Trey (aka tray) raised ceiling with lights.

kaciuba

Hello all DIY'ers,
I am in the process of building a new home and would very much like to integrate a trey ceiling in to my patio area. I think its called a trey ceiling?? I have had a lot of trouble nailing down what this is actually called so to show you I have attached a pic. See "trey ceiling.jpg".

This is the general effect I am going for but a little simpler and far less pronounced. The space between the two ceilings will be far less and instead of the halogen type lights I will most likely be using a rope light.
I have also attached a picture showing where I plan to have the ceiling effect. See plan.jpg. In the photo, the red box would be where to put the trey ceiling. The grey shaded area (meals and garage (FYI Garage should read Games Room!)) is 30 courses high where as the patio is currently at 28 courses high. The patio area is under the main roof.

What I imagine I would have to do is bring the patio ceiling up to 30 and have the trey ceiling down around the 28 courses mark. The angle of the roof will dictate how far to the west I can get 30 courses high as this height wasn't scoped in the original plan. Do you think having the top at 29 would be appropriate?

The trouble im having is finding decent information on the design elements and any tips/tricks and things I need to avoid. Has anyone here done anything like this before? Is there a problem with having this type of design in a patio exposed to the elements? Is there anything I need to look out for? Are there any websites around with how to's or step by steps on this type of installation?

Any information or advice you all can provide would be much appreciated.

Thanks all!

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