We've all been faced with that cookie-cutter room where the only "architectural details" are openings for a couple doors and windows (you might be sitting in one as you read this). Solutions for amping up your walls abound—paint them, add paneling, put up crown molding, just cover every inch with distracting art—but ceilings are another matter. How do you add three-dimensional visual interest without spending a fortune? Not by vaulting them, we'll tell you that. Exposed beams , on the other hand, are a genius solution that will cost you no more than you would spend on a couple of dinners out with friends. Take designer and Atlantis Home blogger Judy Aldridge's word for it—she installed cedar ceiling beams in the dining room of her Texas home for just $160, in less than five hours.

Her secret: the plain old cedar two-by-fours stacked high at the hardware store . Aldridge bought 20 of them, each eight feet long, putting them together to create thicker four-by-fours. (You could buy them that way, but two-by-fours are cheaper. "One eight-foot-long, rough cedar two-by-four is approximately six to eight dollars," she says.) From there, she connected them together lengthwise, trimming the ends, to create beams that fit the dimensions of her dining room.

All that was left to do was get 'em up on the ceiling, and a drill and some three-inch-long screws did the job quickly. (Aldridge just attached the beams to the house's existing framing.) There was no staining or painting or sealing involved—Aldridge liked the natural look, and because the wood is cedar, it will only get better with time. "Always remember to look up" has never been better advice.