The contractor that built my house 16 years ago did not put a header between the greatroom and dinningroom. The ceiling trusess will lift about a half inch in the below zero winters and have caused the seam in the plasterboard between the two rooms to crack and flake out. The plasterboard installers nailed to the ceiling truses so the wall seams also will open up when the truses lift. The plaster applicator has tried several times to repair this crack. Where the nails have popped, I have removed them and patched the small hole leaving the ceiling plasterboard to rest on the wall plasterboard. My idea is to make a oak wood panel that has a depth of about 2 inches to hang in the area where header would have been between the two rooms covering the ceiling crack. This header would be trimed with a decreative oak cove moulding and it all stained to match the oak trim in the house. Any comments or other ideas?

 

If a header belongs there, I would install one. Why bother with an oak panel?