Flourescent light covers

[foto-phreak.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be moving in a month to a studio apartment (attached to a house). I will be able to paint and decorate anyway I like since my family owns the house. The major downside is the studio was originally built to be a shop so it only has flourescent lighting (the long bulbs with yucky plastic covers). I don't really want to use those since they always make some annoying humming sound. So I was going to just use lamps and try to figure out a way to cover the ugliness on the ceiling. I didn't want to just drape material over them, cuz I thought it might look too much like a dorm room. Any suggestions though? should I just paint the plastic covers to match the ceiling and hope it hides them? has anyone had to deal with these ugly things? :(