The Master bath project is nearing completion! I should be done all the tiling by the end of this weekend! Well except for one tile. Yeah! One… My estimate was exactly one full tile short, well actually I screwed up one cut, so I would have had exactly enough to complete if I hadn’t cut that one tile in the wrong direction… Anyway I’ll post pics soon when I’m complete, also I’ll get that video of the star field up soon.
No Comments »Posts Tagged ‘fiber optic’
Bathroom Project
Friday, April 30th, 2010Star Field (Complete)
Friday, March 19th, 2010In my first post I kind of explained how I made the star field, in this one I’ll show the results.
Location for star field in bathroom ceiling.
In our bathroom I lowered the ceiling 4″ over the tub and made a recessed area of where the light panel was going to be placed. everything was taped, mudded, primed and painted prior to the star field install. (unfortunately I never took a picture of this).
After we got the star field in place I patched all the holes and placed a trim around the edges. The end result is shown below, however I still have to cover the access to the CoolSky LED light box and receptacle. I also created a video, but I have to remake it as I filmed it in total darkness and the camera kept going out of focus, it was also a 200M file so it would take quite some time to download. I’ll try to make a better (smaller) video over the weekend.
After we got the star field in place I patched all the holes and placed a trim around the edges. The end result is shown below, however I still have to cover the access to the CoolSky LED light box and receptacle. I also created a video, but I have to remake it as I filmed it in total darkness and the camera kept going out of focus, it was also a 200M file so it would take quite some time to download. I’ll try to make a better (smaller) video over the weekend.
Completed star field ceiling, well I still need to cover the hatch where the LED module is hiding on the left hand side.
View standing outside of tub (long exposure)
View looking up from the tub. (How many constellations can you find?)
Video of CoolSky LED functions will be coming soon.
2 Comments »
Star Field (post 1)
Friday, March 19th, 2010I have finally started the star field that will be ending up in my master bathroom ceiling (you can follow that story here).
Star map for ceiling star field. (Click to enlarge)
First off I created an actual star map using wikisky.org then plotted four different star sizes overlaying the map using photo shop. My result is shown on the left, it was scaled down to fit on a 8 X 10 sheet of paper. It worked out so that there are about 170 stars or so in a 3′ X 5′ area.
Me plotting stars and measuring for the middle support braces.
3 x 5 sheet primed and I'm starting to cover it with construction paper.
Next I primed and painted a 3′ X 5′ sheet of MDF (which I hope was a good material to use, time will tell See Update at bottom of post). I then covered it with construction paper and drew the a scaled grid on it. Then using the printed 8″ X 10″ paper I plotted each star to the best of my abilities and marked it size with different colors. After all the plotting was done and I was satisfied with where the stars where, I drilled each hole one by one using three different sized drill bits (3/64, 1/16, 3/32). I then flipped the board over, remarked what size each star was, and Jen (my wife) and I pushed through the number of fibers I needed for each hole until all 200 of them were completed. Once the fibers where in place, Jen glued them in place with clear silicon.
Arranging the fibers
Pushing fibers through the board
Update: Well using the sheet of MDF may have not been the greatest idea for a bathroom. Since I had the shower glassed in, the steam from the shower has cause the MDF around each fiber to expand slightly creating a small bump where each fiber is. Though this doesn’t affect the light passing through the fiber it doesn’t look overly appealing to the eye in the daylight. I’m thinking of redoing this project (starfield 2.0) using a John Hardy Cement board or something more moisture resistant. I imagine if i had built this in any other room than the bathroom, MDF would have been fine. Keep checking back for the 2.0 version of the starfield, of course with the twins, basement, laundry room, garage, and wine room… who really knows when that will actually happen. No Comments »
Wow, I did it!
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010Well actually, Jen and I did it… not that! We finished the star-field last night! It is ready to install! So far it looks pretty good, we should get it in place on the ceiling tonight, then all I have to do is add trim and patch 5 holes, cut the fibers to the same length and done! I should have pics and a video up sometime next week!
6 Comments »Star field inspiration
Thursday, January 14th, 2010This is to hopefully inspire me for my star-field ceiling I am planning.
Here is an image of what I hope the end product may look like:
What my ceiling may look like (hopefully nicer)
Hopefully mine will look a little nicer that this one, but this is the idea I have in my head.
I also found this while I was searching for images:
Starfield installation guide
So I guess there is no need to continue posting on this subject now that someone actually made a guide on how to do one…
3 Comments »Hello World!
Monday, January 11th, 2010Hello to the people who may have stumbled upon this new blog. Welcome to my first post! Just to let you know this is only a test site at the moment, but I made it live just for fun and so that anyone could follow my blog right from the start if they wish. Hopefully in the near future I will blend this page so that it flows seamlessly with my design portfolio http://mardena.com page and make it public. The reason I am starting this is to blog my adventures of making a star field ceiling in our master bathroom. Hopefully it will become a useful guide on how to build one of these star fields, though I have never built one before, nor have I actually seen one like the one I wish to build in person… so good luck to me in this adventure. I hope it brings pleasure and useful information to all!
I have purchased a Cool Sky Led lighting unit and a 200 strand 1mm fiber optic cable to start the project. I plan on making the project cover a 5′ x 3′ area directly above the jetted tub. I was planning on using a 1/2″ sheet of MDF for my ceiling panel but am not too sure about how the steam from the shower (which is separate glassed in) would effect this (I’m worried about sag). If anyone who reads this knows of a better material to use or think that the MDF should be fine please email me or post a comment.
Cool Sky LED illuminator:
I will post more pictures as the project progresses.
1 Comment »