If Wallpapering a Ceiling Is Too Much of a Time or Cost Commitment, Try This Easy DIY Overhead Instead

If you live in a historic home, you just might be lucky enough to have classic little details everywhere you look, from crown molding and beautiful stained glass windows to original hardwood floors and vintage tile. In newer homes, you’ll typically see a little less period character but fresher finishes and the same opportunity to put your own spin on things as in an older house. When Jean-Francois Alix found a condo in his dream neighborhood in West Hollywood, California, last year, he was dealing with a newer space but wanted to add back in some of that Golden Age Hollywood glamour, mixing it with the old world elegance he grew up knowing and loving. So he hired his friend and professional designer, Ryan Black of Blackbird Chateau, to bring a sense of history to his newer build while still making it modern for 2022.

Having grown up Taiwan and France surrounded by antiques (his parents were avid collectors), Alix was ready to double down on some seriously storied pieces, some of which included family heirlooms. To further spruce up the space and make it Alix’s own, the duo also added vintage-inspired, rich details like faux dentil molding in the bedroom and brass campaign style hardware to the cerused oak bathroom vanity. Perhaps one of the most eye-catching features of the apartment though is the dining room’s geometric ceiling mural, which sits somewhere between vintage and modern entirely. I can’t take my eyes off it; the sunburst-style design draws the eye upward the same way wallpaper or a ceiling medallion would but in such a subdued, sophisticated way,

Inspired by muralist Nic Valle, the glam design totally sets off the dining room’s angular chandelier, immediately elevating the space but without covering much surface area at all. Talk about high-impact and low-lift! If you wanted to recreate this in your own home, you could draw up your own stencil to paint your own sunburst out of dashes or consider a vinyl, peel-and-stick-like material that you could adhere to the ceiling (in this case, you’d be cutting dashes out of gold contact paper). Either way, if you’re down to DIY, there’s a budget-friendly and renter-friendly copycat project here to inspire you, and it’s one for the books.

“I would never have done anything like this without the vision of my talented friend,” says Alix of the entire condo. “What Ryan did for me is quite simply mind-blowing. I now can say that I live in a work of art.” There’s definitely truth to that statement, and maybe the most striking aspect of Alix’s work of art is this glam, old meets new, super-simple ceiling mural.