Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Writing on the Wall

I have this wall. I hate blank walls. I had a plan for all other walls in this room except for this one. Every time I go in the study, the wall is challenging me: "Hey man, think you got a plan, huh? Well you don't! I'm big and empty and I like it that way. You lose. Sucka."

The wall did not speak to husband in the same way as it spoke to me. He didn't feel taunted and teased by the blank study wall. But I did. And I knew I needed to conquer it. So. I found a plan. It started with listening to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 4-5-1 [which, by the way, don't. It's read by Ray Bradbury and he's either 100 years old, extremely fat, extremely drunk or all of the above. Slurring and audible breath refills don't work for audio books].

Anyway. There is a quote in the beginning that I loved. I thought:
Hm. I love that line.
I should do something with that.
How about I type it up in a cool font, frame it, and stick in on a wall.
Which wall?
How about the study wall? Ya know, books in the study, book quotes on the wall. It could work right?
It's too big for just one little quote.
How about a bunch of quotes in a photo collage?
That would take a lot of frames. That's expensive and I've already planned a photo frame collage for another wall. Don't want to go picture collage crazy...
What else could I do with this quote?

I could write it on the wall

By this point, I've missed about half of the slurring, breath-gasping first chapter of the book but am totally jazzed about my new idea and am already thinking of other books/authors/quotes that I want to use to fill up my wall and what kind of pen/art supplies I should use.

Problem step: convince husband.

His initial response was "I don't know how I feel about encouraging people to write on our walls." Because I had included my almost favorite part of my plan: have people who come to my house contribute and write their own personal favorites on the wall. I could see he needed more convincing.

I don't know about you but when I come up with an idea for something "creative", I'm not entirely sold on my own ability to come up with something cool. So I go to Google and search for validation that someone else on some cool decor blog has done something like it and therefore, I'm not completely off my rocker for wanting to do said creative project. Although, if I don't find a similar project, I just chalk it up to having a completely original cool idea. Either way, Google validates all creative endeavors.

Validation #1
Months ago on a wallpaper search, I found this wallpaper at Anthro. I love it. But don't love that it's $700 per roll. That's just insane. But I mentioned this to husband. See! Someone else did this in wallpaper form and is charging obscenely for it!

Validation #2
Extreme doodling. Granted this is actual artwork and not written word but I write much better than I draw. Plus the idea of drawing anything on the wall caters to that inner-rebellious child. And we're all supposed to listen to our inner-child right?

Validation #3
If you saw this movie, you know how totally rad this was. Perk: my wall won't have the inconvenience of chalk dust all over the place.


Validation #4
You. I know you can't see the vision I have in my head of this project but you get the general idea. Fill an entire wall with handwritten quotes from books. The font will not be too big or too small. Too tiny will look messy and too big will look unintentional. I'll start in the middle and balloon out. Use the same color throughout. What do we think?

7 comments:

  1. I LOVE it! Great idea. I know what you mean about convincing the husband. Also, I HATE chalkboards, they are right along the lines of flat paint and I think you remember how I feel about that. ;)

    You will have to tell me what you decide to use. I have seen a similar idea using vinyl lettering. I think I would opt for that just because I am afraid of my own abilities to write straight. You really will have to share your technique.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think it is awesome. Jericho will soon realize how creative you are and how cool your house looks. When people start giving you compliments, he'll start accepting what you want to do and keep out of it. That's what dad does. He would have painted the entire inside of the house off white, but now he sees how nice it looks with color, he liked it. So, choosing colors and decor is entirely my thing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think this is a brilliant idea...when I picture this in my head I see one quote in the middle of the wall that stands out from all other quotes around it, and it looks awesome!

    You could ask Jericho for a trial run and see how it turns out after a couple of months. Also, remind him that you can always paint over it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had a friend that put a quote from President Hinckley on there wall in a study. They used letter stencils and black paint. I looked good. If you do it, take a picture.

    ReplyDelete
  5. remember the wall in my bedroom that was all cork? you could do that. I loved that wall.

    ReplyDelete
  6. whoops, signed in as Elisa. --Scott

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think this is a great idea! Not totally related, but have you seen the RSA Animate lectures? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U They are amazing!!!

    ReplyDelete

About This Blog

Come Again Soon!