So you’re the type of person who likes spending your nights outdoors, gazing at the sky littered with twinkling lights. But do you like it as much as this guy?
Baldr, an Instructables user and space geek, transformed his bathroom floor into the Milky Way. Thankfully, he decided to share the step-by-step process with us so that we, too, can do the space walk on our midnight bathroom breaks.
You’d probably need to be pretty nifty with your hands for this project. Something called grouting is involved, as well as some hullabaloo about a light source. It sounds quite complicated but the outcome is definitely worth it:
Constellations beneath your bare feet. Doesn’t it look positively dreamy?
Let’s take a closer look at those tiny dots of light:
Those illuminated points, or “stars,” are the ends of fiber optic cables. Baldr suggests that the first step should be to make a plan of where you’re going to install your light source, and creating a miniature test version first.
He advises that you keep the light source outside of the bathroom for safety purposes. For his project, he placed the light source in the hallway outside his bathroom.
And then the back-breaking hours of labor begin.
Just kidding, this entire project will take about two weeks. From the light source, you need to feed your bundle of fiber optic cables into the room. Unlike the professional way of tiling, this project requires the tiling to be done from the bundle of fibres at one corner of the room, spreading outwards.
Start laying your tiles, spreading your bundle of fibres out underneath the tiles as you go. When you get to a place where you want your “star” to be, just pull one strand of fiber out and leave it sticking out. Baldr says it is best to work with a dim light source so that it’s easier to find your fibers.
After all the tiles are laid, your floor will look pretty hairy. The grouting can now commence. The areas with your star fiber will need more attention than the rest of the floor. After the grout has dried, you can use a hot knife to trim the fiber that’s sticking out as close to the grout as possible.
Once your floor is fully fibered, it will look any other tiled floor when the light is off. But when you connect the cables to the light source… voila! Feast your eyes on a sea of twinkling diamonds.
As soon as you’re done, though, you’d probably feel that fiber optic high and continue to hack into more stuff around your house. Be warned — anything that can be optical-fibered, will be optical-fibered.
Such as your normally conservative stairs.
And maybe even a table quietly tabling in a corner. But whatever you do, please…
Stay away from that baby.
