Drywall – Good looking, easy to install alternatives to drywall

Hang everything horizontal. Throw some 1x6s (using wider board will really cover any hanging mistakes - sure 1x4s would work too) on the main seams to make a faux rail. A lot of decorators are breaking up rooms like this now. The rail usually being white and different colors on top and bottom. Your would also need something for the vertical seams. You can go with 1x6s or 4s again. This would look fine for the bottom section and could look fine for top but not common. I guess it would have a alsace/swiss feel.

On corners, including ceiling joins you can use quarter round. If you painted this well it wouldn't really be that noticeable. White for ceiling joins and the same color as surrounding paint for the other corners or seams.

This could be done. It could look great. You could even convince me if you were really good with wood work that this could be done in a similar amount of time as mudding. But you will spend more time on materials and will have a style that not everyone is thrilled with.

On the issue with taping and mudding... If you apply your coats thin enough then it isn't messy at all. I do 5 total coats. I scrape with my knife between each coat. After the 4th coat I might sand a little if I was messy - but not much. It isn't messy or hard. It is very time consuming I agree.

My experience says to use the rotary tool, but I have always used metal boxes with plaster rings. I have no experience cutting drywall over plastic boxes. I do have three pointers for cutting with a rotary tool:

• Put as little pressure on the box from the drywall as possible. The more pressure against the drywall, the more likely that you'll get tearout near the edge of the box.
• Leave any NM cable sheathed and set the depth of the cut to the minimum possible to reach the box plus a half an inch (keeping in mind that the drywall will be at an angle to the box).
• Always take a few seconds to visualize your cut. Have a good idea of where your corners are so you can anticipate direction changes. Do a sanity check and make right sure you know which way counterclockwise is. Start out going clockwise, and you'll spend a lot of time repairing drywall.

If you still don't want to use the rotary tool, there is another option. There are tools that attach to plastic electric boxes. You put them on and then position the drywall where it will be installed. Press the drywall against the tool, and it will place small perforations at the outside corners of the box. Connect the dots and cut. The image below is of one of mine, but I haven't had the chance to use it yet.