Saturday, April 12, 2008

Brilliant Asylum: My Childhood



It was 1957 or 1959, I can't remember because I was a kid. Spray paint was just invented. One day my mother spray painted all of our appliances silver! Then she spray painted an "accent wall" in the living room. Accent wall was a term I only heard my mother use until I read it years later in some decor rag. She spray painted the one wall with large gold polka dots. She wore pedal pushers, aka capris, kitten heels, a cigarette in her mouth, a cocktail in one hand, the spray paint can in another. She did a little dip, and pssst went the can, sip the drink, dip, pssst, take a drag, dip, pssssst... We four kids sat on the couch mesmerized, and damaged for life.
I was looking at a very good decor blog, and an entry was posted there with a space Ivanka Trump did (second photo as featured in Glamour Magazine and posted by the wonderful Brilliant Asylum HERE). Ivanka spray painted the appliances silver. My father is Czech, but we're not related to Ivanka, except for having silver spray painted appliances.
This got me to thinking about my long overdue project of painting my living room ceiling. I have been thinking about painting it silver for 3 years. Of course I'm off trend now, but what the heck. Worse, I am too lazy and perhaps a tad unskilled to do zillions of squares of delicate silver leaf, or worse yet, the more flimsy Chinese joss paper everyone gets so excited about, because it's really cheap. And forget wallpaper. I can't even get it up on the wall much less the ceiling.
I started to think about my mother, remembering her prowess with a spray paint can, and wondering if I could spray paint it, and how many cans of Krylon would it take, and would I have lung cancer after the project (but with a very beautiful ceiling to look at as I lay sick on my back looking up to decor heaven). There are alot of metallic paints out there now. The kind you put on with a roller or a brush. Has anyone used them without trouble, like uniform coverage and/or streaking?

2 comments:

mrsben said...

Loved this story about your Mom. She was one talented lady to get the spray can to p..ssst without contending with the horror of streaking or blobs. Obviously I am not a 'graffiti' artist. (Smiles) Though I haven't tried a metallic roller/brush application I'm sure anything wud be better than a p..ssst.

Visual Vamp said...

Hi mrsben - Thanks for stopping by. I've been meaning to ask you if you would like to please swap me some Canuck decor mags for some US ones...