One Red Wall

It is amazing one little thing you do for yourself can change your life and your outlook.

Yesterday after work, I painted a wall in my garage a deep Bing cherry red. I have wanted to do this for months but it was a process. I had to endure parking the car on the street, moving everything in the garage around, purging, cleaning, dusting, then prepping the wall with spackle, sanding, more spackle, a coat of dry wall primer, and then finally the red paint! Of course since this SBM has all the time in the world to devote to these steps so all of this occurred over weeks and weeks, not days. Parking on the street—a pain—so it served as incentive to get this done.

Why red? I love red. And I love red shiny New York-penthouse-looking walls (I must have seen in a movie at one point). This wall, in my garage is a way to turn a section of it into a “woman cave,” a backdrop for the table and art supplies in front of it. Previously in this spot I had hastily constructed a make shift art studio, but it was just tables that ended up collecting junk, piles of papers, and a bed for the cat. It wasn’t inviting, it was daunting. I had to move things around just to get a work space, push the cat off the chair, and look at the chaos around me. I hated the clutter and the chaos and would always feel the pressure to clean and get rid of stuff when what I really wanted to be doing is, well, art.

Our house has almost no storage space, so everything ends up on the garage—a plastic bin of J’s old clothes I can’t part with, a box of my dad’s collection of art plaques he created at one point as a hobby, etc. Everyone has this stuff you can’t get rid of but takes up space …that could be more inspiring.

Ahhh but I had no idea how incredible I would feel after the wall was complete, touch ups done, and I started moving into my red cave.

I can’t emphasize enough how one red wall has completely changed my outlook. I have a space now, and it’s mine. I am giving a section to J. for her creations, but I know no one will love the red wall, my red cave as much as moi!

—SBM