a regular drum head would make it pretty loud, it would be like a regular drum just muffled a bit. I have home made mesh heads on a to e set that i made from screen following directions from a few different sites.
you can also purchase them, i would certainly recommend the mesh heads over the regular head, as for the bottom you can do pretty much anything you want, some leave them bare, cover the edge with a trim like a sliced hose, or you can use drum heads, real or mesh, but the mesh if you're buying them can get expensive!!
hope it turns out well!