You either want to seal it up real tight or get rid of it. Something like what is pictured above would be just asking for black mold...

Until you can afford to replace it... don't look up!

What about a shower curtain tacked to the ceiling.

I would say ribbons or paper streamers would be a neat way to disguise it, but since it's a bathroom, I agree with magdelane, you need to be very concerned about mold due to the humidity.

You could replace the ugly ones with replacement faux tin squares. They make them in standard sizes and can be cut with scissors. I found some here:
http://www.decorativeceilingtiles.net/

I'm waiting for the Trading Spaces-esque ideas to start rolling in. But seriously, I'd leave it as-is without any faux fixes. Having to look at it every day until you can afford the switch will be the strongest incentive you have to save every extra penny and get rid of it asap.

why not paint them? You could do a single color, multiple colors, or even a design if you were feeling artsy enough :) Goodluck!

I think you can paint those tiles. Why not buy a stencil you like and paint across the tile borders to make it just look like a stenciled ceiling? Might make them look a little less cold until you can afford to replace them. Best part about paint is that you can mix in the anti-mold stuff sold in the paint section at hardware stores to prevent that from being a problem.

My bathroom had the same, I replaced them with tin ceiling tiles from American Tin Ceiling http://www.americantinceilings.com/ They ranged from affordable and plain to fancy schmancy and pricey. The shipping was pretty slow, but installation was simple-- just some tin snips and thick gloves and a ladder. I forgot to request the drop ceiling clips that hold them down, so maybe I will eventually have those sent out, but even with out them there are very few places that pop up. The one annoyance is that the tiles I picked were 'stainless steel' finish, and the rustoleum paint I picked up to paint the grid with is not quite the same color. They do have some spray paints that match some of the colors, it would have been nice if they had one that went with the one I chose.

I would say the over all effect is nice, I hate drop ceilings, and love tin ceilings-- the added bonus is that the reflection adds volume to the room. I have had them up now for about 6 months and they haven't rusted.

Drop ceilings in the bathroom is dangerous - serious mold hazard. Does it have an exhaust fan that works well? If not, that would be my first step. I too was also thinking of the pvc tin tiles, though.

Who would even think that was a good idea? You could also try treated plywood screwed up to the ceiling joists. Make sure it's well sealed or water-resistant. I did that in a basement room and it looks great.

Try just pulling out the tiles and leaving the ceiling bare. I've seen it work when the ceiling is painted black. Despite the support bars, it kind of disappears.

"What about a shower curtain tacked to the ceiling."

Talk about the cure being worse than the illness!

I agree w/ the others who are recommending that you don't do anything until you have the money to pull the ceiling down and get it sheetrocked or paneled.

Make sure the lighting draws your eyes down- makes a BIG difference, and put visually interesting things on the walls- framed pictures, plants, etc.

Actually, just buy prettier tiles for the ceiling. You can get ones that look like molding. Seriously. I thought I would be moving in with a boyfriend who had them and so did some premptory research. We decided to buy a house instead, but you can get some that look like a tin ceiling, etc.

No mold, no extra dirt, no "Trading Spaces" solution needed. I was so thrilled to find that out!

It's probably not as expensive as you think to tear it out and get it sheet rocked. A bathroom isn't a big room. Doing the demo is easy and will save you some money. The only real trick is finding a Sheetrock guy that will do a job that small. When i did my dining room ceiling years ago, most of the ones I called wouldn't even talk to me unless I was doing the whole house,
but eventually I had a handy friend help me hang the Sheetrock and a handyman did the taping. I got whole job done for a couple hundred bucks and so worth it. I definitely wouldn't waste any money or effort trying to cover it up.

Is there a reason why it's acoustic tile? The reason I ask is that I have the same issue with our bathroom and was dying to replace it with a bona fide sheetrock ceiling. And then, just a few months after we moved in, there was a leak upstairs and boy, that acoustic tile was easy to remove to see what the problem was! We've had several ceiling leaks since (faulty toilet installation in one apartment, improperly caulked bath in the other) and if we hadn't had that acoustic tile, we would have had to redo the sheetrock several times over.

This being said, I like the tin panel suggestion. That might just work!

I think I saw a Trading Spaces episode a long time ago where they wrapped them in fabric.

Don't waste your time and money putting lipstick on this particular pig. Whatever you do, it'll look wretched. Save up and get the ceiling ripped out and replaced.

Without knowing the colour scheme and style of the bathroom, it's hard to say more than that.

Paint it. Least mold causing route to go.

Thanks Guys, there is some duct work and some electrical stuff up there that would need to be re located, so it would be more involved than just putting up sheetrock. There are currently painted white, it is a slick finish. I think they may actually be sealed. It does not appear that the soak up any moisture. They are just ugly.

Refacing ugly old mineral fiber ceiling tiles is really easy. I used Ceilume. They have lots of great choices. Here's a quick video that shows how:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Ceilume#p/u/5/kS-KnONVaS4

A simple, fairly inexpensive, and beautiful solution is to use a finer grade of plywood to replace the grids. If you don't have the tools and/or skills to play carpenter, lots of hardware stores will cut larger sheets to the size you need. It's a bit more expensive, but plywood is also sold in 2' squares.

You can stain, seal, or paint to fit whatever color scheme you'd like. If you prefer, you can also paint the tracks to blend or contrast.

I like Johneo1's idea a lot!

The tin tile, and the plywood sound the most appealing so far, i considered putting wall paper on them but I worry about it sticking.

oh, and I also wanted to mention that i live in South Texas soi have central air which runs at about 72 all the time, so there is basically no humidity in my condo. Even the humidity that a shower creates is dried up within minutes.

Odds are that the plumbing for another bathroom or your kitchen is directly over this bathroom. Keeping it accessible is a good idea.

We used thin sheets of fir for the entire lower half of our split foyer home. Another benefit is that if you ever decide you don't like the color, all you have to do is flip them over and start again. In one room we flipped half of them for a pretty cool looking checkerboard pattern.

If you go this route, I'd recommend no thicker than 1/4" to 1/2".

I think wrapping the tiles in fabric is a bad idea... the moisture from the bathroom would soak into the fabric and mold the tiles. I would rip out the ceiling and maybe paint whatever is hiding for an industrial feel... better yet drywall it.

Your cheapest solution is paint..if you remove them you expose wires and plumbing correct? In most cases homes don't have the "cool" industrial looking plumbing is dirty and PVC piping. I think hanging wallpaper or fabric unless your a professional designer would be sloppy and uglier! And yeah that's possible. So cheap solution until you can one day redo ceiling paint! To not accent the ugly I'd say solid color neutral black brown tan creme etc..no white because it looks to much like it's original purpose commercial office! Don't paint piping diff color nothing! One color flat! Or eggshell something with as little sheen as possible. Sheen will just accent the fact that it's a cheap modular ceiling and not solid. Then do a fantastic job decorating the rest of the bathroom so it's possible to live with ceiling until one day we all hit the lottery and have limitless amounts of money to spend doing all projects the way we'd like * sigh that would be lovely...

tear out the ceiling, skip the drywall & sheetrock, just repair holes. avoid Mold (a/c nonwithstanding). exposed electric wires probably not good even under dropped ceiling, so invest in nice conduit, nicely installed. keeping all of it one colour makes it less noticable.