I don't think you can do anything over the dropped ceiling -- for that matter, you might find that you could reclaim some ceiling height by taking them out and just finishing the ceiling above. But the slatted treatment you show seems like it would be wrong on many fronts...

@acm - it would be interesting to see what the ceiling above is like, if it's possible to reclaim it, thanks, might have to poke around! Ya I realize the slatted treatment is not appropriate I was trying to show a skinnier proportion since we have paneling, I've seen it in a similar style neighbor house.

@ptreckel, yes the paneling on the walls is 1950s, original to the house. We love it. The way you did it with thin drywall over the tiles might be a good way to go and then just paint white. Thank you!! The black mirror glue sounds awful though.

We have no idea if its plaster or drywall at the moment, most likely the latter? In the living room at least, it's all paneling. In the bedrooms, it appears to be drywall but not the modern one, harder.

Also, we are considering putting in skylights when we reroof so maybe that's a good time to see what is the ceiling tiles are covering up!

@ptreckel q: how did you know where to screw the drywall over the ceiling tile? Were you able to see where the joists/support grid is from the attic space?

The tiles were secure so the carpenter used a stud finder and screwed the very thin drywall directly through the tiles and plaster (on a metal lath), into the ceiling joists. Finished it off and our painter painted the ceiling white. We haven’t had a joint buckle or screw pop in 30 years. Looks perfect!

These were often not part of a dropped ceiling but were secured tongue and groove style with staples onto firring strips right against the ceiling with a minimal gap.

I don't hate them, they are appropriate to your house, even some Frank Lloyd Wright houses had areas with acoustical tile ceilings. But it's not my house.

I would not be surprised if they had asbestos in them. If they are intact that is not a big deal, it's when you start breaking them that you create airborne asbestos.

So if you remove them you would probably have to have them removed by a specialist.

First see what you actually have in place. that may determine what you can afford to change. Then get a designer on the project. There are many options for wood beams that look fantastic. What seems to be a simple change can and usually does become overwhelming quickly.

Are you going to remove the current wood faux beams?

You'll need to know where the joists are placed in the ceiling. If its practical to remove the tiles, there may be drywall or even bare joists underneath. Drywall would give you an option to use PL adhesive to glue wood to the ceiling. I've see this method recommended on finehomebuilding for coffered ceilings

The ceiling in your last picture looks roughly like 1 x 2 dimensional lumber. You'll have to take careful measurements of the ceiling and then layout the intended design on the floor. Use a guide block to consistently space the wood segments. You may want to leave a uniform space without wood segments on each side of the room if you don't end up with perfect spacing.

If you find that you have drywall underneath you can mark the joist locations with a chalk line and just nail (brad nailer rental) and PL the wood slats.