Here’s what happens when it’s your ninth birthday and your mom works at Meow Wolf.
I’m not a Meow Wolf artist; I do public relations for them. I only mention my job because the artists and the surreal, otherworldy immersive environments at Meow Wolf inspire me every day. In fact, I was particularly inspired by this mural in Convergence Station by LORDSCIENCE UNIVERSAL. If you want to see something even more spectacular than this room, go to Meow Wolf! Onto the tutorial.
Every since my son Harry was a baby, he wanted to go to outer space. So I decided to make it happen for his ninth birthday. I knew it would be a lot of work, so I made him wait an entire year before I said yes. Naturally, I had to make a galaxy playlist about it.
I started with Gray House Studio’s tutorial here. If you’re creating a full galaxy room like I did, be prepared to grab more of the colorful paints than what they used for their one-wall mural. The black paint was more than enough for me. Home Depot didn’t carry the brand they used, but they translated the colors to another brand perfectly. The blog also mentions that you can upload any galaxy or nebula photo to the Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap® Visualizer App to find your perfect colors. I decided the palette they chose was ideal for Harry. I was thrilled with how the colors turned out on the wall. Even the black had this rich, cosmic quality that felt like floating in space. Yes, it was a bit daunting to paint an entire kid’s room black, but trust the process—it’ll be fine. Worst case scenario? He becomes a goth, just like mommy. I only applied one coat of black paint since I saw it as a base. I painted the ceiling too, to create a totally immersive experience, so he could fall asleep under a canopy of stars.
TECHNIQUE:
I followed Gray House Studio’s tutorial by painting with rollers, but my results didn’t turn out as beautiful as theirs. Maybe it’s because I’m a first-time nebulizer. I had originally told myself to turn off my logical mind and put the colors in a randomized pattern because the Universe is chaos. However, the universe does have some order to it. My chaos was so chaotic that it was hard to tell that I was looking at galaxies, rather than a muddy used easel. So I added an additional step that transformed my paint leftovers experiment into a staggering masterpiece: SPRAY PAINT.
With the spray paint, I was able to create bursts of gradual shading that give you that colorful cloud-like texture. I used base colors of dark blue and purple with lighter blues, purples, white, and even glitter to highlight. But the most vibrant effects came from deep red and white. It was scarier to try these out but they made all the difference in the world. You can barely tell that red was used on these walls in the final product; it looks blue and purple. The red parts just make it look deep and vibrant and give it that oil-slick contrast to the cool hues. You could even use yellow or orange or in small amounts, gold. The white spray paint is the most careful step; hold it far from the wall to create highlights. Barely press down and you’ll get that comet tail kind of galaxy swoop of tiny stars.
ELEMENTS:
We’ve loved outer space for years and years, so the best part of Harry’s galaxy room is that it came together organically–most of this stuff was already lying around our house. The only thing I went out of my way to purchase was the rug. I came across two globes while driving past a garage sale the day I was painting.
- Galaxy walls, naturally
- Himalayan salt lamp. I love the contrast of earthy warmth in the cool blue of the room
- Two globes I randomly picked up from a garage sale! One of them is a light that glows warm. The other is a rolling globe that must be vintage because it has the U.S.S.R. on it. After deliberating, I decided to paint it like an orange and gold alien planet, even though it’s a relic, because Harry wanted me to.
- Harry also loves rocks and gems, and displaying them looks really nice against the spacey backdrop, as well as his rocket toys from NASA
- My housemate bestie, Sid Pink, also gave us this white noise machine he wasn’t using. It’s sleek and black and makes all of the noises–white, green, whatever–and it makes you feel like you’re in outer space.
- Sid’s brother, Scott Cooper Stoval, is a painter and gave us two outer space paintings. He’s so talented!
- Space helmet from an old astronaut costume
- Galaxy light projector that was given to us as a gift a few years ago. This would also look amazing in a galaxy room!
- Fairy lights at the base of the crown molding. My daughter Camille said “You copied me!” because she also did this in her room with fairy lights, so I would like to credit her here. I also made that artistic choice because I didn’t want to break up the immersive feeling of the galaxy by putting the fairy lights at the top of the wall.
- These glow-in-the-dark stars
- This rug
- Target novelty UFO lamp
- GOVEE light strips under the bed
TIPS:
- If you’re going to play with fire like I did and try to keep your WHITE CROWN MOULDING unpainted, you might do a test first with the painter’s tape and black paint.
- When you get to the step of painting the stars, paint them smaller than your first inkling. I tended to space the stars out too evenly and make them too large. Cluster, cluster, cluster. Vary the size and distance from one another and don’t be afraid to make little star nurseries. Each time I’d make a star cluster, I would feel like outer space Bob Ross and say “Happy little star nursery.”
- It will become a very dark room, so balance out the darkness with a lot of glowy lights.
The most important part: Harry wrote his name in glow-in-the-dark stars on the wall, forever stamping his name into the cosmos.
Erin K. Barnes 