Tissue Paper Sky

Ever since I was a kid myself, I've had the fantasy of painting my ceiling to look like the sky. By the time I got around to having babies, I really wanted to be able to give them a room with a sky-like ceiling. But because we've always lived in rentals, we haven't had the freedom to do that kind of "crazy" painting yet.

the boys' room before we moved in

The kids' room in our current house is a bit like March to me . . . just not that appealing. There's only one very tiny window, and the slope of the ceiling makes it difficult to hang anything on the walls (or set up the boys' bunk bed to preserve floorspace). Luke and Jaz go to bed in there at night (and sleep in their own beds for a few hours before joining Lena, Zeben and me in the family bed), but otherwise rarely spend any time in their room at all.

Just the other day I was lamenting to myself about how the kids' room would be so much more fun if we'd been allowed to finally fulfill my fantasy and paint the ceiling like a sky (we actually did have to paint the ceiling when we moved in because it was in such a horrifying state, but our landlord insisted that we leave it white). And then it dawned on me that maybe we could use paper to make the ceiling look like a sky. Eventually my vision turned into a plan to make a sky mural to hang above Lukas and Jasper's beds.

I mulled over the options as far as what type of medium to use (paint vs. construction paper vs. fabric) and eventually decided that tissue paper would be the quickest and least messy choice. Yesterday afternoon, we covered our dining room table with a roll of white paper (I chose a decent quality, medium-weight paper so that it would hold up well) and got to work.

It was rainy and gray outside, the perfect day
to be working inside with bright blue tissue.

We used white glue mixed with water, and painted it under and over the tissue paper to make the tissue paper stick (you could also use liquid starch for this, but we didn't have any).

Lena was still at work when we finished the background, so Luke and Jaz
helped me carry the mural upstairs and hang it over thair beds.

We were all so pleased with how it looked, even without any embellishments. We are still planning to add lots of "things you might see in the sky," to liven it up. I suggested airplanes, helicopters and birds, but Luke and Jaz already had plenty of ideas of their own (flying dinosaurs, vampire bats and spaceships). It's the project that just keeps going!


Zeben's little bed (which he has never, ever slept in, but which I am beginning to think about trying to get him to sleep in) is against the opposite wall. After we finsihed hanging the mural, Jasper looked over at Zeb's bed and declared, "we need to make another sky for that side of the room!" Actually, we now have plans to make 4 or 5 more murals, but we're thinking of making a sunset to hang over Zeb's bed next.

It does seem to me that making art is often the answer to any feeling of blah-ness, be it in regards to the grayness of March or the whiteness of a ceiling.