How To Create An Indoor Ceiling Night Sky With Stars Using Fiber Optic Lights.

Forget having to fight the weather elements and bugs just to look under a beautiful starry night sky! In this post you will see the building process on how to create an indoor ceiling night sky with stars. The ceiling really transforms and appears to be open to the night sky, take a look!

Material:

To keep the completed project weight as light as possible for lifting, this Insulation foam board from Home Depot was used. This will serve the purpose and is much lighter than drywall and easier to work with.

Pine wood will be used throughout for this project

and cut the foam board to the desired total size that the ceiling star light attraction will be, a utility knife was used to make the cuts.

Measure and cut your foam panels to total the desired size your star light attraction will be. A utility knife was used. These boards were cut to 8x4 size

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Frame build for foam board panels:

Materials used were: Elmer’s glue, L and T brackets, nails and short screws.

The wood size used to build the frame was 3/4 x 3 x 8 and connected with L brackets.

Using the same wood as above a center board was secured using a T bracket to make it more secure.

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Back view of all three panels in place.

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Main frame build:

When all three pieces of the foam board frame was put into this main frame it was a little larger, so shims had to be made to accommodate it. See the left hand corner gap. That’s how much larger the frame will now have to be. Main frame is 8 X 12

Making shims...

Shim placement in corners of main frame above

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Outer frame finishing touches:

Securing the frame lip with screws the corners have a miter cut at a 45 degree angle.

Shot of inside main frame to house the Foam board frame with lights

After the outer frame was complete and lightly sanded.

Tip: the inside of the outer frame was first painted before putting in the inner velvet frame to avoid getting paint on the velvet.

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Velvet Install:

Black velvet was cut approximately two inches larger than each panel so the fabric can be stapled to the sides. It took two people to lay the fabric because it had to be laid tight and straight as possible before the adhesive began to dry. If you have 4 people to hold each corner that might make it easier to lay.

Tip: Make sure you have enough fabric to cover all three panels to staple on the sides

Multi-Purpose Adhesive was sprayed on the foam board before the pre-cut velvet fabric was laid down.

Wrap the fabric around the sides and staple.

Once the fabric was laid straight, tight, and then stapled, a few air pockets appeared underneath the fabric so a scrap piece of wood with a straight edge was used to get rid of them.

Velvet install is complete now to two more to go.

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Foam board:

Back view: After the velvet was installed all of the panels were secured together to create one large frame.

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Completed frame with velvet fabric:

This is the completed frame including the outer frame. Star lights will be installed to this also before its lifted to the ceiling. Wood size of the outer frame is: 3/4 x 4 x 8

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Fiber optic light install:

A long needle was used to poke a hole though the PolyPro foam board material and velvet, each individual light strand was strung through. This is time consuming but the end results are worth it!

In this pack of needles two sizes were used, the large needle for the larger light strands and the medium needle for the smaller light strands.

Tip: You can mark the back of the board with dots using a marker to create a star pattern diagram of your choice. This way will take the guesswork on where to poke your needle and where your lights will go.

You can order as many lights as you want depending on the size. 420 lights were used for this project.

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Ceiling brackets install:

Corner L braces are installed directly into the ceiling studs (important to drill into studs only) by using a stud finder.

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You will need access to the ceiling above to house the fiber optic light transformer and power source, but why is a single board attached to the ceiling? Keep reading.

This method which was changed: The outer frame was going to be installed to the ceiling first, then the pre-lit foam board was going to slide into to the ceiling frame. Even though the frame will be fairly light your arms still might get tired from lifting.

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A better Alternative!

A drywall lifter was rented to lift the completed frame to the ceiling.

The frame was drilled into these ceiling brackets. This saved a lot of lifting and changed the ceiling install to two steps. 1. Lift entire completed frame with a drywall lifter. 2. Drill into ceiling brackets. That’s it!

Frame to ceiling with lights installed!

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Each single light string was cut with a fingernail clipper. This takes awhile to do but the results are worth it!

The stars are coming to life! To make the sky appear more natural leave small and large spaces between clusters or single lights. Don’t be afraid to make some very large spaces also if you want.

Tip: Cut some lights close to the fabric some a little away from the fabric to create a 3d effect – the stars and sky will appear to be never ending.

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String lights installed:

Commercial Electric LED Tape Light Kit with a power supply and remote control was used.

These lights come with an adhesive tape backing for peel-and-stick application.

The lights can be cut and reconnected every 6 inches if desired for a custom fit in length.

These LED lights will add a nice touch to the overall look.

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Ceiling Molding install:

Crown molding will have a spring angle (space between the frame the molding) and will have a 45 degree miter cut.

Molding is complete, now to caulk some minor gaps, paint, then go over velvet area with a lint roller.

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Finish Product:

How pretty is this! Can you find the Big Dipper and Little Dipper? That design was put in also! With time and patience any project can become a reality. Thanks for taking time to visit.

Inspiration for this project came from: starceiling123 creative lighting solutions

Disclaimer: I offer informational content to use at your discretion. Any of the following subjects shouldn’t be seen as professional advice: engineering, electrical, physical activity of any type, materials used, construction and building, as well as the method used for constructing or building.