Bedroom Ceiling Moon and Stars

Today I’m sharing the moon blowing stars across the ceiling of my bedroom. I started with a rusty metal moon made by my friend and neighbor Tamara of Gemini Dragonfly. She has a great Etsy shop with lots of unique metal art. You’ll see other pieces by her elsewhere in my cottage. I paired the moon with my favorite decorating find; rusty stars. I love these things! Again, you’ll see them used all over my house in different ways.

First I laid out the moon and stars in a pattern that I liked. I wanted the stars to swirl like on this suitcase dresser I made a couple of years ago.

I printed out a picture of the moon and stars design so that we could use it when we were hanging them on the wall.

I started by making new holes in the center of each star with a small, sharp nail. I just use a piece of scrap wood for this, and I flip the stars over so that they are concave, making it easier to nail through the center. If these were going to be near eye level I would have covered the original holes with a small piece of tape on the back side, but these ones are going high enough that they won’t show.

Next I put a little bit of paint over the hole so that when I added the upholstery tacks I could paint them more easily without worrying about getting under the edges. I used Modern Masters Warm Silver. It’s my absolute favorite metallic paint. I think it looks more like a cool gold, but it’s beautiful. I’m going to use it on several accents in this room.

After the paint dried, I pushed upholstery tacks through the holes and put a dab of E6000 glue on the back of each one to hold it in place.

Then I painted the whole star using a foam pouncer. It’s my favorite way to apply metallic paint because it gives a rich, textured look and there aren’t any brush strokes. I painted the moon using the same technique (oops, forgot to get a photo).

Next I enlisted some help. My brother in law Marcus climbed all the way up to the top of the ladder with the moon (which was pretty heavy) and attached it to the wall with special screws made for anchoring heavy pieces in drywall.

Using the photo as a guide, my sister told him which stars to add where while I supplied him with the right ones. The tacks went into the drywall fairly easily, but near the corners they sometimes needed a little tap from a hammer.