Painted Clouds on a Bedroom Ceiling

This skyscape was painted additively -- the clouds were rendered with translucent off-whites sponged over a pastel blue base.

Anything other than a flat white painted ceiling will prove to be more decorative and interesting.

Depending upon your individual taste, the difference can range from the subtle to the dramatic.

The stronger the difference in tones between the base colour and the sponging, the more dramatic and pronounced the effect will be.

Experiment with colours. Skies are seldom true blue, and clouds are usually anything but puffy and pure white.

If painting a skyscape is too ambitious for you, try a painted border -- either on the ceiling itself, or on the walls. The colour or tone of clouds does not have to vary much from the ground colour in order to create an effect.

Overhead free-hand painting is strenuous. For this work, I strapped on stilts and made a quick go of it. The drawback in using stilts is that it isn't easy to stand back to size up your work.

Stilts are adjustable in height, and allow the adventurous worker to reach 12' ceilings and beyond, but for the novice, this is too high and precarious. Even professionals who use stilts will have only worked up to the maximum height after years of practice.

For occasional ceiling work, a wheeled-scaffold is preferable to stilts: you won't need to worry about tripping over pets, and your tools will be handy beside you.

Here are more painted clouds on a door transom glass, and on a kitchen ceiling.