Blue and Gold Turret Ceiling with Starry Chandelier

Today I’m sharing one of my favorite parts of my new house, the ceiling in the turret entry. I asked the designers to add the turret to one of their existing designs and to move the front door to the outside so that it is enclosed and part of the house rather than a glorified (albeit glorious) porch.

The front door is solid oak and round at the top. It was a big extravagance, but I love, love, love it! Oak has always been my favorite tree, and I’ve wanted a round door since I was a little girl, so I splurged.

The walls and ceiling weren’t easy to build, or frame, or sheet rock. I felt a little guilty when I saw how long it took.

Because the ceiling was domed, I knew immediately that I wanted it to be sky blue with gold stars like a European cathedral. I know it’s just a cottage, but as I’ve said before “Why not?” I found a couple of quarts of mistinted paint at my local hardware store that were just the color I was going for and I mixed them together to get a gorgeous blue the color of a robin’s egg.

My sister Allie, who is not afraid of heights, climbed all the way up the scaffolding to paint the ceiling for me. It’s about 16 feet high, and I’m not the best with heights. She painted all the aqua blue and the top of the dark gold for the walls. I knew I wanted an accent where the two colors met, but it’s tricky with curved walls. I found some flexible molding, but it was both plain and expensive. I wanted something a little more bright and crazy.

Finally I found some decorative metal ribbon. It was pretty and flexible, just what I wanted. It was silver when I got it, but I painted it gold with spray paint. I also sprayed the ceiling medallion so that it would look like the sun in my blue sky. My trusty rusty stars got the same gold paint, and I glued a few together to make double stars. I punched holes in the middle with a hammer, small nails, and scrapwood and added upholstery tacks like in [this post].

I sent both Allie and Marc (my brother-in-law) up the scaffolding and together they stapled the metal ribbon around the edge of the dome where the blue met the gold. From the ground, the staples don’t show at all. Marc hung all the stars while I stood below and helped with placement.

I bought a beautiful chandelier from Home Depot, (originally for the great room, but I found another one for there- stay tuned). I glued pieces of the same metal ribbon around the top, middle, and bottom of the fixture. Tape helped it stay in place while the glue dried because the metal ribbon has a mind of its own and didn’t want to stay put.

I made more gold stars and hung them on chains from various parts of the ribbon. I was lucky because my electrician hauled the medallion and light fixture all the way up there and put them in place.

I admit, when I turned the lights on for the first time, I was thrilled! It turned out just as I had imagined- how often does that happen?

I now have my own mini cathedral. I love how the metallic gold plays off the gold walls and how the ribbon looks like crowns. The dangling stars give a 3-D effect and when people first step into my cottage and look up…”Wow!” It sets the tone for all the whimsical craziness they will see in the rest of the house.

Stay tuned for more turret projects, including fancy trim around the door, a beautiful tile floor, and my gorgeous swan bust who will be gracing the wall above one of the doorways!