There’s a weird thing that happens once a year when I’m about to host a birthday party at our house. It’s typically only in September when we’re prepping for my son’s birthday party. I look around my house, and things that I have lived with for a year (often more) become totally unacceptable. And I have to do something. Right. Now. Scuffed up walls, temporary paper blinds, an empty spot where some furniture should live, lamps? Why do we have no lamps? I could go on. This year, it’s the Naked Wall.
Here she is. In all her naked glory. I’m not even gonna tidy up because I’m keepin’ it real, and honestly, the playroom looks pretty good right now. She’s a tricky wall. She’s off center from the furniture in our playroom/keeping room. She’s adjacent to our kitchen and both a plastic kitchen and a leather sofa with botanical prints hanging above. She’s been au naturale for over two years since we moved in. We painted her. We looked at her. We didn’t know what to do. She doesn’t have a thing to wear. Play clothes? Fancy threads? I wanted something playful but not juvenile. Something that went with the damn plaid chair. You know. The one I thought was so “fun” back in 2000 when I was just out of grad school and needed furniture for my new big girl apartment. The chair that has dictated the color scheme of the last three houses we’ve had. The one that will some day serve as fuel for a party-related bonfire. Yeah. That one.
A while back, I bought one of those value packs of seven canvases from Michael’s thinking I could figure something out. Then, I saw a cool family rules print at Home Goods. It didn’t match though, and it was totally off scale-wise. It would have been like hanging a spoon on that big naked wall. Nevertheless, it served as some inspiration for a way to tie the pieces together with the wording. I found some cool backgrounds online and altered the colors in PhotoShop to match “the chair.” I printed and tiled them. You can see the seams a little, but it’s the playroom so we’ll deal.
After some trial and error with puckering while adhering them to the canvas (I finally used rubber cement around the edges of both surfaces, let dry and adhered), I’m pleased with the way they turned out. I like that my early reader can read them himself and understand their message. He read them all to me the other day and smiled–especially over the one about the Wii.
I kind of like that we have his party at the house most years. It’s the only thing that lights a fire in me to turn my attention to the house and things that really need to be done. What about you? Do you have naked walls or other party triggers?
I’m sitting here writing this instead of working on the party that’s in less than a month, but surely I’ll get them hung before then. Did I mention I HATE to hang things? H.A.T.E. I’ll be sure to share a finished look–seven prints, 27 holes and one can of spackle later.
