My Love Of Tedious Artistic Projects — A Look Back Over 20 Years

But anyway, they weren’t solid red. I painted a harlequin pattern on them. The walls were covered in diamonds that were about six inches high. All of the diamonds that made up that harlequin pattern were the same color, but I alternated flat and glossy finishes. And then after they were all painted, I went back and added shiny silver thumbtacks at each point where the diamonds met — top, bottom, and both sides. Those walls were a work of art. They looked something like this, but just imagine that the two different colors were actually the same color with very different sheens. The red wasn’t actually this dark, and the dots between them were a shiny silver.

The first tedious artistic project that I documented on my blog, way back in 2009 as this table that I decoupaged with strips of colorful paper. I did this for our condo, where we lived before we bought our current house. It didn’t stay like this very long, but it was a fun project.

That project was pretty easy compared to the argyle walls that I painted in our hallway/laundry area. This was a pretty small area, but these walls took quite some time. You can see how I did these walls here. And you can see the before and after of this area here.

This herringbone tray was a smaller project, but it still fits the theme. And if you’ve been around a while, you can see that this was the beginning of (and inspiration for) much bigger projects that were to come. I made this using small strips of iron-on edge banding, so each of those pieces had to be ironed on individually. You can see that project here.

And then came the big one — the chrysanthemum mirror made out of plastic spoons. I owe a lot to this project. This is the project that put my blog on the map. It went viral like no other project I’ve ever done. This thing took on a life of its own, and inspired thousands of spoon-related DIY projects for the next year, at least. In fact, one manufacturer even stole my idea and mass-produced these out of resin, right down to the exact number of petals, the ombre paint effect, and all. They just made it a cream color instead of teal. And of course, I got nothing out of that. Back in those days, manufacturers were consistently stealing ideas from DIY bloggers for mass production.

My next tedious project was kind of a variation on that theme, but I used a much smaller material than plastic spoons. For this one, I used pistachio shells to make a hanging “succulent garden” for the front door of our condo.

This is a project I’d actually like to recreate. I made this hanging flower backet out of slices of 2×4 lumber about 12 years ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t seal it at all, so the raw wood out in the elements only lasted about two years. But it was inspired by my neighbors’ flower basket that is made this way. Theirs is painted, and theirs is still hanging on their front porch today.

Here’s a quick look at a few more…

1. Herringbone lamps made of watercolor paper
2. Faux “capiz shell” pendant light made from window film
3. Hand drawn bird and tree mural in the entryway
4. Colorful “pinwheel” art made from wood tasting spoons
5. Stenciled walls outlined in black Sharpie marker in the music room
6. Hand tinted wall tiles using alcohol inks and resin for the pantry
7. Pixel art made from wood button plugs
8. Hand drawn wall mural in the guest bedroom
9. Ombre square spiral wall design in the studio bathroom
10. Striped painted walls in our home gym
11. Paint swatch cabinets in my studio
12. Pendant light made from wood tasting spoons for my studio
13. Painted wood floor in my studio
14. Flower chandelier made from air dry clay for my closet