Drywall and aleak are nasty partners, we have hot water heat and plumbing that runs in 3 directions so we put ceiling tile and I actually don't mind it , it is very plain and white with white tracks we bought 1 extra box of tiles for problems down the road and good thing we did our water line to our ice maker srpung a leak and we fixed it and replaced the tile in about 2 hours.

Black ceiling tiles are not as noticeable, or just leave the joists exposed.

Stretch ceiling is your ideal solution! The nonporous membrane will not only give you a seamless flat ceiling with a multitude of design options, if there is a leak, it will catch the water! it is able to hold up to 100L of water on a 1 square metre surface without rupturing. Once the bulge in the ceiling has been noticed and the water has been shut off, we untuck a small edge, and the water can be removed with a wet vac like a ShopVac. Then the leak can be repaired, and the membrane dried and returned to its normal position without any changes! That's right no sagging, bubbling, peeling paint, mould or mildew, even if has been through a ceiling leak!

If your man still wants to have an access panel or panels, here is a nearly seamless installation with access panels that we recently completed: http://blog.laqfoil.com/2014/11/18/gentrification-in-washington-d-c/

Please feel free to browse around our profile and projects to see some of the practically unlimited looks that you can achieve.