wall). [IMG]http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/1075/1085299.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/4308/1085300.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/3721/1085301.jpg[/IMG]

I've been working on finishing my basement and I've been planning on putting a drop ceiling in. The walls are in place and finished, and I'm ready to move onto my ceiling but I'm not sure how to begin. The floor joists in my house are steel, not wood and I am not sure what the best way to attach the hangers for the ceiling to the steel floor joists would be. Here is a picture of the joists in my basement: [IMG]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6733310/Photo%20Nov%2016%2C%209%2018%2046%20AM.jpg[/IMG] Thank you to anyone who can provide me some assistance on figuring this one out.