Pimp and personalise your space
Running down the middle of my house is a wall that is the absolute opposite of a feature. It’s bland, neutral and begging for adornment. It’s large enough for an over-sized artwork, but the hall itself is too narrow to allow good viewing of anything big.
This wall is one you simply pass, not one you get a good view of from anywhere, yet its barrenness is like a barnacle on my behind, annoying and uncomfortable.
The great expanse of creamy nothingness is a magnet for grubby fingermarks which, at their worst, come to look like some modern interpretation of a cave painting before I get around to blitzing them with hot soapy water.
I’d mulled over statement wallpaper, a beautiful mirror and a gallery wall, but dismissed each for a legitimate reasons (little fingers pick paper joins, I have enough mirrors, and two gallery walls is one too many).
I’d more or less given up.
But inspiration came along, as it so often does these days, on Instagram.
Deep down some colour-loving wormhole, I found the mural-filled home of Racheal Jackson
(@banyanbridges), which lit me up like a kid at Christmas.
Now my head is filled with plans for a hipheight mural of hand-painted lines using a carefully-curated palette of colours that make me happy.
It’s not a reality yet and it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea when it is, but I have found joy in the planning, and can’t wait to crack on. I’m sure most of you know how it feels to be inspired.
This issue offers great ideas on how to pimp your space, introduces you to Christchurch textile artist Felicity Georgeson who has contemporised cross stitch, a guide to built-in furniture, and more. Enjoy.