Hand Painted Wall Mural.

Mike has a phrase he exercises on occasion that has always, it, it just, I,    ....it raises my hackles and makes me wince, grind my teeth; I am not a fan of it at all:

"It's better to ask forgiveness than permission."

Having read the info in that link there though, I completely see where the original premise comes from, that "no" is an unacceptable or rather, incorrect, answer at times.  And sure, I am terrible at taking no for an answer especially when I know that the no giver is heh, patently wrong.

That no can come from a fear-of-change place or a that’ll-be-a-pain-in-my-a** place or I-don’t-want-to-see-you-succeed place or, well, you may protract further.

That yes is the far more correct answer.  So plow ahead and do it anyway.  I get that.  For sure.

Why does it make me blanch then?  Because it's usually applied to situations that are, well ya know, it’s applied incorrectly shall we say.  Then asking for forgiveness is a rebuff, it does not rectify the situation or make it any better, it lacks regard for the other party.  That I'm still gonna be ticked. Only now more so.

In life, there are pleeeennnnty of times when asking permission is far more advisable.

Ok, but enough with life lessons here.  I painted a freakin' wall mural.  What does the life lesson gobbly-gook have to do with this?

I was asking for forgiveness rather than permission.

Because.

Because.  I already asked for permission and Mike said no.

I very much wanted to paint this mural on the wall behind the television, an image I espied on Instagram, but he didn't like the design or didn't want to look at it behind the television, or something, I’m not sure.  Just no, no explanation.

Actually, I ended up being torn between two with the right hand one being the original desire.

But I could not get it out of my head.  How cool it would be.  How visually interesting.  I had to do it. Had to.

In taking this quiz for sh*ts and giggles, heh, it decides my style is eclectic, fair enough, as much as I desperately wish it to be minimal.  Though you'd never know that by looking around our house, ahem.  So fine, I used the quiz as factual validation.

So I painted it on the wall between the living room and the kitchen.  One piece of a multi-project puzzle with oodles of plans to further that area so it wasn’t just going to be the mural.

And so I began.  Drew on the wall with erasable charcoal sticks.*  That's the uh, light through our front door on the wall.

It was my birthday, hey, what can I say.  The Week of Becky, and baby gets what she wants during that week.  Hahahaaaa

One day Mike comes home from work and “.....what......what is going on here?”

Ok, so this was a little after he asked.

“Babe, it’s gonna make sense, I’ve got...just wait and s…..”

“Uhhhh,” he interrupts, stinky side eye, shrugs, and with a warble, “ohhh-kayy.”

Moving along.  I know, Finn's toy basket, heh.

Time passes. I share photos of it in progress to my mom and our nifty pal Gia; they both respond politely, diplomatically, confusedly, “o-- .....oh.”

Think I was about here when I showed them.

I press forward.  It’s gonna make sense.  Really.

Hot painting tip:

You too can paint a wall mural, even if you incorrectly assume you have zero artistic skill.  Truly.

Print the image you want to use and draw a grid over it, say quarter or half inch squares, inch, whatever.

You can also draw the grid on acetate and tape it over the image too, that way you can look at it with and without guide lines.

On the wall using a chalk line* filled with erasable powdered charcoal,* snap a corresponding grid say, six inches or a foot.  For instance, quarter inch equals six inches, half inch or one inch 'a foot.  Number down and across on both.

Now, focus solely on one square and draw what’s in that box on the wall.  Ignore the whole picture, focus on the one square.  You can even further divide up a box if it helps.

Or, purchase, borrow, rent an overhead projector and print the image on acetate* or whatever, project and trace.

Pick up a few brushes, some acrylic paint, use leftover paint you have, check the mis-mix section or buy those little sample colors at the paint counter.

Voila.  You’re an artist.

Back to the story at hand.

The mural nearly complete, Mike arrives home another evening.  “Ya know, I was talking to so and so at work and I’m tellin’ him, I dunno what my wife is doing, it’s crazy.”

Ok, so he hates it.

Here's where I stopped.  The first time.  Called it done, time to let it sink in.

Time passes, I tweak it a bit here and there.  I stare at it nightly from my vantage point on the couch.  Something’s not, ehhh, there.

Yeah it’s busy.  Yeah it doesn’t jibe with anything else in the house.  Yeah there’s no precedent.  Yeah it’s outta left field.  But so am I.  And that's why it made sense.  Or was going to when everything else was in.

Time passes.  Mike says it’s growing on him here and there as he waves dismissively at it.

Still not working quite yet for me despite having the entire wall designed and built and complete and magazine-worthy in my head, photographers here shooting it for their layout, I tweak it a tiny bit more.

Ok, done done.  Done.  It's either this or....

Then.  Then one day Mike comes home and he shoots the wall a look with such disdain smeared across his face, I was aghast.  I think I did gasp.  In my head.

He claims he was thinking of something else, mid-thought process on a topic wholly unrelated.

Mmm hm.

Kinda sorta my vantage point of the wall mural nightly.   Why yes I did get a new rug for over here too, thanks!  It was at the Habitat ReStore, wool!, 6x9ish, brand new, stylish, and only forty bucks!  Bargain.

That’s ok, I calculated, tomorrow I paint over it.  And so I did.

Took my fancy sander to it, ground down the bumps then painted diagonal stripes.  Took a speed square,* marked a coupla' lines, taped.*  A reminiscence to the original stripes but better, using colors already existing around the house.  And more complementary to the foyer area too.

Welp, here we go.  Bye bye wall mural.  I kinda miss you a little bit now.  You photographed so nicely.

Ultimately, I got the original out of my system and moved on.  Sometimes that’s exactly what needs to happen.  Sometimes you gotta try it, see it.  Be brave.

Mike came home that night, I was halfway done, desperately wanted to have it finished before he arrived but it slipped my mind to start early and my workload for the day was incompatible.

“...what…what’s going on here?”

“I…”

“Huh.  Ok.  I like this.”

Relieved, I wrapped it up the next day.

“Oh.  Yeah.  Yeah babe, I like this.  Yeah.  This is cool”

Aaaand the stripes are finished.  Yeah, a little 70's vibe there, eh?  I edited Finn's toys out a bit after all this too.  When he wasn't looking, of course.

Colors used, starting bottom left and moving up right:

• Mike's office
• Lemon Curd
• our bedroom
• the basement
• the kitchen wall
• the living room
• the other living room wall color
• white

(And by the way?  A great way to test samples is with Samplize* as they're peel and stick, super easy to use, move 'em around, made with real paint, delivered overnight, and you're not jacking up your wall with lots of patchy spots.)

Forgiveness granted.

See what this area looks like now by clicking here!


*The charcoal sticks, chalk snap line, powdered charcoal, acetate, speed squares, and painters tape are Amazon affiliate links. The Samplize link is a well, Samplize affiliate link.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.