Starfield Ceiling on the cheap

Was at a family friends place recently, and noticed he has a starfield (looks like the night sky) on the ceiling of his nursery room.
Given how much a fibre optic setup can cost, I asked him how it was done. So here goes.
Artex stipple effect applied to the formerly smooth ceiling.
Then a matte black coating put on with a soft roller brush so that it goes all over to create a non reflective surface.
Then a coating of gloss white applied by hand with a small brush to a few spots - the beaty part is that you don't have to do it well, just dab away.
I suppose if you were feeling particularly flushed with cash you could use glow-in-the-dark paint instead of gloss white.
Anyway, it looks pretty good, given how cheap and easy it is.

[deckard]

Sounds good Mark.

I recently painted a stipled artex ceiling with matt black. Unfortunately I wanted to black it all out. Took me absolutely ages to get rid of all the 'stars'.

[StooMonster]

Artex? That stuff is evil.

Previous owners of my house loved the stuff, it's over loads of walls and ceilings. How hard is it to get off? Nigh on impossible!

StooMonster

[theritz]

EvilMudge, not wishing to take off-topic but......

Stoomonster,

One way to remove Artex is to use a steamer, normally used to remove wallpaper - judicious use required, hold it in one place for too long and it will remove the underlying plaster off solid walls in big chunks !!


Sean G.

[StooMonster]

Originally posted by theritz
EvilMudge, not wishing to take off-topic but......

Stoomonster,

One way to remove Artex is to use a steamer, normally used to remove wallpaper - judicious use required, hold it in one place for too long and it will remove the underlying plaster off solid walls in big chunks !!

Sean G.

Thanks for the tip.

I heard this before, and I have a large steamer that I use for wall-paper stripping, didn't do much to the Artex though (it is rather old). Steaming ceilings is nigh on impossible too IMHO; be it Artex, wall-paper, or lining paper.

In the end I just skimmed over the top of the Artex with plaster.

However, there are many other walls and ceilings in my house that are covered with this evil muck; I'll give the steamer another try when I get round to doing those rooms.

Cheers

StooMonster

[deckard]

Originally posted by StooMonster
In the end I just skimmed over the top of the Artex with plaster.

Definitely the best solution!!!