A Cautionary Tale.

Before I begin my little tale I would like to thank everyone who came to my show opening last week.  There were so many people there and the love in the room was overwhelming.  I haven't done a blog post about it yet because, frankly, I am still recovering from the post opening exhaustion, but I promise it is coming soon!

So, my cautionary tale.......

About 20 years ago I had a friend who lived in a 70's unit in a boring suburb.  It wasn't her first choice of where to live, but she had some money and needed to buy a place to live.  At the time property prices were on a ridiculous high and this was all she could afford.  The unit was cosy enough, but the bathroom was dull, to say the least.  It was very beige and brown, but not in a good Japanese minimalist kind of way, more like a seventies lack of imagination and good taste way.  On the walls was a wallpaper that had a repeating fern pattern (each fern leaf was about 5 cm long) in light tan and light olive green.  The wallpaper gave the room an overall look of, well....tan-ness.  The pattern was a simple outline pattern, there was no colour filling the fern leaves.  While washing my hands in the bathroom I had a great idea!  I went out to my friend and said:  "you know what you should do?  You should colour in your bathroom wallpaper!".  She answered that I had made that suggestion when I had been there some months before (I had clearly forgotten).  Convinced that having the same great idea twice confirmed the brilliance of the idea, I said:  "it would be great!  We could have a party where everyone goes into the bathroom and colours the walls!".

Sadly, my friend declined.  My brilliant idea died and the bathroom remained despairingly tan.  I have few regrets in my life, but not colouring in that wallpaper, and hence improving the look of the bathroom immensely (and no doubt increasing the resale value of the unit) is one of them.

So, my advice to you.  If you think your friend's wallpaper needs colouring, DO NOT ASK PERMISSION FIRST.  Sneak in one day with some pencils or a pack of texta colours and get to it!  My theory is that once you start colouring your friend will realise the brilliance of your actions and get into it with you.  That, or your friend will have a cow and disown you forever more.  It's worth the risk though (in the name of colour), don't you think? Pin It