Folks have been asking me for these instructions for a long time - A fabric ceiling installation is one of the greatest things you can do for your spiritual health. This is the most complex design that I'm sharing instructions on first. This is my baby - I designed it and I'm giving the instructions to people who want to make them because everyone should have one of these. Your children and grandchildren should SO have one of these. Spud, for instance, is helping transform special needs childrens' rooms with color and texture. So - here goes! I'll write instructions on the other designs soon!

ENJOY!

RAINBOW INSTALLATION

The description below will differ slightly from the design you see above. The one above I hand sewed onto a loop and affixed it to the ceiling with brackets. I’ve since revised the style and it’s much smarter. This design has each color on a dowel so they can be easily removed and washed.  Allergens are important for anyone healing so the design had to be modified.  The center of the rainbow now, though, takes on a star/aperture of a camera effect with the colors on dowels slightly overlapping one another.  It’s quite beautiful!

*****SUPPLIES*****

AMOUNT OF FABRIC

3-4 yards of each color of the spectrum, pressed and hemmed (both ends) and a casing at one end.

AMOUNT OF RIBBON

12-14” of ribbon per color hung

HARDWARE

A ladder (maybe two)

A drill & hammer

Center:  1 good sized Eye Hook, matching anchor and a carabineer

2 screws & anchors for each color fabric in installation

2 drapery clips/bull dog clips or safety pins for each color in installation

various small twisty ties or string if needed

One 12” dowel rod or bamboo for each color in installation

TYPE OF FABRIC:

lightweight fabric, such as dress-lining satin or sari/silk material.

This way the fabric doesn’t put weight on the ceiling and hangs and blows gently creating an airy feeling to a room. If you hang little lights they also reflect the lights beautifully and don’t absorb the color as cotton will.  For some that need or prefer a natural fabric, you can find affordable silks and nylons online, the diaphanous nature of these fabrics goes nicely with hanging the lights on the ceiling and having the fabric hang over them as well.  Creates a bit of a ‘starry night’ effect.   

Pressing fabric: I strongly suggest washing fabric after you get it to get sizing and chemicals out. Now, pressing all this fabric can be very trying. Mostly because folks that don’t have an art studio with enough room to press this much fabric without it puddling on the other side of the ironing table defeats the idea of pressing it. This is where paying $10 to have it pressed (not starched, no chemicals) at a dry cleaner will be easy for them and well worth your cash).  The only sewing involved is a straight stitch on each color and very easy for a cleaners to do or any novice seamstress can accomplish this!
 

CENTER OF CIRCUS TENT

You’ve got your 1 good sized Eye Hook, matching anchor and a carabineer.

Carabineer hangs from ceiling and will hold your fabric and allow it to move just a little with gentle breezes.  Make sure your carabineer is a little smaller than your eye hook so it will fit through the hole!  There’s no need to get an industrial/rock climber’s strength carabineer. I’d suggest getting a less heavy one, like for key chains and such so as not to add to the weight from the ceiling. The point is having a structure that will hold the loops of your fabric and not come open easily.

There won’t really be that much weight being hung from the center –

I’d approximate perhaps 3 lbs of weight (including the carabineer) once fabric is outstretched around ceiling.  A good eye hook with a good anchor in the ceiling and you’re golden.  Hang a carabineer from it and you can attach all the fabric easily. You can also string a very lightweight lantern from the center as shown in the photos or balloons – whatever you like.

HANGING OUTSTRETCHED ENDS OF SPECTRUM COLORS

You’ll hang 2 screws for each color of fabric.

These don't have to be big screws but I suggest putting anchors in. I use wood screws but end user strength is fine (like in a kit of screws and matching plastic anchors from the hardware store)  - it'll just depend on the density of ceiling you're working with on whether or not you HAVE to use an anchor. Most newer ceilings you can get away with just a small screw.  In these situations you can get away with not drilling more holes into the ceiling. Older ceilings, those with plaster will take a bit more prep work with a concrete bit but the same screws & anchors will work nicely.  These holes in the ceiling are so small that when you move or need to putty them later they’re unnoticeable!!

ATTACHING FABRIC TO CEILING

For each color/end of fabric:

2 drapery clips, bull dog clips or you can just get away with safety pins, really.

You'll use these to grab the fabric at the width and pull it and clip it around the screw hanging from the ceiling. Be smart in the way you clip it behind where you'll be mostly viewing the fabric and no one will likely see your safety pin.

CENTER of CIRCULAR INSTALLATION (CIRCUS TENT)

FABRIC: straight stitch a casing like you would to create a drawstring  or simple hem on anything really, just turn the fabric over and press a straight line across, then do it again and you'll have a casing.  The casing below is just over an inch. I pressed it 3/8” and then again, an 1 ¼” and straight stitched.

(1) 12" length of bamboo or dowel rod for each color of fabric used.

drill 1 small hole on each end perhaps 3/4" from the ends.  If you do not have a drill you can nail very small tack nails into either side of the dowel, just make sure they’re securely in there before wrapping your ribbon on either side.

NOTE:   if using bamboo, tape around the bamboo before drilling to ensure it does not split. Using bamboo will save you a teeny bit of weight but dowels are easier to drill into.

EITHER WAY:   afterward take fine grit sandpaper, run over your holes on both sides and the ends of the dowels to ensure you don’t snag your fabric when feeding onto the rod.

You have one 14" length ribbon for each color being hung.

After fabric is threaded/gathered onto dowels, thread ribbon through holes on either side and tie a simple knot. This way the color is mobile and you can hang it in a myriad of ways throughout the years. When you need to wash the color (yearly for dust or perhaps twice a year if in a child's room with allergies), you can just take the fabric off the dowel, wash it, press it (or have it pressed, that's what I do to save time) and hang it back up.  It's Easy!

LIGHTS

If your fabric is diaphanous you can thread the lights underneath it in whatever pattern you like. Just take string, wire or twisty ties and affix the lights to the screws to the center of the installation. The lights are very light and don’t need much in the way of holding to the ceiling. If they droop a little in the center, add a very small screw into the ceiling where they’re drooping and affix it with string, etc.  I don’t ever suggest staple guns to hang wires. I love staple guns but the force will blow out some sheet rock, leaving you with maintenance and you’ll crimp the wire on the lights and that’s not really a smart thing. On top of that – if you miss even slightly, you run the risk of puncturing the wire = no good. 

The rainbow fabric isn’t diaphanous and I like the lights to illuminate the colors. It’s lovely to lay in bed and look at and creates a wonderful subtle lighting in a room. You can hang it around the outskirts of your circle, along the screws that are the end points of the fabric stretched out or you can edge the colors and bring the lights into the center (hung on your center hook and then outstretched to the edges of the color).  It’s your choice and the creative possibilities are limitless.  If it’s a child’s room, just  make sure the lights are up far enough to keep them from wanting to grab them and swing them, of course.

HANGING IT  **you need a buddy to  help hang this**

Make sure you've prepared each color for hanging (sewing and threading it on dowel) before you begin.

Pick your spot on the ceiling for the center of the installation:

From your center, your diameter to the outskirts of your circle measurement consists of your ribbon/dowel hanging and approximately 4 yards of fabric.

Your finished diameter will be approximately one yard less than your fabric – meaning if your fabric was 4 yards then by the time you’ve hung it, your outstretched fabric will be about 9’ from the center of the rainbow to give it just a little drapery but not too much.

**I like to decide which color therapy I want over the bed and hang that color first so the other colors fall in line with order of the spectrum..

Take the most time on hanging the first stretch of color.

Hang the first color by ribbon on the carabineer.  Hand the rest of the beautiful fabric to your buddy on the other end on the ladder.  Pull the fabric and make a mark on the ceiling of your first entry point for your drapery clip.  I like to start with a corner over the bed and go just a few inches on either side of that so as not to hold them right in the corner.  Drill your first hole in the ceiling there, put a fabric clip around it (pinch it with some  needle nose pliers so it doesn’t come loose). 

Clip one end of your first color to that entry point.  Stretch out horizontally the width of the fabric and that’s your second entry point, mark, drill the hole, affix fabric with clip/safety pin.  If you're using a safety pin, screw the screw through the smaller part of the safety pin so it won’t fall off the ceiling. Just know that when you use a safety pin, you’ll need to be more careful about how you bulk the fabric up so as not to tear the fabric when it moves slightly in a breeze.  It’ll be fine and is much cheaper but put some cotton on the back of your satin or something (just cut a piece and wrap it around what you’re putting the fabric through) and you’re golden. 

Your lengths may not look perfect yet but your width points are determined and installed – everything from here on each color is simple design and aesthetic fun.

One of you will stand below and say ‘a little lower’ or ‘higher’ and pull the fabric back and forth till you have a lovely arch of fabric you’re satisfied with.  This is your first color and you can change it later by going up and shifting how tight you have it in the drapery clip/bull dog clip/safety pin.  Fullness in your drape will depend on how tall the people are normally in that room but you want it high enough that your aura and body don’t feel like slumping.  The horizontal pulling of the fabric is the most important part. The width of the screws will always be the same. If your fabric is 45” wide, your screws will undoubtedly be about 46-47” apart to keep the fabric taught.  It’s the length and way it hangs to the center that will vary according to taste.

I hang the colors 6”-12” apart from one another.  Once that first color is up the rest are just a process of moving the ladder, you or your buddy attaching the center point color and handing the rest to your buddy.  You’ll have a rhythm now and it won’t take too long to hang the rest.  You'll feel if you need to move the next color over even more than a foot - for a door, a plant, a picture you'd like to frame with the color by pulling it over a bit. Now if you're fabric is long enough (mine is but looks tucked up in these photos) it'll hang down the wall. Just pull it and gather it in a tie.  Pull them to either sides of windows and they look like big curtains on an ancient tent in persia.  So beautiful-

Total hanging time is generally about an hour, no more.  

AESTHETIC TIPS

Add a few prisms from opposing windows and each day the child will have rainbows floating across the walls.  My man calls it ‘rainbow fishing’, following the little prisms cast across the walls. 

You can also hang light-weight crystals or angels or fairies from the outpoints of the fabric.  Christmas ornaments are great for this because, for the most part, they’re very lightweight.  If you hang your screw and anchor properly, remember the only weight on that point is a few ounces. Hanging light reflecting ornaments at those points will add a whole new magical dimension to the ceiling.

This is a photo of my current installation. I’m preparing for the IP and I want my studio/bedroom to be as soothing as possible.  When I’m stressed, need to relax and don’t wanna see my sewing/art pile – I hung this dividing curtain at the end of the rainbow.  When it’s drawn I don’t have to see my desk and art space.  Yes, I made the curtain but you can too!  J