Things You'll Need:
- drop cloth
- dark blue paint
- paint roller
- paintbrush
- roller tray
- ladder
- cardboard, heavy tagboard, or foamcore
- pen or pencil
- exacto knife
- scissors
- empty buckets and cans
- tissue paper
- glue
- removable wall adhesive tabs
- artist's paintbrush
- OPTIONAL ITEMS:
- glow-in-the-dark paint
- painter's tape
- sea sponge
- brown paint
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Step 1
Put down dropcloths or old sheets to protect the floor and furniture. Paint the ceiling a deep midnight blue. Avoid really dark blue and black; they're less interesting, and it's harder to paint over them later.
This step may take two or more coats! Look for the coverage listed on the side of the paint can to know how much to buy. If your child's room is larger than 8'x12', you may need more than one gallon. -
Step 2
If you like, you can mix some of the dark blue paint with a little white in a separate bucket to make a slightly lighter color. As you apply the dark color in step 1, use a brush to blend in some swirls of the lighter color here and there, perhaps suggestive of the glow of distant galaxies.
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Step 3
For the planets:
Use empty buckets, coffee cans, and other objects to trace circles of various sizes on the cardboard or foamcore (white if possible). Don't forget to draw rings for Saturn! If you want, make a very large circle for the sun, or just a quarter of a circle if your sun will be in a corner. Make a moon if you wish. Cut out the shapes with an exacto knife. -
Step 4
You can use torn pieces of bleeding tissue paper to decorate the circles like planets. Your child can help with this.
Protect a work area with newspaper or a dropcloth.
Make a mixture of half glue and half water in cup or bucket. -
Step 5
Using an old paintbrush, apply the glue mixture to one of the planets. Tear or cut pieces of colored paper and place them on the glue. You can use long strips of orange, yellow, and red for Jupiter, and chunks of blue and green for Earth.
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Step 6
Let the planets dry. If they have curled up, paint the backs with glue or paint to make them flatten out again. If pieces of the tissue paper hang over the edges, fold them around and glue them to the backs, or trim them with scissors.
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Step 7
If you made a sun, you can mount it to the ceiling with a few wall mounting tabs. Use removable adhesive tabs, so you'll be able to take everything down when it's no longer needed. If you didn't make a sun, you can buy a large paper lantern to hang, so your child can turn the sun off at night!
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Step 8
Use a couple removable mounting tabs to stick each planet to the ceiling. You can put them in order across the room based on their distance from the sun. You may need three or more tabs if your planets are large or made of a floppy material.
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Step 9
Optional:
There is an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. For this project, you want a natural sea sponge, one that has large holes and a loose structure; it should not be compact and round-looking. Dip the tip of the sponge in brown paint. Lightly dab the ceiling with the sponge, making little brown flecks in an arc or circle between Mars and Jupiter. Turn the position of your wrist slightly between each dab, so the sponge doesn't start to make a repeating pattern. -
Step 10
For distant stars:
Dip the handle end of a small artist's paintbrush in white or yellow paint, or glow-in-the-dark paint. Use the handle to make randomly spaced dots on the ceiling. -
Step 11
Don't forget space-themed curtains, sheets and pillows, or posters!
