Greasing the Creative Wheels

A continued DIY Lesson in the Creative Process

Jun 09, 2024

I love this quote. Tasks that seem tedious and annoying can often be the key to unlocking a block we feel in our lives and in our creativity. Updating my bedroom felt like such a massive block. It has been over a year from when we first started hand scraping the textured upstairs of our Cape Cod house. It took that long because of the size of the project and also from not having enough free time or energy to work on it every week for stretches of time. It was much more effort than hanging up some curtains.

So why did we even bother? The previous owners had decided to glob textured paint over the whole room, creating such a jagged surface that we couldn’t hang up decorations and we would get cut if we bumped our heads or arms on the angled ceiling. When I started working from home in a corner of the room, I couldn’t handle such an irritating and uninspiring space any more.

Original bedroom photo from the Zillow listing before we bought the house.

Close ups of the horribly pointy and uneven areas.

Our bar was pretty low: walls smooth enough to paint and decorate to make the space feel more like home, more like us. It was an exhausting process, so I’m glad we took our time even though it felt frustrating. We spent months in a cycle of scraping the walls until our arms hurt, taking time off to rest/worry we made a terrible decision/feel overwhelmed we would never finish, and then scrape some more.

In March, we FINALLY had all of the textured paint scraped off! We had ripped some areas of the drywall though, but we were out of steam by that point to fix it ourselves. So, after a long delay trying to get quotes to compare, we hired these wonderful drywall guys in April to help us out in the final stretch. It felt so surreal to finally have the room look so smooth:

The room was still far from finished though. Deciding on the paint color was a challenge. I loved how bright the fresh walls looked, but I also agreed with Mike that we want a cozy bedroom. After a lot of internal debate on my part, we decided to go with a deep navy, color drenching the whole room, since the angled ceiling would look odd left white. I am so glad I listened to my gut (and Mike) instead of my anxious thoughts. I LOVE how beautiful and cozy the room feels now just from the paint color. I know the colorful artwork, wallpaper, and other decor we plan to add soon will pop against the dark blue walls perfectly.

Color drenched the room in deep navy. Our cat, Penny, approves.

It felt eerie, but the moment we finished cleaning up from painting and moved back upstairs, I suddenly had a book idea pop into my head, a sign that this project did in fact “grease the creative wheels” like Julia promised. I’m really excited to start writing this story and see where it goes. I used to love writing stories when I was a kid, so clearly my inner artist child is awakened in this new space and ready to play.

Creative Playtime

Now that I’m not busy scraping or painting, I have been crafting again. I hand sewed this adorable felt cactus from this free pattern to send to a dear friend. (Notice that I added a little butt crack as a silly little detail. 😂)

I also love sculpting with Model Magic and had so much fun making a little boot air plant holder to also surprise my friend’s daughter who loves the movie WALL-E.

Sculpted & painted a little WALL-E boot air plant holder

It is also creative play to finally be at the fun part of the bedroom update: decluttering and decorating! Clearing out excess and actually having functional closets up there feels so good. I’ve been gathering artwork and photos to hang up soon. We added new lamps for better lighting and are now treasure hunting on Facebook Marketplace for a good nightstand set to thrift. In a few weeks, the paint will be cured completely and we can install the peel and stick wallpaper we selected as an accent.

Creative Cluster

Also in a few weeks, I will also be starting a virtual Creative Cluster group to journey through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way together. It’s hosted by my church but is open to anyone who wants to participate. I worked through this incredible course book on my own a few years ago. It really did help me reconnect to my inner artist again and add more creative play back into my life (and clearly inspired this blog). I have been wanting to work through it again for a refresh. It will be wonderful to do that with a group this time for more accountability and others’ perspectives. To learn more about what the workbook is about and why it helps, read this article here.

If you’d like to join, please sign up here by June 21st to receive the Google Meets link and additional information. Just write "Creative Cluster" in the note section so we know to add you to the list. Please let me know if you have any questions!