How To Paint A Floating-In-Space Nightscape Room Decor 

By Rachel Paul

Materials Needed:

- Good quality paint brush, preferably a size, available at most craft stores;

- Invisible-by-day Glow paint, water based is best as it is safer on the environment and easier to clean up after;

- old toothbrush;

- rags, for cleaning up;

- drop-cloth / old sheets;

- painter's tape / old ribbon and thumbtacks;

- torchlight;

- step ladder


Room Preparation


1) Clear the room of as much furniture as possible

2) Cover the floor and any immovable furniture or paintings and the like with a drop-cloth, or just any old sheets.

Painting Instructions:

1) First use painter's tape, or even a colored ribbon and some thumbtacks, to tape off the ceiling into smaller areas. Sort of like painting using a grid system.

2) Darken the room as much as possible. Keep the torchlight handy to help you move around in the dark.

3) Expose the glow paint to sunlight or a strong source of light, like a Compact Flourescent Lamp, for about 5 minutes. Now when you take the paint into the darkened room, you will notice how it glows in the dark!

4) Dip the paint brush in the glow paint and place random dots on the ceiling covering one grid at at time. Make sure the dots are of different sizes, but the largest should definitely not be bigger than a dime!
Take a look at the pictures here: nightsky101.com/nightsky.html and you will get the general idea.

5) Once the entire ceiling is done, you can now move onto the walls. Paint dots of random sizes on to all the exposed wall surfaces.
Remember you don't have to paint the wall behind the mirror 'coz you won't see it when you turn the lights off, right?

The basic idea here is that when the room is dark, you should be able to see only the glowing dots of paint on the ceiling and walls of the room.

You can paint dots on the closet doors and other furniture if you like. This would create a fuller illusion of being totally 'Lost in Space' floating around on a space bed!

6) Once the walls are done to your liking, you can take the step ladder and the dropcloth/ sheets covering the floor and/or furniture out of the room.

7) Dilute a small quantity of the glow paint in equal parts of water. Shake thoroughly to mix really well.

8) Dip an old toothbrush in this mixture and sprinkle all over the carpet/floor of your room.

Make sure you don't step on the areas you have sprinkled with the paint. In my opinion the best way to do this would be to back out of the room as you sprinkle.

9) Let the paint air dry for about half an hour. Just to be absolutely sure.


10) Place all the furniture back into the room.


11) Charge up the paint in the room with a strong source of light. A Compact Flourescent lamp(CFL) bulb of about 15 - 20 watts will be perfect.

If you like to use black light, please use only the tube and don't waste time and money on a bulb!

Sunlight is best. So, if it is daytime, you can open the windows to let in the sunlight. Five minutes is good enough.

12) Darken the room once again, as much as possible.


Now for the icing on the cake...!


Spray a pine or flower-based air freshener in the room.


Turn on some soothing music and ...


Voila! You are now officially 'Lost in Outer Space'.


Your bed will feel like a magic carpet floating around in space.


Hope you enjoy this tutorial as much as I enjoyed making it.

Happy Painting!

© Rachel Paul, 2007.

Rachel Paul is a busy at-home mom and an avid interior decorator who loves to find genuinely innovative ways to perk up her home. She can be contacted at: rachelpaul70@yahoo.ca
You can also visit her website at http://www.nightsky101.com for more informative articles and ideas on painting ceiling night sky illusions, glow in the dark candles and other fun stuff

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