Malaysian man transforms spare room with spaceship theme


Spaceship room cover pic
Image adapted from: Ahmad Fathil Zakaria

The daily sentiments of Malaysians across the country can be summed up in 2 words: “I’m bored”. And we still have a week of Movement Control Order (MCO) to get through. Besides exhausting our Netflix options, Malaysians have begun to come up with creative ways to fight off boredom.

But other than holding a mini-concert at our balconies and whipping a cup of dalgona coffee, there are plenty more productive activities that we can indulge in to kill time. In the first 5 days of MCO, a Malaysian man managed to complete an impressive home project that transformed a drab room into a realistic “spaceship” that looks like it came out of Star Wars.


Artist painted the entire room in 5 days


Ahmad Fathil Zakaria documented his 5-day journey and shared the steps he took in order to achieve his spankin’ new spaceship room on a Facebook post that quickly blew up with 52,000 shares. His post can serve as a guide for those who are thinking to make use of the MCO to transform their own bedroom.

The labour-intensive project began with a rough sketch, so that Zakaria had a clear plan to execute what he’s going for. He mapped out the layout of the spare room and jotted down the dimensions.

Spaceship room sketch
Image credit: Ahmad Fathil Zakaria

After painting the walls so that he could start with a clean base, Zakaria began by drawing the design for the door of his spaceship. He started by outlining the general design of it before painting on the first layer and going back to add in the extra details.

Spaceship door
Image adapted from: Ahmad Fathil Zakaria

Here comes the tricky part of this spaceship project – nailing the 3D perspective. In order to capture the realistic element of the project, he needed to sketch out the mural on the walls to make it seem like you’re in the cockpit of a spaceship.

Spaceship 3D effect
The after photo gives off the illusion that there are more dimensions to the room and that it’s not just a flat wall
Image adapted from: Ahmad Fathil Zakaria

A tip for those who want to learn about perspective drawings: To get the perspective right, start from a dot in the centre of the wall and work from there. You have to make sure that each line is precise and accurate or you’ll end up with with a wonky mural that’ll ruin the illusion of being in a spaceship.

Next, Zakaria covered the spaceship “panels” and “control area” with plastic so that he could work on painting the view of the galaxy outside.

Spaceship room galaxy
Image adapted from: Ahmad Fathil Zakaria

The finishing touches that really tied this spaceship-themed room together were the LED lights that he incorporated into the design.

Spaceship bedroom
Image credit: Ahmad Fathil Zakaria


Creative home revamps during MCO


The next time you hear your friends say “I’m bored”, send them a link to Zakaria’s home project. It just goes to show that there is actually so much more we can do in the comfort of our homes and there is no better time to take up a big project like this one.

Whether you’re inspired to do an art piece of your own or stick to binge-watching on Netflix, what’s most important is that we continue to observe the MCO period and find ways to entertain ourselves at home.

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