Home Beautiful

Like many of you out there, I am looking for ways to get myself through another lock-down. I have already trawled through endless websites trying to find something (anything!) that will keep my mind occupied, earn me a bit of cash and stop me from going bat sh*t crazy.

I just don’t think that I can do any more de-cluttering, sourdough baking or binge watching British police dramas on Netflix.

So, given I have to stay within the confines of my suburban block, I have focused my attention on the domestic front (again).

My home was the real winner of lock-down version #1 and now as we enter lock-down version #2 I have thought about this home improvement phenomena a lot.

What makes people think that on a sunny winters afternoon that a trip to the local hardware store is mandatory and that suddenly a major makeover is in order?

Why all of a sudden do I feel the urge to spend hours outside in the cold weather to paint wooden boards?

For nearly 10 years I have looked at my unpainted fences and thought nothing of it, absolutely nothing, it’s a fence.

I have not attempted a home handy-person job that often, in fact, rarely. It is not my usual Sunday past time.

But lock-down has altered my perceptions of weekend entertainment somewhat.

My previous attempts have ended up either half-finished or nothing like what it says or looks like in the brochure. I have a front window frame that has two different colours of paint on it, skirting boards that don’t match, holes in the wood panelling and wood putty galore.

Hardly ‘Home Beautiful’.

I can understand the attraction of the large hardware store, it is a vast marketplace filled to the brim of wondrous things. Our local hardware store is a feast for the eyes; anything you could possibly want is housed in its four walls.

What is missing is the sane person at the entrance interviewing people as to whether they have the credentials to be in such a place. Or possibly there should be a zone arrangement where it is scaled from one to ten (one being, not cut out for home hardware jobs, please turn around and go home).

Full of enthusiasm and with the wide eyed wonder of a child I entered the hardware magic cave and emerged hours later with a box full of stuff that for the most part was useless. I can only surmise that this place must be like catnip for home dwellers.

I am an amateur painter at best but that didn’t stop me from having wild ideas about what my home could look like with a new coat of paint. I bought four big tins of varying colours of green and set about changing my back garden into the oasis I could see in my mind’s eye.

So, I will be adding another bow and arrow to my quiver; learning to paint (and not the type you hang on the wall). If there is anything I have learnt from this experience is that you don’t have to do anything particularly useful, fascinating or practical. Anything will do.

Including painting wooden boards.

Big Love Jane x