If there’s better way to spend down time during the festive season than painting lines on a wall, then I’m not aware of it! The inspiration for this genius idea came from a photo of the inside of the ‘watch room’ at Duxford Air Base. A broad grey stripe sweeps around the entire room, echoing the runway it overlooks.
Alas, I don’t have a watch room, but I do have a porch that was in need of a bit of a spruce up. A splash of white on the walls provided a good base for some masking tape based experimentation. With the help of a laser level I taped a border around the whole room, then another, and then another (lines – they’re a bit moreish).
After some photoshop mock ups, a black and gold
colour scheme was decided on and several coats of acrylic paint were duly rolled on. I was reliably informed that black is a good undercoat for gold paint, giving a deep bright shine. Good advice it would seem. On removing the tape I was so darn pleased with the effect I threw caution to the wind and painted some intersecting verticals in celebration. The finished product evokes thoughts of vintage railway carriage livery, or perhaps a more glitzy section (I refuse to use the word ‘bling’) of a London Underground map.
The icing on the cake was to replace the standard pendant light fitting with a reproduction Bakelite job and throw down a new rug. One revamped porch, done! What a fine place to remove ones shoes, even if I do say so myself.
