The Power of Patience (and Lots of Paint)

A DIY Lesson in the Creative Process

Mar 31, 2024

Well, March flew by! This time of year gets very hectic at work and zaps most of my energy. Our bedroom update plans were also unexpectedly derailed this month from it taking weeks to hear back from contractors for drywall repairs we need done by the pros. I had really hoped to be finished by now, or at least have an end date in the calendar! *dramatic sigh*

If you can’t tell, I feel stuck and frustrated. But I know that our home projects always take way longer than planned and they are worth it. The updates we have made feel like such a natural part of our home now that it’s so easy to forget how much we have changed slowly over the years.

Pics of the living room and kitchen when we first bought it in 2017, before we made any changes.

A Lesson in Patience: Our Cheery Kitchen

We decided to focus only on one big home project per year to budget our time, energy, and money. First, I was eager to brighten up the dark and uninviting kitchen and make it feel more like a reflection of Mike and me. After researching inspiration online, we spent nights after work cleaning, removing, sealing, and painting all of the cabinet doors and frames. We also removed and sprayed all of the screws and hinges black to repurpose them and added new black knobs for a more modern touch.

I knew I eventually wanted to update the ugly laminate counters and dull backsplash too, but that those could wait while we focused on other home projects. Finally, in October 2022, we decided it was time to finish the kitchen, thinking it would only take us a month to complete. Oh, what sweet, naive little bunnies we were. 😂

We decided to use a DIY epoxy kit to make the ugly orange-brown counters look like marble. We prepared for the messy process by taping down plastic and trying to keep our pets out of the area, but it was stressful! Definitely had to trust the process and not panic at the in-between “ugly stage”. Painting and dripping in the “marbled” areas was intimidating at first, but then we had so much fun letting loose with the brush. Whew. Orange counters, who?!

Suddenly it was November 2022, but we thought compared to the messy epoxy that adding the adhesive 3D tiles we ordered would be a breeze, done in one weekend. Wrong again. Cutting the pieces to make a continuous pattern was so stressful and tricky. Then we ran out of pieces and had to wait weeks for more to arrive. Then, when we only had 1 small section left, we had to order more and wait AGAIN. By February 2023 that “easy weekend” project was finally complete! 😅

Adhesive backsplash that ended up being the hardest part to puzzle together!

The Creative Process

I realize looking back now that these painfully slow DIY projects follow the typical creative process, perfectly summarized by this meme:

A creative project is so fun in the beginning: researching, dreaming, setting up. Then it gets hard and scary in the doing and, especially if the project is outside of your comfort zone, it feels so frustratingly slow. When you get stuck, it feels like you’re failing, like the project is sh*t because you’re sh*t at this, so maybe you should just give up. But if you push through the hard feelings and trust the process, you’ll complete the cycle of awesome. Hang in there!

This kitchen update was a doozy and it did feel like we were doing a sh*tty job for awhile with the counters and backsplash. But now, a year later from our kitchen finally being finished, it feels so beautifully surreal. How has our kitchen not always looked like this?! It’s not perfect, but it’s ours. And that is awesome.

Hopefully in a few months, I will finally be able to share the before and after of our excruciatingly slow bedroom update! In the meantime, I will print out that creative process meme to hang on our bedroom door as a reminder that we are on the right track.

Creative Playtime

I have found it’s crucial to have smaller creative moments with my Inner Artist when I’m struggling with a big project. Those little moments of joyful play help refuel you. This month I tried a cute felt sewing craft, drew a birthday portrait of my corgi, Luna, and painted some homemade bread for Easter, inspired by this tutorial by Allison Loveall, @lovealldesignco on Instagram. Allison paints on sourdough, but I don’t need another pet in my house, so I don’t have a sourdough starter. I tried this delicious tangy bread recipe instead, but it expanded and cracked through my flower painting. It’s still pretty and it was fun to create with edible paint, but I will try again with a different recipe when I want to paint again.