On Creating Ambience

I like to create ambience. I always have. Even when I was young I would paint the walls and the furniture to create new looks in my bedroom. Eventually, as I grew older and more skilled at painting, my mother would ‘let’ me paint the other rooms in the house. I was especially skilled at painting trim without slopping over onto the wall paint or the ceiling paint. Later, as I got a job and earned money, I would purchase curtains and carpets and light fixtures for my bedroom and then my mother, Bless her soul, let me unleash my creative efforts in my parent’s bedroom.

I guess decorating is in my blood. But my talent in this area is more one of making do with what is at hand rather than envisioning something and creating it from nothing. I guess that comes from my middle-class upbringing and the constant threat of my father’s death … we never knew if we’d have money coming in so we created something new with a fresh coat of paint or by arranging something in a different manner. My mother wrapped presents in aluminum foil and cut out bouquets of flowers from magazines and pasted them on the package in lieu of ribbon and I guess her imaginative use of items on hand was a skill passed on to me.

Renovating this house and now furnishing it brings me fresh opportunity to enlist my skills as a ‘use what you’ve got on-hand (or can purchase cheaply)’ decorator and I always take great pleasure in sitting back and observing my handy work.

And while I don’t particularly enjoy housework (who does, really?), I do enjoy the results. I like order and the appearance of cleanliness (I am not a white glove tester at all). These old houses in the Medina are subject to a lot of dust from the streets and the wood surfaces always need oiling and polishing. So I find I spend a lot of my free time re-ordering the house and polishing and oiling and scrubbing and wiping down.

But I can deal with that if I get paid for my efforts.

Seems maybe 2010 might be the year I finally make some money from my housekeeping/decorating/renovating efforts. Lord knows I have been apprenticing for a long, long time.