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Progress–I’m halfway around on the block wall. Half of the large open area is now painted. I’m laying in the ceiling materials this week. Please excuse the non-permanent furnishings in the room. This will eventually be a cute sitting area. I’ll be moving that chest of drawers to another location–and painting it. And the couch, it will have to go. I’m putting cafe curtains on the windows–the windows look out onto a not-so-cute view where we stack hay, so I put up cafe curtains that let the light in but keep the hay view out. As you can see, there is still much trim to be added. There is some trim down there, but it’s not complete.
I’m taking a break from block wall painting by painting the bathroom/utility room, which is all drywalled.
From this view, you can see into the unpainted side of the big open area, which still holds the younger batch of meat chicks. (The older batch has already moved to the chicken house.)
I was picking up a new shower curtain, and the cafe curtains, at Wal-Mart and came upon this cute rooster clock.
(That plastic in the center holds the hands. I haven’t put the clock together yet.) I wasn’t truly shopping for decor at this point, but this rooster clock was $8.00 and it just insisted on jumping into my cart. Since it wasn’t a budget-buster, I let it come home with me.
And! Here’s my latest greatest idea. I’ve been pondering the issue of decor and the block wall. You can’t just pound any old nail in there to hang stuff up. Decorating and a block wall is a STUMBLING BLOCK. I know, there are ways to hang stuff up, but…..
I have a vision!!
What I’d really love to do is have an artist come in and paint some scenes of my farm and my animals. Wouldn’t that be awesome?! I’m enamored with this idea. NOT a full-scale mural, just some creatively arranged/scattered art. Not bold primary colors. I don’t want this to look like a children’s playroom. More muted colors, in a primitive folk art style.
I wonder if there are any artists out there (in reasonable driving distance of West Virginia) who would trade a free farm stay with farm-fresh food and all the free one-on-one workshops (cheesemaking, breadbaking, soapmaking, candlemaking, preserving) they can stand…..for art? I could chronicle the whole process on my blog and it would be so much fun!
And rid me of my STUMBLING BLOCK.
If you’re an artist and you’re interested, email me at CITRbusiness@yahoo.com!
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on June 28, 2011
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Ah, thank you Google … something like these: http://www.wallsneedlove.com/ And their website does say they’d stick to any surface.
6:21
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Granny Trace
http://www.grannytracescrapsandsquares.com
6:28
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I think I’d rather have the art on some large wooden panels instead of directly on the block walls. I’m always sad when walls need repainted and any art or murals on them are unable to be saved.
6:53
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Command hooks are great for putting things up on blocks. It’s what they have to use at colleges, too. They’re not exactly cheap if you’re planning on moving things around all the time, but they work great!
7:26
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You certainly have the modeling agency available.
7:27
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Why not paint a life size door or window or both on an entire wall, with your own farm animals peeing in. The door, curtains and windowsill with a plant on it can all be painted to look real. Google tromp L’oeil. I have painted lifesize windows on dark walls a few times. I once painted an entire underwater bathroom with octopus sitting on light switch, shark above mirror, turtles swimming, jelly fish, a shipwreck and mermaids.
It can be an amazing room and you have to show us the WIP !!
9:01
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Yeah, BG, I had the same thought you did about having to paint over art later, but I think the problem is that masonry is really hard to put a neat tidy hole in to hang little things. It can wreck drill bits. Perhaps large painted panels of old barn lumber that can be placed against the walls and used as room dividers.
It’s so much fun second guessing Suzanne on decorating HER house!
9:17
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Couple thoughts though…
I just helped my mom re-decorate her apt by rearranging her own things and finally hanging everything she’d not hung in the 3 years she’s lived there. She knew we’d get to this one day and with her 4 exterior walls of concrete block she’d stockpiled various types of picture hangers, some of those Command things that stick (those work great for light weight stuff like your clock!), and a plastic hanger with 4 pins like tiny nails that gets hammered in the wall.
The next time I’m at her apt I’ll photograph what we were able to hang on concrete blocks using those simple plastic pin hangers and post in the forums for anyone else who may have the same issue. I was amazed at how strong they were and what weight they could manage. We even hung a wooden shelf unit for collectibles. My mom had ALOT of stuff she wanted hung so we got real good with working with concrete block! I never would have thought it possible til we used those little plastic hangers; oh, found a pic though the ones we used had 4 pins, these have 3: http://www.lowes.com/pd_264373-54255-50095_0__?productId=3029187&Ntt=picture+hangers&pl=1¤tURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dpicture%2Bhangers%26page%3D3&facetInfo=
The other thought is you could do what the Victorian era decorators did…use picture molding. My first house had fragile plaster walls and picture molding and it worked great using fat ribbon or smaller decorative chain with which to hang things. Here’s a webpage with a pic to give you an idea: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/organizing/ny-good-questions-best-way-to-hang-art-from-rail-molding-038317
just throwing out some ideas…
9:21
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LOLOL!!!!!!! Soo appropriate & I can just see the painting now though I’m sure you meant “peeking” in….omg, still laughing!!!!!
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9:52
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Suzanne~ just looking at your clock, I had an idea, too. What about painting the (excuse my spelling) fleur d’lis in a cream color all over your walls. Then do your farm/ animal paintings on boards like was suggested. This way, the person doing your more detailed animal paintings wouldn’t have to live close and maybe could bring them to the retreat or to a farm visit. The fleur d’lis could be done by you pretty easily. That way your animal/ farm scenes could be done with slightly more color, maybe adding in your accent colors or put in painted frames or hung with a pretty colored ribbon. Just ideas.
9:55
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A panel or two of lattes (from the hardware store)will give you hanging space and the look of a trellis. You can cut them in half long ways for a nice size 2×8 section.
10:15
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Here’s a combined idea: don’t paint directly on the wall but have the door image painted on heavy canvas [think painters' tarp]. Easy to roll up and ship, distance won’t matter [pretty sure some exchange is workable! maybe even a free seat @ next year's retreat]. Once at your house, reverse mount [stretch & staple] to the back of door molding to create the ‘door’ and screw/hang on the concrete blocks. While waiting for the canvas, mark off the door placement and use those fleur-de-lis forms and matching scrolls to accent around door and dotted around the room … might even work in a repeat pattern that uses the blocks.
Wait, if enough folks are interested despite distance, you could have a GALLERY of “windows” of peeking creatures, just settle on a standard size ahead of time to mark locations … tsk, look what happens when you throw an idea into the cosmos …..
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I was just wondering if stick figure painting would be an option? No? Well, I had to ask :-)
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~Amy in WI
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Can’t wait to see when it is finish.
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Anyway , I am a W.V. expat living inTexas (for the last 35 years) . I have family near Charleston . If you don’t get any better (professional) offers let me know . I had hopes at one point in my life of being an artist ……..I kind of let it go (hmmm, like my waistline ) : )
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dede