My sisters wanted to paint stars on their bedroom ceiling around the time I was leaving behind my infancy. Like all babies I had spent my first two or three years floating about in a nebulous world. The events and activities of my siblings were indistinct and vague to my perception because little of it had to do with my three most basic needs: nourishment, dry diapers and cuddles. Slowly, I began to understand words, and I began to sort out the tangle of my two arms and two legs, making independent locomotion possible. At that point, I became “the shadow”, following the siblings I could keep up to, while firing endless questions at their backsides.

Agnes and Rosie insisted they had to paint the bedroom they shared a rich navy blue. Mom said, “That color is too dark. A home decorator in one of my women’s magazines recommended that bedrooms on the northside of a house, like yours, should be painted bright colors.” The two girls insisted that they needed the room to be the color of a night sky because they were going to stencil silver stars all over the ceiling.

I was told years later that the girls worked day after day for weeks that summer on their bedroom décor. Arranging the various sized stars so they were evenly spaced was time consuming work. Reaching high overhead to neatly paint the stars using a small detail brush was neck-breaking. They also wanted coordinating room accessories such as a wastepaper basket. To supply this, they found a square five-gallon fuel can, had the top cut off, cleaned it, painted it navy, and stenciled silver stars on it as well.

Despite having two windows, the bedroom was dark like a cave after both the ceiling and walls were painted the rich, dark blue. The advice found in Mom’s woman’s magazine had been correct. A bedroom on the north side of the house needs lighter paint. The ceiling stayed as it was, but my sisters soon repainted the walls a bluish white.

A study done in 1972 found that blue and green colors have a strong impact on people’s circadian rhythm, the biological system that governs the times we want to sleep, so the color we paint our bedroom is important. Scientists know that colors have a powerful effect on our emotional well-being. This information is most often used by companies to increase their marketing power. If shades of blue reduce blood pressure and heart rate as they say, my sister’s pale blue walls and star-studded night sky ceiling should have made anyone who entered the room pass out with relaxation!

When my daughter Niki was a teenager, she painted her bedroom a nice, normal pink with cute, green ivy stencils. A few years later, when Niki moved out to start her married life, my daughter Tammie wanted the bedroom they had shared to be repainted. She chose a bright yellow for the walls. Her sister painted giant red, orange and yellow rays on the ceiling radiating out from the light fixture upon her sister’s request. Small orange stenciled suns ‘bounce’ along the roofline. I made yellow curtains with red ties for the room’s window. This décor was a very bold move. Red, yellow and orange are often listed as colors to avoid for bedrooms because they stimulate and energize. Red raises a person’s pulse, while yellow and orange provoke strong emotions. Tammie said, “I like those colors. They shouldn’t be a problem since my eyes are shut at night.”

Years later when my bedroom was remodeled, I asked for it to be painted a very strong cantaloupe color. Questioned if I was sure, I said yes! In the mornings when I wake up, if the sun is shining, the walls glow. I love it!

The color of the room doesn’t prevent me from going to sleep. I sleep like a baby. I float off into the nebulous mist of sleep, unaware of how I manage to get from one place to another. Time passage is vague, and location is indistinct. Often, I dream that I am at work. My memories are strong and emotional. I’m sure some people would say these dreams are prompted by the color of my bedroom.  

It’s interesting that both my sisters and my daughter were inspired by the sky for their bedroom décor. My sisters had a stary-stary night bedroom ceiling while my daughter wanted a blazing sun overhead. The day and night difference didn’t cause anyone to lose sleep.