Not long ago I was skim coating hundreds of square feet of new drywall in my son’s basement. I added water to the thick drywall joint compound so it was the consistency of latex paint. Investing in this extra step makes the new drywall satin smooth because the paper face of the drywall ends up with the same texture and porosity of the taped joists and filled screw heads.
I thought about how the walls in his basement could come alive in any number of ways. Many people hang paintings or posters to break up the monotony of a painted wall. That works, but framed artwork can put a serious ding in your budget.
As the day wore on and my shoulder started to ache, I thought about what I did when I was a little younger than my son. My lovely wife and I had purchased a three-story, five-bedroom home that needed lots of tender loving care. We painted the entire house inside and out.
My wife loved wallpaper. I installed a pattern that was from the famous Williamsburg Colonial collection in our entrance hall and the stairs leading to the second floor. Many visitors and friends complimented us on the choice.
The plain walls in the dining room were transformed by installing a simple chair rail molding. The room already had a large crown molding where the walls met the ceiling. I painted the walls below the new chair rail and installed a different wallpaper above the molding. Once again, plain walls became eye candy.
The third floor of this grand house had two bedrooms. I staked a claim to one of them, making it my man cave. The room had a sloped wall created by the roof rafters. Many Cape Cod houses built after World War II have this feature.
Geology was my college major. In addition, I had always loved maps of any type. I remembered a huge 5-foot-tall by 10-feet-long color geologic map of the USA that adorned a wall in one of my classrooms. I ordered the same map by mail from the U.S. Geological Survey. There was no such thing as online ordering back in the 1970s.
With great care and help from my wife, we glued this map to one of the sloped walls in my office. This simple two-hour project brought a smile each time I entered the room. The range of colors in the map, as well as the symbols and legend, added a wow factor for anyone who visited. It was dramatic, to say the least.
We customized our kitchen with the help of my wife’s younger sister. She had an artistic flair and volunteered to hand-paint some yellow flowers on blank white 4x4 tiles we used for the countertop backsplash. She used the same oil-based paint I applied to the interior doors and trim in the house. That paint was durable and could withstand being washed.
All of the things I’ve just described can be done by you in your home. The possibilities are endless. I spent a few hours online and was amazed at how easy it is to make your home something that is unlike anywhere else in the world.
For starters, there are websites that will take your favorite high-resolution photographs and transform them into wallpaper. You can control the size of the scene on the wall. Imagine that amazing sunrise or sunset photo you took on vacation! You can relive it every day in your home on a particular wall.
You can do the same thing with ceramic tile. Companies have tile murals ready to purchase, or you can create your own by uploading a high-resolution photo. You get to select the tile size and the finished size of the mural.
My son-in-law purchased a condominium this past summer. The previous owners had hired a local artist to paint a lighthouse sitting on a rocky Maine shoreline. This painting was done on the wall behind the kitchen sink. The artist signed her work in the lower right corner for that personal touch. The vibrant colors bathe the kitchen in tranquility. You can almost hear the waves crashing against the rocks!
Your takeaway should be just one thing. Think about how much time you spend inside your home. Wouldn’t you be in a better mood if the walls, and even the ceiling, had on them scenes or images of the things that bring you the most happiness?
One easy way to do this is to mimic what’s in my dentist office. The husband-wife team love the outdoors. A large flat-screen television is in the waiting room. They have a series of photos they took on vacations that appear on the screen. Each photo is there for about 10 seconds and then the next one appears. This might be a simple way for you to make one or more of your rooms to be yours and yours alone.
