I Painted My Shower Ceiling to Look Like Grand Central’s Famous Constellation Mural for $100

People say bright ideas often come to them while taking a shower. But the shower ceiling in my vintage bathroom was where good ideas got lost. The blank, uninspired white square, punctuated by a tarnished flush mount, did nothing to inspire a brainstorm and was far from spa-like. I’d been dreaming of some sort of makeover that didn’t involve a full demo for more than a year. My go-to muse? The constellation ceiling of Grand Central Station’s main concourse in New York City. 

Having zero mural painting experience, I kept putting off this project — until I saw the ideal turquoise paint color. Backdrop’s Sicily or Cyprus looked like a perfect replica of the celestial sky inside the terminal. This was my now-or-never moment, and I took the plunge by ordering a half-gallon in semi-gloss. 

Before painting the ceiling, I needed to refresh the light in the shower, which was covered in an icky, gray tarnish. Since my shower is original to the 1938 home, I didn’t want to spend $500 on a new light and electrical installation. Instead, I cleaned the fixture with a soft brush to remove residue, then used a piece of foil to restore it as much as possible. (Hot tip: If you use a ball of aluminum foil on a metal surface, it can remove rusty spots.) After taping off the glass portion of the light, I used about three coats of Rub N’ Buff in antique gold to change the metallic hue to a brass finish. 

To paint the ceiling, I skipped the primer and applied three coats of Sicily or Cyprus. The transformation was immediate. Even if my art skills were a bust, I would have been happy having this rich blue-green swimming over my head. What I didn’t like was the white strip of caulk between the ceiling and the shower tile. I could have just painted over it, but it would have looked unfinished. Some sort of molding was the answer. Inspired by bobbin details I’ve been seeing in furniture, I chose paintable, PVC peel-and-stick bead trim to bridge the gap. 

Next came the hard part. To research the constellations of the Grand Central concourse, I relied on Google Images. A closer look revealed that most of the designs, like Orion and Aries, were quite elaborate. In fact, the original 1913 work used projections from the 1603 star atlas, Uranometria, for the design. Without a projector and deft artistic hand, I opted to highlight the simple silhouettes: Cancer and Pisces. I then added Musca Borealis (the bee) and Triangulum (triangle) to balance the rest of the 3-by-3-foot square ceiling. 

Initially, I was going to use carbon paper to trace these, but when that proved difficult, I sketched freehand with white chalk. (This step took a couple of hours and involved a lot of erasing.) My design was complete, but I felt like it had too much negative space. So I decided to add Virgo, my son’s zodiac sign, and a couple of stars to the mix. 

Tracing over the illustrations along the chalk lines was easier than I anticipated. I used the same tube of Rub N’ Buff antique gold, using fine-point and flat-head art brushes. To give each constellation depth, I worked in shading with DecoArt Metallic Lustre in rose gold. Any mistakes were easily fixed with the turquoise paint. The final touch was securing the now-painted PVC bead trim along the perimeter. All in all, this project cost about $100 and took eight hours to complete. 

I’m so enamoured by the celestial shower stall, I plan to paint the rest of the bathroom ceiling the same enchanting blue-green. Maybe I’ll even turn the rest of the vintage bathroom’s decor theme into something of a chic subway station?