If you read this blog regularly you know I’ve been helping Chris decorate his apartment in Athens, Ga. I’ll pause to pat myself (and him! He’s the willing participant!) on the back by showing you a before picture (which I just came across; you haven’t seen this before):
- Before he let me do my thing. I will say, he is one of the cleanest and most organized men I have ever met.
Here’s what it looks like now (different apartment, different look):
- Apartment now. Still clean and organized. Yay!
Not really the point of this post though. I’m writing now because his birthday is this month, and he came to Charlotte last weekend for a birthday bonanza. I knew whatever I got him had to be extra special – he’s one of my best friends, and of course I wanted to further this amazing transformation of his apartment … And what does he need more than anything else? Something for the walls!
I am a graphic artist, but I am not a painter. I would show you the first attempt Chris and I made to create art for his walls, but I’m too embarrassed. Let’s just say it’s not there yet. But I had seen a project done on Top Design and thought: I can totally do that. Of course, how many times is it easier said than done? But I had it in my head that it’d be perfect for Chris, so I knew there was only one way to find out. So, here’s how a non-painter made a painting (pay attention, if I can do it, you can too):
1. Steal an idea Find an inspiration piece.
2. Buy supplies
- $15 at Binders (on sale for half off)
- From Lowes. Semi-gloss. $11 a quart. Asked the guy for “the cheapest paint you got.”
- Stick for mixing paint or smacking any naysayers. Mean look mandatory.
- Mean look still mandatory.
4. Obtain a captive audience. Preferably, one that won’t tell you how you’re doing it wrong.
- I should mention I was told to do this outside so I would not get paint everywhere.
5. Lean canvas vertically against something (in my case, a split-rain fence.) Open your first paint can and – dump it out. Cross your fingers as you watch it dribble down that it does something cool. And viola!
- I thought to cover the grass but not the fence. Learn from my mistake!
6. Wait a really long time. I mean, a really long time. In my case, an entire day. If you’re impatient like me, this will be really hard. Do it anyway.
- Fence is only one color now, not two.
8. Repeat step 6.
- I wanted the orange to stand out. Chris has more green than orange right now, so he needed something to bring out the orange in his color scheme.
10. Repeat step 6.
- It actually worked!
12. Give it to Chris, watch his face as he realizes a) hey this matches my apartment perfectly, and b) you did this all by yourself!
- Bitch at him for bad lighting, but you take what you can get.
Comments
12 responses to “How to really impress your friend on his birthday”
I saw that episode and thought that was pretty cool! Thanks for the play by play. I might even *ahem* find inspiration *cough*
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Heck yeah, great post! Forgot about the pics of my old place. Thanks a ton for helping with all this and for the really really really really really… awesome painting!
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Turned out great and yeah…I think we need a better lit picture 🙂
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I already knew the steps, and I still laughed out loud reading this. As always, a good ride.
Now to go clean the fence…and the garage…
Great Job! I love getting inspiration from reality TV shows. 🙂
Wow! Very impressive work. I may try the dripping paint thing. You know there’s an artist who made some impressive paintings based on this technique. His name was Morris Louis. Here’s an example of his work:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mome/ho_67.232.htm
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Messy, fun, and awesome! A fantastic combination.
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That’s so freakin cool!!! Of course my version would probably end up with the entire can of paint all over the canvas so more “blob” than “stripe”.
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I’ll take a better pic tonight. Sheesh.
Sorry it’s a bit late. And blurry.
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http://inathought.com/_theplayground/photo.jpg
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First off – LOVE the colors! What a great idea! Hmmmm… yeah, the hardest part for me would be the waiting, but oh, how it is worth it!
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