Starry Starry Night, Turn Your Bedroom Into a Starry Haven for Sleeping

Welcome to the 599th Metamorphosis Monday!

Have you ever ordered something and when it arrived it exceeded your expectations? That doesn’t happen very often, does it? I’ve been wanting to create a starry sky effect on my bedroom ceiling but my first attempt didn’t work out so great.

Four-Post Bed with Plaid Bedskirt

 

At first, I ordered one of those machines you see online that projects stars onto the ceiling. I should have taken photos of how it looked, but I was so disappointed with the effect I didn’t think to do that. It was a big failure. It only lit up about 1/2 of my bedroom ceiling no matter where I placed the machine. It really would have needed to be directly underneath the chandelier to have a chance of lighting up the whole ceiling. That would have put the star machine in the middle of my bed, not a good plan!

Also, the stars that it cast onto the ceiling were a sickly green color. I don’t know about you, but when I look up into the night sky, I do not see lime-green stars! Plus, the shadow of the chandelier blocked off a section of the “sky.”

Tartan Bedding for Fall and Winter

 

I had seen photos of rooms like this one below but they were created using stars you actually stuck onto your ceiling. I was reluctant to try those, thinking they would be impossible to remove when/if I moved one day. Also, I worried they could possibly damage the paint on the ceiling.

Plus, the reviews were mixed. Some reviews were great while others said the stars barely glowed at all. Most of the not-so-great reviews seemed to be from people who were using them in a room that received very little light during the day. My bedroom is very sunny during the day so that was encouraging, but I was still worried about the ceiling and if the stars would damage the paint if I ever removed them.

Stars for Bedroom Ceiling

 

After the star machine failure, I decided to go for it and ordered one batch of these domed-style stars that were described as looking “realistic.” Here’s how they looked when they arrived. You’ll notice there are a few stars missing on one sheet–those are the stars I removed to try on my ceiling.

 

Initially, I only placed three stars on my stippled ceiling as a test. Later I went back and placed quite a few more. This type of ceiling finish was very popular in my area in the 1980s when my home was built.

I was very happy with how they looked during the day. You would never notice them if you didn’t know they were there and searched for them. Honestly, I didn’t care if they were visible, as long as it was fairly subtle. This photo is of the slanted part of my tray ceiling, so not the highest part of the ceiling in my bedroom.

How Stars Look on Ceiling During Daylight

 

Little Background Story: During the time I was staying in Ohio, I ordered a black light to use on one of my grandson’s “glow-in-the-dark” puzzles. The puzzle would never glow very well after they put it together and I had read online that if you shine a black light on a glow-in-the-dark puzzle, you only have to keep the light on it for a few seconds and it will glow for many hours afterward. Apparently, Glow-in-the-Dark items charge very quickly under a black light–literally in seconds.

Once I was back home, I ordered another blacklight for a different reason. I had heard that Hermes boxes have a hidden design on them that’s only visible under a blacklight. I was dying to see if that was true.

It is true, by the way! There really is a hidden pattern on all Hermes boxes that can only be seen with a blacklight. I’ll get out my blacklight today and take a photo of the hidden images and add them to this post. So check back in a few hours to see what’s hidden on all Hermes boxes. It’s pretty cool!

Hermes Orange Box and Ribbon

 

Update added later: Here’s how a Hermes box looks underneath a blacklight. The Hermes logo is hidden in each of their boxes. Sooo cool! I love little mysteries like this!

 

Even their smallest boxes, like this Twilly box, has the Hermes logo hidden in the box only visible via a blacklight.

 

So how did those few stars I placed on the ceiling look that night? As mentioned, initially I only placed 3 stars on the ceiling as a test, then I forgot to even look for them until I had been in bed for a couple of hours. When I remembered, I noticed they were indeed glowing and that was without the use of a blacklight. They had only been charged by the light coming in through the windows that day. I wondered how bright they had been when I first turned in since I forgot to look up and notice.

Since I couldn’t sleep, I grabbed the step ladder that was still in the hall outside my bedroom and I added a few more stars to the ceiling. Then I grabbed my blacklight and shone it on that little section of stars for about 5 seconds.

Stars on Ceiling with Blacklight

 

Here’s how they looked standing close to them when I turned off the light.

How Stars On Ceiling Look at Night

 

Here’s how they looked from my bed. I love them sooo much! I had trouble going to sleep last night because I didn’t want to close my eyes and stop looking at them! Wouldn’t these be amazing on the ceiling of a home theater, or in a nursery or a kid’s room? I would even love them in a living room. Imagine watching TV every night under the stars.

Stars as seen from bed

 

I ordered a bunch more stars last night before going to sleep around 2 AM. I ordered this set in both Blue and Light Blue. You’ll find it available here: Stars for Ceiling.

Add Stars to a Ceiling or Wall

 

I ordered this set available here: Stars for Ceiling.

Create a Starry Sky for Bedroom

 

I ordered this set available here: Stars for Ceiling.

Stars for Bedroom Ceiling

 

And finally, I ordered this set available here: Stars for Ceiling. I don’t know if I’ll use them all but I wanted to try different sets to see what I like best. If I don’t use them, I can always return them.

 

Some things to know when ordering these:

  1. They come in various colors. I ordered them in Blue, Sky Blue and one set of the Green ones. I may not use the green ones, depends on how they look at night, but I’ve read that the green ones are usually the ones that glow the brightest. I may not need to worry about that since the “Sky Blue” ones that I placed as a test, glowed very well.
  2. Don’t buy flat stars, only buy domed-shaped stars because those are the ones that are supposed to look the most realistic and like stars in the night sky.
  3. These may not work on super textured ceilings like popcorn ceilings, although some of the reviews seem to indicate they do. They are working well on my stippled ceiling. One nice surprise I didn’t anticipate: the stippled texture of my ceiling actually helps camouflage the stars during the day. You don’t even notice them unless you know they are there and search for them.
  4. When I tested removing them, the stars I placed on my ceiling popped right off leaving no damage behind. If you order some of these for your ceiling, do a test with 2-3 stars before putting them all up. I don’t think I would have cared if it had left a mark since I plan to leave them up indefinitely and could always have the ceiling painted if I ever do decide to move. It will probably need it by then anyway. But so far, they don’t seem to be damaging the ceiling when removed, at least not the ones I tested.
  5. If you have a sunny bedroom as I do, you probably won’t need to charge them with a black light. Mine glowed nicely from the light coming in earlier that day. If you do buy a blacklight, you’ll only need to run it across the stars for a few seconds to REALLY charge them up. This is the blacklight I use: Black Light.
  6. The stars will glow for several hours and gradually fade away during the night. So by morning, as you’re rising for the day, they will no longer be visible–kinda like real stars in the night sky.

Stars for Bedroom Ceiling

 

I can’t wait to share how they look once they arrive and I get them all up and in place.

Create a Starry Sky for Bedroom

 

Since I have a high tray ceiling, it will be tricky placing them at the top of the tray. I have a tall step ladder I use for cleaning the ceiling fans on the porch once a year. That will help but I may have to come up with another method for the area directly over my bed.

Update: Oh my gosh, placing them on the tray ceiling is sooo easy. I found a way to do it that’s fast and doesn’t even require standing on the bed. I’ll do a post soon sharing how I’m placing them on the tray ceiling without using a ladder or risking life and limb. lol

Tartan Bedding for Fall and Winter

 

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. Hi Susan!

    Your blog is always so welcome. I look forward to it. And I’m grabbing one of those Lillie tees, it’s time. I’ve never had one.

    Question: In the post “A Little Spring Update for the Porch” what are the white things extending from your swing called? They’re white and are in an upside down “v.” Do you know where to get them. I have my grandma’s ancient swing and I’d love to rehab it. But I don’t even know where to start.

    Love you,

    Wendy

    • Thanks so much, Wendy for your sweet words! I hope you love your shirt. I’m living in mine this summer, they are so comfortable and cool.

      Oh, I think what you’re seeing on the swing are the fabric covers I purchased to cover the swing chains. They are actually electric cord covers I found in Hobby Lobby many years ago. You can see them in detail in this post: https://betweennapsontheporch.net/electrical-cord-covers-hide-metal-swing-chains/

      The ones I have close together with a gazillion snaps, but a BNOTP reader emailed me a while back to say she found them with velcro closures. I think she found them in Hobby Lobby, but not positive if I’m remembering correctly. Anyway, that would be much, much faster for removing and adding back when they need to be washed. I need to remove mine right now for a good wash. I think I’m going to look for cord covers that close with velcro, though.

      XXX

  2. Susan, you’re such a little kid. 😀 I too loved the stars and had them many years ago (the flat kind – they worked fine, no problem) but now I think the light they put out would keep me up. 🙁 It will be interesting to see your reviews for the various versions. I love looking up at the night sky. It gives me such a peaceful feeling. Nice to bring a bit of that, inside. When I was young and hoped to someday build a house, I wanted to have an enormous picture window / sky light over my bed so I could look at the night sky. (Never have done that, lol)

    • Yup, I admit it…still a kid at heart! 🙂
      That sounds wonderful, Pam. I would love to lay in bed and look out at a mountain view with a sky full of stars.

  3. Very very cool! Thanks Susan!

  4. Cynthia Blaylock says

    Susan, please please please do not put a board and a ladder on your bed – that sounds like a recipe for a serious injury! I’m thinking about ordering some of these stars and sneaking them onto our bedroom ceiling without telling my husband. He’ll think he’s lost it if he wakes up in the middle of the night and sees stars. I’m laughing my tush off just thinking about it!!

    • LOL! That would be hilarious!
      Thanks, I may try to figure out another way where I can place them on a long pole to press them on the ceiling. Don’t worry, I’ll be very careful. 🙂

  5. Oooh I LOVE those stars – how fun to fall asleep under a sparkly sky ceiling! Thanks for the tips, and good luck with the remaining application. Can’t wait to see the reveal! Happy Monday!

  6. Elinda Turner says

    Hi Susan, please give us an update on these stars you are trying out. I have for several years been wanting to do this in our guest room of our house. This bedroom use to be our son’s bedroom and it has a large half round window over the two tall windows. He use to love looking out that window at night lying in his bed looking at the stars. Most of our house has cathedral ceilings and this bedroom and the master bedroom have them. I think that with the large half round window, and then stars on the cathedral ceilings in this bedroom would really give one that outdoor feeling of lying outside, maybe on a blanket and looking up at the stars in the night sky. (Sigh) This bedroom gets full sun until about 2:00. I would have to hire someone to place the stars on the ceiling.

    • Elinda, I think I have found an easy way to attach them to the ceiling. I will do a blog post sharing how I’m doing it. I just attached several stars to the top of the tray ceiling and I didn’t even have to stand on the bed. It’s actually going faster than I expected, too.

    • Oh, and I think these would be wonderful in a guest bedroom! Imagine your guests going in at night, climbing into bed, turning off the light and looking up and seeing all those beautiful stars!

  7. I bought the sky blue domed ones for my guest bedroom. I would love them in my bedroom but I have what’s called a boveda ceiling there which is a room-sized arched brick ceiling. It might work there but just depends on what they would look like during the day against the brick.

    By the way, did you ever get that 2nd shelf cabinet for your purses?

    • That sounds very Italian, Ginger. You’re not in Italy, are you? Wish you’d post pictures. I’m sure a lot of us would love to see an arched brick ceiling. Sounds beautiful.

    • Your ceiling sounds so beautiful, Ginger! Wow! I’m afraid they would stand out against the brick if it’s your typical brick color. You may want to order one small set of the stars and try a few, just to see.

      • Pam, no I’m in Mexico by Lake Chapala. This link is almost identical to my ceiling.
        https://www.pinterest.com.mx/pin/724305552548961768/

        I’m thinking maybe the “stars” might work if placed on the concrete between the bricks but would depend on their size. If they do work, it will give my wonderful all-purpose contractor, Jorge another story to tell his friends about the crazy gringa with her wacky ideas. The guest bedroom is a regular ceiling but the stars might bother guests who need total darkness.

        • Ginger, they don’t really admit any light. It’s hard to explain. They are just like beautiful pinpoint lights in a night sky, but they don’t give off light. I just got through placing around 400 stars and OH MY GOSH, I’m obsessed with how it looks. I just ordered a blacklight floodlight that is more powerful than the small flashlight I have because I want to supercharge them before I go to bed at night. You would SWEAR you were outside sleeping under the stars, it is sooo beautiful! That’s a good idea about placing them on the concrete in-between the bricks.

          • I can’t wait to see how they look. I didn’t get the black light but might now. You’re always costing me m0ney! Lol

            • Ginger, if you decide to do the stars, take a broom handle and put a 3 inch piece of regular ol Scotch tape on with the sticky part pointing up, then tape that down around the handle with another piece of tape. Hard to explain, I’ll do a post in a few days showing exactly how I did it. Anyway, then you can perch a star upside down on the tape, then press into the ceiling. I was placing a star every few seconds using that method. It worked really well. Eventually, after placing like 50-75 stars, the tape gets nonsticky and you need to change it which takes like 30 seconds. It actually works a bit better when the tape holding the star isn’t too sticky.

        • Ginger, thanks for posting that picture. It’s beautiful! In fact, all those interesting ceilings on that page are lovely. And it does remind me of some I’ve seen in Italy. (Not in person, unfortunately. lol) I hope you are able to place the little stars, because I think that would make a particularly lovely setting. Thanks again. 🙂

          Susan, I’m glad to hear you say they don’t give off light. I’m going to wait for your other post on this and maybe I’ll give it a try again too. 😀

  8. Georgette says

    Very pretty, Susan! And the information about the Hermes box–love it! Those boxes always make my heart go pit-a-pat!

    • Mine, too! 🙂 Georgette, I just added photos of two of their boxes (as seen under a blacklight) to the post. So check out the post again when you have a chance. I think you’ll love this!

  9. Susan, I think it would be so nice to fall asleep to stars in the sky. It looks like a bit of a project that you have ahead of you – but I can’t wait to see the results!

    • lol You are so right! It reminds me of the two times I’ve made shell charger plates–a slow, methodical process with hopefully a big payoff at the end. Thanks, Kim!
      XXX

  10. Susan, thanks for the tip on the Hermès box. I never knew that and I will need to get the black light to check out mine. I bet this is done to authenticate that you have a genuine Hermès box! Very clever !

    • I think so, too! I wonder when they started doing that and if the old Hermes boxes have that hidden logo, too. Maureen, they sell the blacklight flashlights very inexpensively on Amazon, so you’ll find them there.

  11. well, now all you have to do is get a constellation map and figure out where to put the big dipper and the little dipper and all the other stars and you’ll be able to see your sign in the sky. good luck. always enjoyable reading your blog and finding out what I never knew about before.
    rls

    • Haha, that would be wonderful if she actually replicated the constellations. 😀

    • Thanks, Robin! I have to admit, that did cross my mind! Maybe I would finally learn how to identify some of the constellations (other than Orion’s Belt and the Big Dipper) if I did that. lol Some of the star sets I saw online actually included constellations.

  12. franki parde says

    Oh, Susan…we did this ummm…10 years ago on our grandkiddo’s bunks…we placed them on the ceiling & since two bunks stacked…on the “slats”…they each had flashlights to “light” them at bed time!! SO FUN!! Some are now falling off..
    grandkiddos “teens”…starry, starry nite memories..EnJOY!! franki
    ..

  13. Mary Ellen says

    same as Pam – you are such a kid! also wondering how they look and if you can sleep…

  14. Thanks so much for hosting each week!!
    Hugs,
    Debbie

  15. What fun in a theatre room–like being at a drive-in!

  16. Susan, I came back and saw the Hermes boxes under the black light. Oh my goodness! I love secret stuff like that! 😀 So cool. Thanks for showing us.

  17. Sandra D in Joliet says

    Love it but my ceiling is burgundy. I have that black light flashlight but I bought mine to find horn worms on my tomato plants! They glow under the light and so did the big spider on a web last year! LOL. I abandoned it after I seen a skunk in the garden after dark-too afraid I’d get sprayed but it did work. I remember Steve Irwin hunting for scorpions with a black light and then someone posted a YouTube doing the same with horn worms. Horn worms can eat a tomato plant up in record time, are hard to find when they’re about 4 inches long let alone tiny baby ones. That light is good for a lot of things apparently

    • From reading online, it’s apparently also good for finding where a pet has wet the carpet and for finding stuff like that on the beds in hotel rooms. Yuck! I think I’d be afraid to take it with me when traveling, I would never get any sleep after shining it around the room on the floors, in the bed etc… Sometimes it’s better not knowing! lol
      That is too funny about the skunk! My son told me the funniest story about a skunk encounter. He went out one night, opened the garage door to take out some trash and there stood a skunk a few feet away in his driveway. My son froze in his tracks and he said the skunk just stared at him, then went on its merry way.
      These stars would work on your ceiling at night, I think—but they would definitely stand out during the day…probably not a look you want.

  18. I’m so excited I have to tell someone, LOL. I’m in the process of buying a 19th floor beach front condo and it’s my plan to sleep out on the terrace the first night to smell the air, feel the breeze, and see the stars over the ocean.

    I love your stars! And I can’t wait to hear your review after you finish.

    Hugs to you Susan! Your blog is always a highlight in my day. 🙂

    • Ali, that sounds amazing! What a dream that would be, to fall asleep listening to the waves, feeling that ocean breeze, all underneath the stars! ♥

  19. Thanks for hosting!

  20. I am so glad to find your blog again!!! 599 Linky parties. wow.
    I just got back into blogging again., and I am so happy to find your site and your Linky party again. The stars is such a cute idea. I think I would stay awake all night staring at them if I put them in my bedroom. Thank you so much for hosting the link up.

    • Welcome back, Eileen! Thanks, I’m really loving the stars. I hope I can get some really good photos this evening to share tomorrow for our 600th Metamorphosis Monday. 🙂

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