Business brings universe inside

Gardnerville resident Forrest Brandt turned off the lights in a room he'd worked on and within minutes the ceiling was glowing with constellations. The Milky Way glimmered, and shooting stars seemed alive and throbbing though fixed in place.

Brandt first saw a Starscape Cosmic Environment Simulator in a friend's house in Reno and decided to look into the company that made it.

"Who doesn't like looking at the starry night?" he said. "It's relaxing. It takes your mind off the day's work."

Brandt, who owned his own carpet company in Lake Tahoe before moving to the Valley, and his 16-year-old son Tristan investigated Voyager Industries of Arizona who makes the Starscapes.

"There is no one doing this here," he said. "We thought it was so cool and we wanted to do it."

After training with the company, Brandt and his son began marketing their product to homes, hotels and resorts.

"It takes us two to three hours to do a bedroom," he said. "But we have to ask the customers to leave while we do it."

Brandt said their designs are trademark secrets, including the paints they use. He said that unlike glow-in-the-dark decals, Starscapes are virtually invisible in day time.

"Just turn off the lights, lay on your bed and close your eyes for a few minutes," he said. "When you open them, you'll see the stars."

Brandt said the milky way scene sells best, especially with shooting stars. He said children like the spaceship, fairy and angel schemes.

"We camp in Yosemite every year. At night there is a footbridge we lay on to gaze at the stars. Now you can have that in your home."

Brandt charges by the square foot. Starscapes can be an entire ceiling or just a "portal."

For more information call 265-5665.