Add Stars to the Ceiling of Your Bedroom, Living Room or Theater Room for a Magical Experience

Welcome to the 600th Metamorphosis Monday!

Last week I shared this photo of a bedroom with a star-covered ceiling. I loved the look of this so much, I ordered a few stars to see how they would look on my bedroom ceiling.

Stars for Bedroom Ceiling

 

After doing a little test run with a few stars, I decided to go for it. I ordered a bunch more stars from different companies and got to work placing them on my ceiling.

How Stars On Ceiling Look at Night

 

I didn’t think my bedroom was that big but let me tell ya, a tray ceiling requires A LOT more stars than your typical flat ceiling! As I got deeper and deeper into this project, I realized this was another shell charger project! lol

Tartan Bedding for Fall and Winter

 

If you’ve been reading BNOTP for a while, you may remember when I undertook to make my own shell chargers after seeing a set of these shell chargers going for a small fortune on eBay because they were no longer available. Pottery Barn did eventually bring them back for a season, but that day on eBay they sold for over $200 for just six charger plates.

 

Here’s how mine turned out and though I love them, they were a ton of work! Really not that much work, just very time-consuming. Definitely time-consuming!

 

After my fingertips had recovered, (shells are sharp!) a glutton for punishment I made six more chargers mixing in a bit of colorful “sea glass” I found in Marshalls. You’ll find the tutorial for making these shell chargers here: Shell Chargers.

 

So, as I placed stars on the ceiling of my bedroom and realized that I needed A LOT of stars to get the effect I wanted, I felt like I was in the middle of another marathon shell charger project. lol Audible, as usual, got me through it!

 

No matter how hard I tried to photograph it, I wasn’t able to fully capture the beauty of what it’s like to lay in bed and look up at over 4,000 gleaming, sparkling stars in a night sky. While I was placing those 4,000+ stars, the image I held in my mind was how the stars looked the two nights I spent camping in the Sahara Desert in Morocco. Unfortunately, my camera couldn’t capture that star-filled sky, but it was truly magnificent!

 

Here’s a photo from Naadam (one of my favorite places to buy cashmere sweaters) of the Mongolian Desert sky. This photo gives you a little idea of how our nighttime sky really looks when you get away from all the cities and lights. It is truly amazing and unforgettable!

Sky full of stars over Gobi Desert

 

So, as you look at these photos, just know that in person it turned out a million times more beautiful than I’m able to show in pictures. Here’s the view looking in through the door, the same view as seen earlier in this post by daylight.

Stars for Bedroom Ceiling

 

As you step into the room and glance up, you can just see the moon shining directly over your head. I placed the moon on the slanted section of the wall directly over the door so I could see it while lying in bed.

DIY Stars on Bedroom Ceiling

 

A view looking up, only the stars are SO much brighter in person than how they appear in these photos.

 

As mentioned, I added a moon just above the door where you enter the room. I took this photo laying in bed, and though one of the 4-bed posts is sticking up in front, I wanted to share this view because you can just barely make out one end of the tray ceiling at the far right end of the photo.

 

Here’s a better view of the moon. You can just see the edge of the door frame below. I think this photo was taken before I added stars to the flat, vertical section of the tray ceiling. That’s what that blank area is going horizontally around the room. If you look closely, you can just barely see parts of the chandelier on the left.

As mentioned, I used over 4,000 stars to cover my entire tray ceiling. That’s a lot of stars! You can see why I felt like I was back making shell chargers again. lol If you have a normal, non-tray ceiling, it wouldn’t take near as long!

Moon to a Bedroom Ceiling

 

Here’s an even better/sharper view of the moon and stars. It’s really hard to get good photos in a pitch-black room with only the light from the stars and moon. With the moon on the slanted section of the tray ceiling, it reminds me of one of those nights when the moon looks HUGE and is just appearing/rising up over the horizon. It feels more realistic than if I had placed it on the flat part of the ceiling up top.

 

A wider view…

To place the moon, I did not peel off the backing since the reviews indicated it’s hard to remove if you want to reposition it.

Decorating Bedroom with Stars and Moon

 

Instead, I used Museum Wax and that worked great! (You’ll find museum wax here: Museum Wax.)

 

In this older photo from when I had the chandelier installed in this room, you can see the shape of the tray ceiling. At first, I wasn’t going to place stars on the flat, vertical part just below the flat ceiling at the top, but once I had stars on the slanted part and on the ceiling, it looked weird not having them on that flat, vertical section when the lights were off.

Tray ceilings are perfect for creating a night sky because they literally curve down a bit around you. It feels very much like your outside looking up at a night sky. So not having stars on the vertical section was sorta ruining the effect.

Crystal Chandelier for the Master Bedroom

 

To place the stars on the very top of the ceiling,What I used a fancy high tool. What tool is that?

This one–a broomstick with some tape on the end. Lol For placing these on the slanted parts of the ceiling, I stood on one of my step ladders. I have two, a shorter one and a really tall one I use to clean the ceiling fans on the screened porch.

But for placing the stars up on to the very top, the highest part of the ceiling, I placed tape (upside down) on the end of a broom handle, taped it in place, then placed a star, upside down, onto the tape.

Tip: If you do this, when you first place the tape onto the broomstick, you need to de-sticky it a little by taping it a few times with your finger or palm. Otherwise, the star will want to stay stuck to the tape and not to your ceiling when you press it against the ceiling. That was the most frustrating part of this project–having the tape be sticky enough to hold onto the star, but not so sticky it wouldn’t let go of the star. I kept adding more tape as the tape became no longer sticky. I could usually place around 20-25 stars before I had to add or change out the tape.

 

At night, when I’m getting ready for bed, I turn on the chandelier and lamps for about 15 minutes while I’m brushing my teeth and putting on my PJs. Then once I’m in bed, I use this flashlight that I purchased recently to give the stars an extra boost. (Flashlight is available here: Black Light Flashlight.) I was using a smaller blacklight flashlight but I ordered this slightly bigger floodlight blacklight since my ceiling area is so large and there are so many stars. It makes charging them a bit faster.

To charge them, as I’m lying in bed I run the light over all the stars which only takes about a minute. Then they shine beautifully for several hours. If I awake during the night, say around 4 am, they are still shining, only more muted by then.

 

Blacklight Flashlight

 

I had a question on my previous post asking if the stars are so bright they keep you awake? Here’s the best way I can describe how bright they make the room: they make the room bright enough that you can make out the outline of objects in the room but not so bright that when you close your eyes, you detect light in the room. When I’m lying in bed, I can just barely see the chandelier, the four posters of the bed and other furniture in the room, but when I close my eyes, I can’t detect any light in the room.

Stars for Bedroom Ceiling

 

This photo from one of the ads for the stars, best shows the effect on the ceiling, but any room where they are used will be much darker than in the photo below. The actual room will appear more like my photo above. Of course, the room gets darker and darker as the night goes on since the stars begin to dim a bit.

Stars for Bedroom Ceiling

 

If you decide to add stars to the ceiling of one of your rooms, these are the ones I used and recommend. Note: The green stars glow the brightest and seem to stay glowing bright the longest.

Green Stars

Green Stars

Green Stars with some fun star-shaped stars

Sky Blue Stars (Don’t buy the “Blue” stars at that link, stay with the “Sky Blue” stars. The ones labeled “Blue” didn’t glow as brightly as the Sky Blue stars.)

Moon  (Don’t stick this moon directly to the ceiling or wall, it can be hard to remove. Use something like Museum Wax which works great.)

Museum Wax

 

Hope you enjoyed this magical transformation! I wish I could really convey how beautiful it is in person. I literally gasped the first night as I lay in bed and looked up! Each night I can’t wait to charge them up with my Blacklight flashlight and turn off the lights. It feels like I’ve been transported to another place, a truly magical, enchanting place. It’s a wonderful escape from all the cares and worries of the day.

Looking forward to all the wonderful Before and Afters linked for this week’s Met Monday!

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Metamorphosis Monday

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Comments

  1. I love your starry ceiling! I had a ceiling like this years ago. Made going to bed at the end of the day even better, lol!

  2. Gayle Kesinger says

    I wonder if your son had any comments about placing a ladder on a board on the bed? My daughter has forbidden me to climb on a step stool on the floor, let alone the bed. I am considerably older than you but a broken hip is not something anyone wants whatever your age.

    • Don’t worry, Gayle–I was very careful. My son most likely wouldn’t say scat. I think in his mind, I’m still 35 or at least he treats me that way when I’m around him. He never underestimates me or what I can do. I wouldn’t have stood on it if it felt unsteady or I felt uncomfortable.

  3. Wow – that’s so cool! What a wonderful way to fall asleep! 🙂

  4. Joan Craw says

    Pretty sure the next time you go to Ohio you will be taking a few thousand stars for your grandsons’ bedroom ceiling.

  5. OMGoodness! So you were being very careful you say as you climbed that precarious step ladder pitched for a fall…..how many rabbits feet do you carry around daily??? This is NOT a safe thing to do no matter the age or the agility. AND…..do NOT contemplate repeating this near fiasco on next trip to Ohio. I enjoy your blog too much to see it suddenly go into limbo. In this case the ends do not justify the means. Seriously Susan! I hate to tell you this but you can purchase a planetarium device that by throwing a switch your ceiling becomes celestial without all the risk and ruin you courted. Try this for your grands….PLEASE!

  6. well, now when someone says “You can thank your lucky stars” you can say..”Yes I can and I have a lot of them”

    rls

  7. Fun idea. But I hope you don’t have to paint your ceiling any time soon! Glad you are enjoying the “stars”! You could have cut a hole in the roof and installed a skylight! Just glad you didn’t hurt yourself on that ladder on the bed! I don’t do ladders anymore.

    • I have a feeling by the time it needs it, they will be starting to fall off. They were very easy to pop off when I re-positioned a few. I’ve always wanted smooth ceilings so if I didn’t want to pop them all off, I’m sure a painted could scrape them off at once when preparing the ceiling to be skim coated for a smooth ceiling. But they were so easy to pop off when I did my little test in the beginning, I don’t think it will be an issue if/when I do want to paint the ceiling.

  8. #600–congratulations! I usually notice when you are approaching a milestone, but that one sneaked up on me. Love the photo where the bedpost tip is seen in front of the moon; it looks like a cat eye!

  9. Love your stars Susan and your shell chargers!

  10. Hmmm. Will have to poke around to find the m0on. Amazon won’t ship it here but maybe Amazon Mexico has it. Since I only ordered one set of the stars I’ll obviously have to more. Your ceiling looks great!

    • That’s weird, wonder why they don’t ship there. I wonder if you can find it on eBay.

      • I found others there that would ship but will wait to see how tge stars work on the concrete grout. Looking forward to this! Thanks!

        • Ginger, was just thinking, if you have trouble getting the stars to stick to the grout, you may want to try museum wax on the back of them.

        • That would help. I don’t want to get pelted by falling stars in the middle of the night. By the way, your chargers are prettier than the expensive ones by far.

      • @Susan: From my recent experience with amazon.com (USA) it appears everything I click on I get a pop-up saying to the effect ‘not eligible for shipment to your location’ and I’m in Canada. Why I have no idea since we do share the same continent and it’s becoming really frustrating.
        -Brenda-
        Footnote: I also have a broker’s USA address that I can have items shipped to which in turn I can pick up and process through Customs myself however the border is currently closed. 🙁

  11. Susan, I’ve always admired your tenaciousness 🙂 when you’re up to something and I know you won’t give up until your plan comes together so … I’d never “scold” you as I’m sure you knew exactly what you were doing … but let’s talk about your patience, girl! I love your new “Planetarium” ceiling but to achieve that result one really needs something I lack of, I’m afraid: the patience of a saint! lol
    PS: In my defense, I’ve been waiting for a delivery from Italy for months and I’m still alive! Arghhh…. 😉
    Hugs to you! ❣️

    • lol Thanks, Cecilia! Yeah, I know what you mean about deliveries. I ordered something at the end of May from an eBay seller in Netherlands and it still hasn’t come. Paypal actually insisted I take a credit now before anymore time passed because they don’t seem to think it’s ever coming. I’m starting to think they are right. I hope your delivery arrives really soon! I know so many people whose packages have never arrived. I wonder where all those missing packages have ended up!

  12. Glutton for punishment. :D:D:D That had me laughing. I can so relate to that.

    Susan, I think it looks beautiful! And thanks for explaining about the brightness. My bedroom ceiling has 3 different heights. I can just see me putting a ladder on my bed, lol. Maybe I’ll have to think about this some more. 😀

    • P.S. I didn’t know a moon would be included! Tres cool.

    • Thanks, Pam! Thankfully, I only needed the ladder on the bed for those 4-5 feet of vertical wall that I couldn’t reach otherwise.
      Actually, I purchased the moon separately. I wasn’t going to at first but decided out of curiosity to try it. Once I saw it, I loved it! It’s really pretty and quite realistic.

  13. The ceiling is spectacular and worth your perseverance. It must be so relaxing to gaze at those stars every night. When your grandsons visit they are going to want to bunk in your room. I remember such amazing stars in the sky growing up in the country. Now with so many outside lights in our neighborhood it is difficult to get a good view of the stars. The shell chargers you made are much better than any I’ve seen for sale, especially with the sea glass. I noticed several people commented on your ladder. I know you are in great shape, but if you are going to keep climbing around please just look at better ladder choices. We had one like the one on your bed and gave it away after getting one similar to this one with wide steps and better feet. I tried to send you a link below. I know you are a spring chicken, but please just look. Similar ones are available at other locations.
    https://www.walmart.com/ip/COSCO-TriStepPlus-Type-II-Tubular-Steel-Platform-Ladder/156866395

    • Thanks so much, Mary! I will have to add some stars to the top of their race car sleeping tents that they prefer over the guest bed. :)The whole family was supposed to visit for a week this summer but of course, that all got canceled.
      Thanks for those kind words about the chargers. They were a pain but I really do enjoy using them for beach table settings.
      Thanks so much for that link! I’ve always hated the narrow step on that step ladder. It has a platform which is nice,but that first step going up is very narrow and very easy to miss or slip off, plus it’s heavy! I use that ladder a lot in the garage when I need something off the top shelves out there. I was thinking today, they must make lighter stepladders. I will definitely consider getting the one you shared…thanks again!

  14. I am in awe at your ability to have an idea and make it a reality! I can’t imagine the patience and effort it must have taken to put up 4,000+ stars! But, oh, my, what an incredible effect! I’ve been at the beach at night, stared upwards and thought how magical it was. Now you can do that every night! Bravo! Be aware, though: once your grandsons see this, you know what you’ll be doing when you head back to Ohio!! Thanks for sharing this outstanding project, Susan.

    • Thanks so much, Rosie! I wish I could have better conveyed how beautiful it is in person, but your description from being at the beach is perfect!
      lol You could be right, I may be buying more stars on my next visit. 🙂

  15. Susan, it looks beautiful! Did I read correctly at 4000+ stars? That really was quite the project. Just wow!

  16. BOBBI DUNCAN says

    Your star ceiling is great. 4,000+ stars–wow! My daughter did the 12 major constellations on her bedroom ceiling–it was such a wonderful surprise to see them on one of my trips to visit her, and so relaxing as I drifted to sleep. You already know what I’m going to say about the ladder on the bed, but I do know you’re very careful, so just continue to be so. Not a bad idea to keep your cell phone in your pocket when you’re working on some of the more dangerous projects–just in case. Potter County, in PA, is very rural and known to have amazing night skies. The first time I saw all those stars, I was blown away! Hugs!

    • Oh, I love that! Did she do them on the guest room ceiling? I thought about trying to create a constellation some where in the room. I may have to add one eventually. The stars are easy to pop off and I do have some left over. 🙂
      I know, I felt the same way those two nights in the desert. I always thought I saw a lot of stars when I was out in the country at night. I had no idea there were soooo many more stars that were visible to the naked eye when truly away from all lights. It really does blow you away when you see how the night sky is wall to wall stars. Thanks, Bobbi! I promise to be careful. 🙂

  17. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the stars. I did this to our daughter’s bedroom in our vacation home when she was in middle school (she is now 38) and they are still there !!! Over the years constellations have been added…she added her name in “glow in the dark” paint at one point…and most recently I put some on the blades of a ceiling fan.They are always a fun surprise for first time overnight guests and the grandkids love it. It is a great way to “simmer down” at the end of the day. I made nightlights for the grands by sticking stars on the inside of mason jars as well. This all started many years ago because each night we would drive to the beach and lay on the hood of our ’77 thunderbird (big enough to be a small apartment) and identify the constellations and watch for shooting stars.
    The kids loved that nightly routine, so I thought why not bring it home and fall asleep under the same peaceful sky. When our daughter went away to college she did the same thing to the ceiling of her dorm room in order to conjour up great memories of summer nights in her new environment.

    • NeNe: I was just going to add that we also did this in college with glow in the dark paint! Obviously we weren’t allowed to paint our dorm rooms but in the daylight, the paint was the same color as the walls (creamy white) and blended in flat. Then at night we had a magical sky and secret messages from our friends.

    • Oh, I love that! Amazing they’ve lasted all this time! lol about the Thunderbird. I know what you mean, I learned to drive in ’73 Ford LTD and I used to affectionately refer to it as a land yacht. It just barely fit between the lines on the road! What beautiful memories and I love that your daughter recreated it when she was away in college!♥

  18. Cyndi Raines says

    Love it! Great work Susan! We live in the country, no street lights, so we get great night views of the beautiful sky as long as there are no clouds blocking the stars. We have even put sleeping bags out on the deck and stayed up to watch shooting stars if a meteor shower is predicted. What awesome fun! Reminds me of the song, ” starry, starry night…”

  19. I just thought of something else.. Remember the song..’Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket’…you don’t think you have a big enough pocket. lol

  20. Your starry ceiling is so much fun! I just love it all. It’s so creative. Thank you for hosting each week, CoCo

  21. I love the room and your creativity, it definitely looks like you brought nature inside. As a trades woman and someone who’s been trained in OSHA. The only thing I need to point out is, photo you used with the ladder and shelves underneath it. That ladder setup is a huge safety risk. Honestly it only takes 6 ft or higher for you to fall and break something/die. A lot of injuries/deaths come from people using ladders improperly (500,000 a year) It’s better to just do it safely and move the bed out of the way. I’ve seen people on job sites where they try to save time by improvising and it ends up doing irreversible damage. I’m honestly glad you weren’t injured by doing that because the room looks amazing!! Your creativity with the fancy tool brought a smile to my face, that was genius. You have a real artistic talent thank you for sharing this.

  22. Brenda s. Lawrence says

    Wow, this is amazing Susan! I can’t imagine laying in bed and seeing all those “stars” and the “moon” too! I do love how it turned out, can’t imagine the patience it took to put them all up on your ceiling. The photo of the ladder on the bed made me a bit anxious, but since you posted I’m assuming all went well. Me, I’d have fallen and broken myself. lol I remember when you did your shell chargers and I remember you poor fingers from doing them. But they turned out great as did the sea glass ones. Well worth the time invested and maybe the sore fingers. lol It is a shame we can’t see the stars like that anymore with all the lights. I live in the country, and can see a decent amount of stars, but nothing like we should be able to see. I can only imagine being in a place where all those stars are visible to the naked eye! Now you get to see them every single night in your bedroom. So cool! I do love the way your ceiling is and that the stars and moon aren’t “flat” looking. Well done my lady! Hugs, Brenda

    • Thanks so much, Brenda! Yup, all went well…never any close mishaps.
      I think the reason there are sooo many more stars visible out in the desert (besides being away from all the city lights) is there’s no smog or air pollution. It’s kinda sad to think I didn’t realize how many stars were actually visible in our night sky until I was in my 60s!
      Thanks! I’m really happy with it and just in awe of how it looks every night. I was thinking, I can’t wait until my son, daughter-in-love and grandsons come for a visit once things are back to normal and I can share it with them and see their faces! It literally made me gasp the first night and still makes me so happy how it turned out.

  23. Loving your ceiling, Susan and you’ve just given me an idea for a birthday gift to my ten-year old grand daughter so thank you. Secondly for estimating what I would require, would appreciate the approximate size of your bedroom (as hers isn’t all that large) also do you have any tips about spacing them. ie.: Distance apart and sizing -Brenda-
    Footnote: I have a friend who lives in the States, so may have her order them for me in event Amazon won’t ship them to me here in Canada.

  24. I just measured and my bedroom is approximately 21 feet x 15 feet and I have around 10-11 stars per 12-inch x 12-inch space. Some of the stars are big but most are the medium and tiny size. In each pack, there’s normally large dime size stars, then a bunch of medium and tiny stars. You get more tiny stars than all the rest, I think. It should say in the description how many you get of each type.
    The reason it took so many stars is due to the tray ceiling. I placed the stars on every level of the tray ceiling, including the flat area around the outer part of the room that faces down toward the floor. So I had a lot more surface area to cover than you would with a normal ceiling. Plus, I used a ton of stars.
    After I placed a lot of the blue stars, that’s when I discovered the green were much brighter, so then I felt like I needed to add even more green ones.
    The stars aren’t that expensive so I would buy at least 3 packs. Each pack has around 606 stars in it. I purchased 4 packs to start with, then kept ordering additional packs. I bought 7 packs in the end and have about 1/3rd of that 7th pack left. I think I’m going to add a few more to the very top/center of the tray ceiling because I’ve discovered that when you’re placing them by hand, you tend to put a lot more stars up than when you’re placing them with a broom handle. lol So I got a little heavy handed in some areas of the room where I was doing it simply by hand. So the top ceiling looks like it needs a few more when I turn off the lights. I would guess for a normal room, like say my guest room which is 12 x 13 feet, probably 3 packs would be enough.
    I really love the moon so use that if you can. I almost didn’t buy it but I’m soooo glad I did! It looks AMAZING! Just don’t stick it directly to the ceiling since apparently, it’s hard to remove. Museum Wax works great!

    • Thank you, thank you so much for this very detailed description as it will certainly assist re their ordering as well as their application, to attain an amazing effect. Warmest hugs of appreciation and shall definitely order the black-light flashlight. -Brenda-
      P.S.: Re your friend Marie and the turret she has off her grandchildren’s bedroom. I bet they would love such as well …. ☺.

  25. Thank you so much for hosting! This week I am sharing some Christmas spirit in July! Hope you are having a great week!

  26. I so admire your ingenuity! Going to bed at night would be like sleeping outdoors at a campsite with all the stars and the moon above. I can’t sleep with the little lights the TV, radio and Dish receiver have glowing all night long. I don’t think I could get on the ladder you used no matter how solid…I can hardly go up to three steps on a ladder without feeling unstable! You really are inspiring in all that you do and glad you share your ideas.

    • Thanks so much, Kathleen! It really is like sleeping outdoors! I’m shocked how realistic the stars look at night…like being outside and looking up at the night sky! When I close my eyes, I can’t detect any light in the room, so though they are bright, they don’t interfere with sleeping.

  27. Susan,I love the shell mirror,I made one several years ago and I love it. The stars on your ceiling I love, I am in NC, and would you know where I could the stars for our room? I think they are absolutely gorgeous!!! You have made my day with all this beauty!

    • Thanks so much, Jacqueline! I still love the stars so much, I can’t tell you how much I look forward to seeing them every night when I turn off the light to go to sleep. You will love them! I purchased all mine via Amazon. I’ve linked at the very end of the post to all the stars I purchased, so check the end of the post for the links to the ones I purchased. The links are right underneath the last picture in the post.

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