painting, gluing, wall papering, sewing, choosing, repeat


It all started with the corner kitchen cupboard, the quarter circle shaped one. I blame it on our eldest son. You see whenever he comes home, he starts unloading his stuff on the kitchen table, his laptop being the most important item, apart from his mobile, of course.

Anyway, the situation in our household is thus: we’re strapped for space (I know everybody says that, but we really are, house-floorspace amounts to appr. 85m²/915sqft, which obviously does not include the studio, or garden or garden shed etc, kind of small living avant la lettre) and in the kitchen the corner cupboard houses a socket, so when our eldest sits at aforementioned kitchen table, he needs juice for his laptop and the cupboard doors open, to a Black Hole. I had at an earlier time repainted the outside, a high gloss white, contrasting even more now with the interior look. I was so fed up with this dark corner sucking up all the light and looking so uninviting and gloomy……..So I bravely decide to paint the inside a pale chalk blue; I say decide as if I had chosen the colour, which I hadn’t beforehand. I can only choose when in the store with the actual pots of paint there before my very eyes…..and after a lot of deliberating, doubting, walking back and forth, I all of a sudden make up my mind and pick the colour! Of course once back home, I’m second guessing my choice, but having lost my receipt, ignore these feelings and carry on boldly: first removing everything from the cupboard, yikes, cleaning, painting everything a glossy white – only because I still had some -  as I am pretty sure the pale blue will not cover the blackness, finally, after two layers of blue life in the kitchen has improved, not least because all the plates, cups, bowls et al can go back in! The men in my household are very patient.
Now that I have the paints out and am in painting mode, I am also painting door frames and windowsills, kind of at random, but hey, lightening up the house…..lightening up my mood to boot.
The loo-door gets a different treatment: wall-paper-gluing newspaper articles of interest plus a couple of photo’s I like. All of this is leading up to where I am today: in the midst of redecorating and restyling The Dwelling!
Sweet Otter just carries on sleeping where ever!

Some of the stuff is neatly stored in these containers

a reminder of what OBK's room looked like.....

some (I'm not naming names) try to carry on as of nothing is happening and they don't offer to help

maybe I won't repaint every room, 

then again, I think I have

more and more, the beings drift all over the studio; things start to get messy, disorganized, unruly......duh, this is just a phase I say to self

aha, a hole in OBK's wall; Julie got me thinking about their need for privacy, so I am making a bedroom for him behind this wall! 

a small terrace, at last a small space has achieved some sort of peace 





the state of the studio this afternoon, me in near panic mode: will it ever get done? if so, when?


yes, a proper doorway has been made for OBK

a wall hanging for his bedroom, recognize this Jude?


here He is, lying on his new bed, allowing us a sneak preview

Comments

Mo Crow said…
wow, everyone must be feeling very happy with this spruce up to their digs!
Dana said…
I have great sympathy for the difficulty and chaos a regenerative project like your cupboard can produce. It seems possible that energy and vision will crumple before the mess and endless decisions about "what about this, or that?" I am pleased to see that you are emerging triumphant on the other side and I love the blue that you chose to freshen and lighten your home and the homes of your little friends.
Nancy said…
Wow! Such a great playtime for you...and them! I bet they got to make bunches of new friends or visit with those they hadn't seen in a while...kinda like a little vacation and then coming home to a cleaned-up, spruced-up new dwelling! I wish someone would paint over here, while I was off playing! lol I could enlarge and look at these photos forever! And it is always nice to see my old friends as well :) xo
Ms. said…
The industry of your effort, the art of color and placement of things and your endless creativity are admirable. Charming...simply charming. Childsplay is the most difficult to achieve but you have mastered it.
Debbie said…
What a fun entry, would you like to come and paint my daughter's house, we have been doing it off and on for about six months. The dwelling looks great and studios have a habit of tidied when you just can't find anything anymore, don't you find?
deemallon said…
I so enjoy your industry, playful endeavors, and even the narrative voice of indecision. A real boost to stop by and read. Love the terrace with the wire table and chairs! Well, everything, really. Funny thing, too: just read about blue painted walls over at Handstories.
Patty said…
I love this world you're continually making and remaking. It's a
visual story spooling out of your huge imagination! So creative.
jude said…
finally getting around the web. and i do see familiar cloth.
Love your story mind!
Saskia said…
they are all delighted Mo, more so now that rooms have been aired and dusted!
well I don't know about triumphant Dana, I certainly feel relieved things are starting to look back-to-normal and cosy once more
Well if I lived nearer to you Nancy I would most certainly come and lend a hand in sprucing up your place, if you so desired;-)
some days child's play is all there is Michelle
absolutely Debbie: I have tidied up so often I manage to lose stuff; so much going for letting things lie where they fall, hahaha
oh the blues have really done wonders here and in my kitchen cupboard; for a few weeks the painting bug was so severe I felt empty inside and naked without the brush in my right hand and the tin in my left, Dee; things have calmed down once again, or otherwise we'd have blue toilet seats by now!
I would like to take full credit Patty, however not all the stories spring from my imagination: the Dwelling's inhabitants have a large say in everything happening here, so they are really the creative ones.....
ah, I guessed you would Jude, and thank you! there is also some of Dee's silk in there too.....

tungsten

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