Painter Carl Marshall from Euxton creates starry night skies

Dozing off under a canopy of stars could be a dreamy adventure in a foreign land.
Carl Marshall, 50, from Euxton, with one of the tiny paintbrushes he uses to paint thousands of stars which twinkle at night in bedrooms all over the UKCarl Marshall, 50, from Euxton, with one of the tiny paintbrushes he uses to paint thousands of stars which twinkle at night in bedrooms all over the UK
Carl Marshall, 50, from Euxton, with one of the tiny paintbrushes he uses to paint thousands of stars which twinkle at night in bedrooms all over the UK

But now a Lancashire painter is bringing that opportunity home, painting thousands of twinkling stars on bedroom ceilings.

Carl Marshall’s services are in so much demand that he has even been commissioned by celebrities.

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“I’ve worked with Laurence LLewellyn-Bowen on DIY SOS for the BBC and Lady Sara Bathurst was so blown away by my star ceilings at a launch event that I went on to design a bedroom in her holiday home in Devon,” said the resident of Greenside in Euxton.

One of Carl's ceilingsOne of Carl's ceilings
One of Carl's ceilings

Now boxer Amir Khan and Scarlett Moffatt, made famous in Gogglebox, have both asked Carl to paint the ceilings in their children’s bedrooms.

The 50-year-old painter said: “I can be in Scotland one day and in London the next and then in South Wales.”

The starry ceilings are not just for the realms of the stars though.

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Carl has said that he has had feedback from people who have said it has helped their children sleep better.

One of Carl's ceilingsOne of Carl's ceilings
One of Carl's ceilings

He said: “Clients have said it’s helped them to relax, one woman who gets migraines asked for a starry ceiling because it helped her cope with her migraines.

“The avenues that it can be used for blow it right out of the water.”

So far Carl has painted starry ceilings for people who have experienced bereavement, for people with autism and for a prison cell in County Durham and he thinks it could be helpful for people struggling with post traumatic stress disorder as well.

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For any one commission Carl can spend up to three hours in darkness painting thousands of tiny stars on ceilings.

“I go and look where the bedroom is, what the needs of the children are,” he said.

“I work in total darkness in UV lighting to paint the stars.

“During the day the ceiling just looks totally white.

“Light charges the stars. So when one star dies out the star next to it will illuminate it so that it looks like the stars are twinkling.

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“They last six to eight hours every night. The actual paint lasts 20 years.”

“I discovered this paint in America and eventually I got a company in Canada to manufacture the colours that I wanted. But it was costing so much in customs to get it into the country that I started to manufacture it myself. It’s recognised by the national autistic society.

“It’s purely for my own use and I’m the only person in the UK doing this.

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