A life in coats of paint

Last summer, there was a one-week period where I would wipe glittery purple dust from my nose every time I sneezed. This bizarre phenomena may sound like a unicorn malady, or a rave comedown, but it can be easily explained.

I was renovating my childhood bedroom.

For years, after binging on HGTV and YouTube videos of interior designers, I dreamt of updating my bedroom to better reflect my current style and interests. The room had become cluttered with collages of inspirational sayings and random trinkets and posters torn at the edges.

And then there were the walls – the glittery purple walls.

The way of unicorns

The best part of growing up with a mum who’s an artist is she gave me a lot of artistic license when it came to decorating my room. She would be the last person to do anything that could possibly squelch my creativity, so, at the age of nine, when we moved to the US and the time came to choose the wall color, I went the way of unicorns.

As you might imagine, I outgrew the glitter, and after I moved out and then abroad, my room was empty most of the time. It was a sad silent disco with no new tunes to jam out to.

So when I moved back to the US, I decided it was time to take on the project. As a thank-you to my mum for fostering my creativity as a child, I wanted to return the favor by turning it into her own little art studio.

Purple Rain

The first step of the renovation was by far the most tedious. Because the walls were highly textured, I had to sand them all down to create a smooth finish before applying the primer. Thankfully, we had an electric sander handy, which proved to be a beast of a machine.

The carnage!

I think my parents’ vacuum cleaner is still clogged with stubborn clumps of purple dust. Similarly, my lungs are likely purple in nature as well.

However, running my hands along the sanded walls after all of this was so satisfying.

After painting the walls with two coats of primer and the ceiling a brighter white, it was time to bring new color to the walls. My mum picked True Blue, a color that is meant to calm and relax you. Gone were the days of the sad silent disco.

Following two coats of the blue paint, we took a family trip to my favorite place on earth – Ikea – to update the furniture. As a creator with many hobbies, my mum needed lots of table space without making the space feel crowded.

The after

I like to think I succeeded in turning this creative space into a different kind of creative space, however imperfect it may be.

Check out the before and after!

A layered lesson

It may seem strange that I’m talking about this renovation almost a year later. A part of me wanted to share the project’s progress in the moment, but I felt there was a lesson to be learned in waiting.

Each time I visit my parents and return to my room, I like to brush my hands along the walls. They are still slightly textured with small bumps from the previous coats of paint, the expression of a younger version of myself pushing to the surface. Although I was glad to see the purple go, I remember fondly sponge painting the glitter paint on the walls with my mum. Just like passing clouds, some parts of the walls formed shapes, like a faint silhouette of my grandmother’s dog and a map of the US. I was never sure if they were happy accidents or easter eggs planted by my mum, but either way, pictures of them still bring me joy.

I think every stage of life, we simply put on another coat of lived experience. Each coat wraps around us, different folds of it pushing and pulling on us everyday. Beneath the calming seas of blue, the way of the unicorn lives on, the murals of Anna past never far behind.

May you embrace the many coats of paint that color your being.

Anna