Seeing Stars.

When I first began the boys' room makeover, I knew without a doubt that I somehow how had to find a way to incorporate the Osbourne and Little star wallpaper that I had bookmarked, pinned, and bookmarked and pined, over and over. Sure, at this point the whole thing has been done, and overdone, kind of like the stripes in Gray's room, but the fact is that I don't really care because they make me oh so happy, and I just love the idea of my two little dudes falling asleep under the stars every night. 

At first I was just going to go for it, and spring for the wallpaper, but whenever I was about to take the plunge, my subconscious kicked in, and I remembered that this is not our "forever" home. At some point the new buyers will have to deal with two very dark rooms, the aforementioned stripes, Chevron up the staircase, and a room full of bumblebees, so maybe I should stop when it comes to glue and paper... on the ceiling at least. 

After the success of the bumblebees, I then considered stamping the ceiling. I went so far as buying the ideal stamp, along with blue and glow and the dark ink. At the time I was debating just painting the whole ceiling a dark navy, and stamping on the stars in glow in the dark paint (because how cool would that be?) but then my friend brought up a good point about it possibly being too light in their room when they trying to sleep, under all those stars. My boys love a dark room so I scratched that idea, and decided just to stamp the stars with navy blue ink. 

I tried the stamp a few times on paper, and in the end I just wasn't that happy with the final look. With the metallic gold ink that I used for bumblebees, any imperfections or variance in pressure were easily masked, but with the blue, I found the whole thing to look a little too DIY, if you know what I mean. At a loss I almost scratched the whole idea until another friend sent me a link to this Etsy shop. (you think I talk about my little "projects" with my girlfriends much? ;))

"Yes!!! Decals!" I screamed.  I immediately ordered 100 stars in dark blue and soon realized I would need at least three times that much. Once the decals arrived I could hardly contain my excitement at their perfection and I swear I counted the minutes until nap time the next day so I could start placing them on the ceiling. 

3 hours, and 10,000 curse words later, this was as far as I had made it. It's not obvious from the photo but this is a teeny tiny section of the room in front of the closet, of a VERY large room. Yes, those lines are still not straight. I had thought I could just replicate what I did with the bees in the bathroom and foyer, and just use my trusty laser leveler and ruler, and bang it out in one or two naps. As it turned out, my leveler doesn't reach upside down, nor does it cover the entire length of the ceiling. I then tried to eyeball it, but let me tell you the view from the top of the ladder is a lot different than the one from the ground level.

After a lot of frustration, it was clear I was going to need help. I picked up this guy from Amazon and after meeting with my carpenter, we decided a grid was going to be the best way to go. I need to get some lighter chalk for the line (white or yellow) but I think with minimal time from him, we will be able to get some lines up and then placing the stars should be a breeze. I hope. 

In the end, it might have been easier (albeit a lot more expensive) to do the wallpaper, but I think once we figure it out, the fact that these just peel right off is going to be a much better decision. Oh, and they do peel right off, and without any damage. I must have unstuck and replaced those stars about a dozen times in my attempt at a straight line, and each time I would hold my breath thinking the ceiling was going to come off with them. It didn't and I'm sure our future buyers will breathe a sigh of relief when they discover the same thing! 

Work will commence later this week, and I'll be sure to do a post on the final result!