Starry Skies

Who doesn’t like stars (the real ones, not the 5 or 6 point stars you buy as decorations)?  And better yet who doesn’t like starry skies?  And the best?  Sleeping under a starry sky.  That is one of the main reasons why I loved Scouting.  Lots of opportunities to sleep under the raw sky and fall asleep counting satellites and shooting stars.  If I could, I would have a glass roof that projected magnified, enhanced images of the night time sky so that I could sleep under the stars every night.  But alas that is beyond our measly budget.  And with a ‘real job’ and a small baby, going camping has become a fond memory rather than a monthly tradition…anyways..

Just after we moved into our new home Tash found an advertisement on Craigslist for a gentleman that said he could transform a ceiling into a night time star scape – and she began inquiring into how much it costs, what it looks like etc.  Well his first bid came back a little higher than what we were expecting so we dismissed the idea and put it in our “cool to do once we had enough money list”.  Which means pretty much never.  I mean who has ‘enough money’?  I digress.  Anyways a few months later this guy emails Tash again and says that he is running a special and would like to come to our house to do a demo.  I reluctantly agree.  I had serious doubts about this — in my mind I envisioned those Wal-Mart star stickers that glow faintly for 5 minutes and then fall off of the ceiling the day after you put them up.  Needless to say I was less than enthusiastic.

The day arrives and this wonderful gentleman shows up at our house.  His demo is very brief; consisting of a black light and thick poster board he shows us what his painting looks like.  I become intrigued.  We began discussing potential rooms to do and prices.  The more I learn about this stuff the more I am sold.  It is pretty FREAKING AWESOME!!  Let me give you the brief run down.

• He uses glow-in-the-dark paint that is specially patented to glow a long, long, long, long time (we’ve waken up just before dawn to see our stars still glowing!)
• His painting tries to reflect the realism of the sky — miniature, tiny, small, medium and large stars.  In our bedroom he said he painted more than 1500 stars!
• His painting includes real constellations within context and orientation (as much as possible depending on room constraints)
• His paintings include shooting stars — very tastefully done!
• He has a lot of options to choose from and will work with you to make something you will enjoy
• If you choose, his painting comes down the wall and gives you a 3-D effect — in darkness you can’t see corners and he paints accordingly.
• Very easy to work with, very reasonable prices (he our bedroom with the mountain silhouette + constellations and another bedroom for $350)
• The paint he uses is completely invisible during the day, no smell and lasts for a long time.  Original painting done is over 18 years old and still glows brightly!
• If you needed to ever paint over it all you need is some primer and paint

We attempted to take a few pictures of our ceiling but unfortunately our camera sucks at low-light settings, so we only got 2 shots to even show anything at all. These pictures or the sketches on his website does not do his work justice. It is truly breathtaking to see in person. If you are interested in coming over to take a look just let us know!

The origins of the company is from AZ, and there are ‘franchises’ all over the US — so even if you aren’t in the Houston area you should still look around to see if you can find someone in your area if you are interested in an in-home demo.

Starscapes of Houston

the 'theme' we choose for the master bedroom.

Here are our pathetic shots at trying to capture the magic…

Real shot of ceiling

Real shot #2 of ceiling

Real shot #3 of ceiling