my four white walls

My first apartment actually had non-white walls.  I'm not quite sure what I would call their color...pale salmon? mooshed pinto bean? blushing beige?  You tell me.

It also featured charming transom windows above the kitchen and bedroom doors and fancy molding around the doorframes.  It was a cute place.  But it was tiny.

See what I mean?  The only thing that fit in the bedroom was the bed.  The stove was one of those cute little "Holiday" ones that, let's face it, can be cute and novel when you're on holiday, but not so great when you're trying to make dinner every night.

My mother-in-love seemed worried about how we'd fare in such limited square footage, but we thrived there.  It was a perfect love nest for our first few married months, even if our entertaining got cozier than your average gathering due to the skimpy size of the rooms.

Since then we've gained significantly in the square-footage department, but we're now stuck with the standard apartment-white walls.  I say apartment-white because apparently there are designer whites.  Have you ever seen one of those articles in House Beautiful or some such that catalogs the "favorite white" of a slew of designers?  (I can't find the whites, but here's one on grays.)  Favorite white?  Are you kidding me?  For a color-loving gal, living in a lightbox is maddening.  So I did my best to counteract the bore.

First I headed to Dick Blick for the biggest canvas I could afford.  Then I started to paint, and if it's not obvious that my first plan misfired it should be.  If you don't see it, though, I'm not going to point it out.  Ha.

Hanging the painting was a start, but because I wasn't satisfied yet I proceeded to go a wee bit insane.  This project came together more slowly, given that I took the time to scour thrift stores for 8x10 frames and then painstakingly laid out the way I wanted everything on the wall.

So there you have it.  The beginnings of a battle between one girl and the monotony of four white walls (and then some!).  Stay tuned for other ideas I've implemented to stave off insanity--or embrace it, depending on your perspective.  Thanks for reading!