Oh ladies, are you reading Jen Hatmaker's For the Love yet? My-oh-my does that girl know what it looks like to juggle expectations and sarcastically examine impossible standards in today's world.
Listen to her observations on Balance. As in, "Dear Woman of Today, how DO you balance work and family and community?"
"Balance. It's like a unicorn;
we've heard about it, everyone talks about it
and makes airbrushed T-shirts celebrating it
(I would add that everyone paints a wooden sign about it),
it seems super rad, but we haven't actually seen one.
I'm beginning to think it isn't a thing."
For the Love, Jen Hatmaker
Have you, for the love of Moses, ever considered that Balance may just not be a thing?
I tell ya, pondering that thought for the last 12 hours has me feeling downright giddy. I think Ms. Hatmaker may be on to something.
In celebration of this 'Balance Illusion' we women so readily accept and strive weekly to pursue, I'm practicing the art of indulgence today. That little spark inside that brings me joy, as opposed to that dutiful side that should be charting out a January budget? Yeah, I'm doing that spark a lot today. Seriously. A really out-of-balance lot.
But so far, the Should Do police haven't rang my door bell, the kids aren't complaining, and even Fireman is home today, leaving me to my own devices. It's downright sinful, I tell you.
Shall I tell you about my foyer now?
For my birthday this month, Fireman installed shiplap for me in the inset wall feature just inside our front door. Here's what it looked like pre-shiplap (and minus one bayberry wreath).
And here is it now, with beautiful shiplap, dropcloth paint panels, and a painted mirror.
We used 1/4" plywood, which Fireman cut himself and then arranged a random grid pattern on the floor in the garage. He then numbered all the boards, so when he brought them up to the foyer he would remember where each went. We were going for staggered seams here.
We used a pneumatic nail gun to nail the boards in place, but first squeezed an adhesive called Liquid Nails to the back of each board. These babies aren't going anywhere.
We used a nickel to space the distance between each board so we had a gap. Fireman was worried the wall's paint color would show through, but thankfully it didn't once the boards were painted.
I used Fast N Final Spackle to fill all the holes.
Once dry, I sanded everything down smoothly with a sanding block in preparation for primer.
I primed one coat, then painted two coats of SW Creamy, the same color I used on my kitchen cabinets. The wall color is SW Silver Mist.
To set off this awkward, angled wall (from our front door, our entry breaks off into two hallways), I had the idea to hang narrow panels on either side. To keep the idea inexpensive during the holiday season, I purchased a $10 6'x9' paint dropcloth panel from Lowe's and cut it in two lengthwise, which left two 9' panels, 3' wide each.
I hemmed the sides (the tops and bottoms were already hemmed when purchased), clipped some curtain rings to the top, and hung the panels from my old cabinet knobs.
Which is where you, as the reader, say, "What??"
But it's SO true! Talk about inexpensive curtain hardware! This is how I did it:
I purchased these Hanger Bolts (on the right) from Lowe's and screwed them into the old cabinet knobs. I'm so thankful I saved them!
Before screwing the knobs into the wall, I spray painted them with Oil-Rubbed Bronze spray paint.
Next, I used a level to sketch a pencil line across the wall where I needed the knobs to be, and one-by-one screwed them into the wall like this.
Obviously these panels are not functional, only aesthetic. A friend of mine did something similar using bronze toilet paper holders and they looked amazing.
If Christmas were not behind us, I'd be tempted to drape a couple branches of evergreen over the top of the mirror, but for now I'm enjoying the simplicity of it as is.
Although now that I think of it, is Simplicity as unrealistic and elusive as Balance? Hmmmm.
Labels: drapery, Foyer, Painting, shiplap
