Have you noticed that the starry sky projector is not badsells out? Do you think that advertising is to blame for this? Perhaps there is a certain amount of truth in this, but it is not the main reason. The fact is that people tend to dream while looking at fire or the starry sky. So the projector manufacturers played on the thousand-year-old instinct of humanity.
The luminous ceiling will be a great elementdecor of your bedroom. But there is an alternative to the projector - a luminous ceiling. In the dark it looks simply amazing. Children are delighted with it, and adults relax looking at it.
Cost of a luminous ceiling, views and installation
Scheme of fastening of stretch ceiling fabricharpoon method. This is how luminous ceilings appeared on the construction materials market, and their variety is very large. Only one thing is not very encouraging - the price of such a ceiling is often beyond the means of an ordinary person. And its installation will be expensive: since self-installation will deprive you of the warranty, you will have to entrust this work to specialists. Any man will think: why not make a luminous ceiling with his own hands? But first, you need to understand the structure of such ceilings, their advantages and the features of working with components. Conventionally, all luminous ceilings can be divided into several main groups: ceilings that emit light; ceilings that reflect light radiation, and ceilings that do not have lighting elements. Return to contents</a>
The advantages and disadvantages of ceilings without lighting elements
Installation of fabric stretch ceilings.The last type of ceilings is the most primitive and affordable. In this case, you will not have to work with electrical appliances or cables at all, since all the light from the ceiling is emitted by elements containing fluorescent paints. For example, this can be a ceiling painting with the aforementioned paints. They are capable of "glowing" at the slightest light beam hitting them. It is enough for a car to light up a night street, and the reflected light will definitely hit the paints and they will instantly start glowing. Skeptics grin, reading these lines. But you know that absolute darkness does not exist, so a slight glow of the ceiling will be constant. But the constantly changing illumination outside the windows will allow the paints to shine at full strength. We also take into account the fact that when the angle of incidence of the light beam on the paint changes, the degree of glow will change. And this is a very significant advantage of the ceiling, since it will not bore you with its monotony. There is only one drawback: the colors are not always bright (the quality of the paints is not always high), and such paint does not last long. The main advantage is the exclusivity of such a ceiling, since you can paint it at your own discretion. And you do not necessarily have to have artistic abilities for this. It is enough to have the aforementioned paints, brushes of different sizes and a primer for the ceiling. Return to the table of contents</a>
Order of applying luminous paints
Scheme of stretch ceiling Starry sky withfiber optics. First, clean the surface from dust and apply a thin layer of primer. Once the primer has dried, you can apply the drawing. You can draw a star simply: dip the brush in paint, remove excess paint on the edges of the container and direct the brush perpendicularly to the ceiling. The bristles should spread out to the sides and form small rays on the surface. We make stars with brushes of different sizes (then the stars will be different) and use paints of different colors for this. Well, and comets are drawn in the same way, but at the final stage we move the brush along an arc. To create such a ceiling with your own hands, you only need the ability to draw the moon. But even a person who has never held a brush in his hands can handle this work. Return to the table of contents</a>
Luminous ceiling with stickers
Scheme of organization of lighting of pendantplasterboard ceilings. The modern market is very saturated with luminous stickers, which can be successfully used if you want to create a ceiling with your own hands in a child's room. Such elements are easy to stick on, are very inexpensive, and changing their position is also very easy. And they are “charged” from any light source, even from an ordinary light bulb. One hour of light consumption is equal to two to three hours of constant soft glow for the mentioned elements. They most often emit light green rays, but if desired, you can significantly expand the spectrum, since other color solutions are increasingly appearing. There is still one drawback - loose adhesion to the ceiling surface. Either there is something wrong with the adhesive base, or the ceiling requires preliminary treatment. The way out of this situation is simple - use double-sided tape. First, a piece of tape is glued to the sticker, and only then the element is pressed tightly to the clean surface of the ceiling. We remind you that when gluing all the elements, the room must have normal humidity, otherwise the tape will not hold the glowing figures firmly. At first glance, there is nothing to worry about if one (or several) elements fall off. But if this happens at night and falls on a person's face, then instead of the calming effect of the ceiling, you will get additional sleepless nights. Otherwise, there are no problems. Except that in the daytime, such a ceiling looks simple. Return to the table of contents</a>
Luminous ceiling wallpaper
Scheme for gluing wallpaper to the ceiling.We must not forget about special ceiling wallpaper. They are also available in different types and may contain reflective elements and fluorescent paints. Such wallpaper “works” in the same way as described earlier. It is not difficult to glue them to the ceiling, and you do not have to worry about elements falling off. Wallpaper that has appeared on the finishing materials market quite recently looks more elegant on the ceiling. The manufacturing process is kept secret by manufacturers, but it is easy to describe: the wallpaper includes the finest silver threads formed in the form of certain patterns. These threads begin to emit a slight glow in the dark. This glow can be adjusted remotely. It is very easy to use such wallpaper, you just need to glue it according to the instructions on a smooth and primed ceiling surface. Oddly enough, such a ceiling has the most disadvantages: wallpaper is expensive, the pattern can get boring very quickly, since it is not able to change under certain conditions. But the most frightening thing is that the wallpaper production technology is not disclosed - you never know what might be in their composition. And what if there is excessive humidity in your apartment (and this cannot be ruled out)? What will happen to the expensive wallpaper on the ceiling then? These lines cannot be considered as negative advertising of the product, rather they are expressed by the unknown principle of operation. But if you want to decorate the ceiling with your own hands using wallpaper with silver threads, then you need to inquire in more detail about their composition and principle of operation from distributors (trading companies). They are obliged to provide information about the product and have a corresponding quality certificate for the specified goods. Return to the table of contents</a>
Multi-level gypsum plasterboard ceiling with point light
Types of spotlights:incandescent lamps, halogen lamps. Ceilings that have their own light sources are considered more reliable and beautiful. The simplest of them are multi-level plasterboard ceilings, in which spot lighting elements are mounted with a horizontal arrangement in the depth of a certain level (or several levels). They will not create the illusion of a starry sky, but in the daytime they will look like a real work of art. This trend in home interior design has existed for several decades and remains relevant to this day. The only disadvantage of such ceilings is the need to frequently wipe the places where the lighting elements are installed (dust always accumulates near them). Return to contents</a>
Stretch ceiling with light
Scheme of ceiling with illumination.Stretch ceilings with backlighting can safely be considered the leaders among all luminous ceilings - a beautiful view at any time of the day, various glow modes and a wide color palette make them so popular. We add here the ability to adjust the glow, which is also an additional advantage. It is not difficult to make such a ceiling with your own hands. You just need to have:
- film for the stretch ceiling (matte, with a transparency of about 50%);
- accessories for a tension ceiling;
- transformer (220/12 V);
- electrical wiring;
- Screwdriver;
- aluminum tape;
- lighting elements;
- stepladder;
- insulating tape;
- indicator;
- building hair dryer;
- building level.
Production begins with marking.First, you need to mark a horizontal line around the entire perimeter of the room. All the ceiling panels will need to be secured along this line. But this will all happen much later, since now it is necessary to install the lighting properly. To do this, cut the aluminum tape into strips, the length of which will be equal to the width of your room. These strips will become a kind of reflector for the light, which will allow the lighting to be uniform. For the same purpose, all the strips must be attached to the ceiling at a distance of about 30 cm. If you do this at a greater distance, you risk getting a mattress effect, and the light strips on the ceiling will become irritating after a while. Attaching the strips to the ceiling is also not always a good idea, since you will get a ceiling that is too bright. Return to contents</a>
Installation of lighting system
The device of a spot light.Now it is necessary to mount the main element of the ceiling - the lighting system. You can use both neon bulbs and LED strips for this. There are a large number of them on sale, so the choice will not be difficult. The features of all the named lighting elements are that they consume very little electricity, have a long service life and do not heat up (practically) during operation. The last point is one of the most important, since you do not need a fire hazard in the apartment at all. It is easy to fix the LED strip lighting. The main thing is that the contact wires from it are close to the power source. It is often advised to fix the transformer directly on the ceiling. This only makes sense when you do not want the supply wires to be hidden from prying eyes. There is nothing more to add to this, since for other reasons this location of the transformer loses. Firstly, in the event of necessary repairs, you will have to work very hard to get to it. Secondly, the transformer emits a large amount of thermal energy, and with prolonged use of the backlight, you risk that the temperature above the suspended ceiling will rise and the ceiling membrane will deform. It makes sense to place the transformer somewhere nearby so that it is easy to reach. In this case, the supply electric cable must be laid in a special box or a groove must be cut in the wall and the cable must be laid in the resulting internal box, and then this cavity must be plastered. Return to contents</a>
Lighting tape and leveling the ceiling
Installation of LED strip.After installing the lighting strip, you need to check the quality of the glow in a darkened environment. It should be taken into account that the glow of the stretch ceiling will not be as saturated and somewhat blurred. If you are satisfied with the lighting, you can proceed to the installation of the ceiling membrane itself. It is stretched onto the supporting profiles according to the attached instructions. After stretching, the suspended ceiling is heated using a building hair dryer. The film should stretch on its own if all the preliminary work was done correctly. All that remains is to let the material cool down, fix the ceiling plinths - and you can admire the glow of your product. By the way, there are currently various types of LED lighting strips. Many models can be adjusted and controlled remotely. Adjustment will allow you to change the intensity of the LED glow and their emitted spectrum. Well, mirrors (pieces of aluminum tape) will increase the glow many times over. For this reason, it was necessary to check the luminosity while the ceiling was not yet completely mounted, so that it would not glow too brightly. You can reduce the brightness of the glow using an additional resistor or a rheostat built into the network. A rheostat is preferable, since it will allow you to change the illumination, depending on the situation. If you purchased the entire backlight kit together with the remote control, then no additional elements are needed in the circuit at all. To create a luminous ceiling with your own hands, the parts that were offered to you at the store will be enough. Return to the table of contents</a>
LED ring and its mounting
Interesting ceiling lighting is achieved byusing an LED ring. If you also place reflective elements inside this lighting element, the effect will be absolutely magnificent. We remind you that when connecting electrical elements to the network, there should be no voltage in it. It is desirable that all installation processes are accompanied by measuring operations, all contacts are tight and have reliable insulation. Return to contents</a>
Christmas tree garland for ceiling decoration
LED installation diagram.For a child's bedroom, you can do it yourself using the technology described earlier, but using not special LEDs, but an ordinary Christmas tree garland. The blinking of the lights fascinates the child and makes him calmer. The fear of the dark will pass by itself, but the anticipation of the holiday will be present every evening. Such an effect cannot but evoke a feeling of a fairy tale and happiness in the child. This version of the ceiling is quite modern and quite inexpensive. All the ceilings described earlier are distinguished by only one feature - the static nature of the image. Agree that it would be ideal to make a ceiling with your own hands with the maximum approximation of the image to the twinkling starry sky. Return to the table of contents</a>
Moving elements and combination
This can only be achieved with the help ofmovable elements, skillfully mounted above the suspended ceiling level. Such movable elements can be both lighting and reflective parts. For example, LEDs can be located on a movable curved axis. Rotation will change the direction of the beam, and lights will “play” on the suspended ceiling film. This is not difficult to do. But here you will also get a few small problems: the noise from the electric motor will disrupt the overall idyll of the created atmosphere. And finally, there is an opportunity to make the ceiling yourself, combining different methods. Then you and your family members will definitely not be bored from monotony: many options for ceiling lighting will allow you to see something new every evening. This will be the best rest for your eyes.
