C l a r i M i c h e l e

Once upon a time, I asked Andrew to help me hang a canvas print on the wall. It only required one bracket to mount the canvas frame. How hard could it be? Well, the wall was solid brick, and after trying to drill into the crumbling plaster without much success, he told me it couldn’t be done. Sorry, it wasn’t going to happen.

FEAST YOUR EYES ON THIS PEOPLE!!!

HA! I hung it on the wall anyway! I was having a bad day already. A few of the projects I’d started on hadn’t worked out. I was not in the mood for ANOTHER thing to go completely wrong. So I waited until he’d left the room, then loaded up the drill with a masonry bit, and declared war on that obstinate wall that was destroying my hopes and dreams!

It wasn’t pretty. The plaster was so crumbly that the screw anchor wouldn’t hold. It’s a good thing Andrew wasn’t there to supervise. In the end, I super glued the anchor into the hole and stuck some multi-purpose polyfilla in the cracks. I let the anchor set overnight before hanging the canvas. I’m not suggesting anyone should use this method, but that sucker isn’t going anywhere so mission accomplished.

Andrew isn’t a fan of drilling deep holes into walls since we’re renting, so he didn’t exactly congratulate me on my victory. But he likes the canvas in here, and it only took one hole to hang it, so we all lived happily ever after. The end!

Seriously though, what a difference a rug and artwork make! This room is homey now, and I have ZERO regrets! (Don’t worry, we’ll make sure the hole is patched and painted before we move.) It is so satisfying to turn a generic space into a personalized home. Just as a reminder, this is what it looked like before.

Ah, the sweet smell of progress. The books on the shelf still need a little help, but one thing I’m trying to remember in this room is that it’s ok for things to be less than picture perfect if it means I will appreciate them more. I like books, and even if the color on their spines clash, and the decrepit state of some of them makes that area look messy, I’m trying to just embrace it. Home is a place to express yourself, reflect hobbies, interests, and tastes.