For our next project, John and I did something ridiculous and utterly magical to our living room ceiling:
I wasn't prepared for the reaction I got once I posted this on Instagram, though; turns out you guys like twinkle lights almost as much as I do! You also demanded a tutorial, so I'll do my best here with the few photos I took along the way.
First things first: you need a ceiling you can staple into (so hard plasters are out) and LOTS of lights. We used this set from Amazon: for $38 you get 1,000 lights on over 300 feet of a lovely clear/white wire:
It doesn't actually arrive in a giant tangled ball, don't worry.
Other than the lights, all you need is a ladder, a staple gun and at least 800 staples. (We also spray-painted the tops of our staples white before using them, but that's optional.)
To begin, move any large pieces of furniture out of the way, so you have room to move your ladder.
Next you may want to unspool all 300 feet of lights onto the room's floor, just to make sure you have enough to cover the space:
This wasn't very helpful for us, though, because we ended up running out faster than we expected anyway.
In fact, our magical swoopy flourish was a happy accident: we originally thought we would randomly place lights over the entire ceiling. When we realized we didn't have enough for how tightly we were installing them, though, we changed the design to what you see here.
Now let's talk install.
If you're planning a shape like we did, and if your ceiling allows it, outline the shape first with blue painter's tape:
