The Sam Gallery

Recently we had the house assessed to get loans
for Sam's education. Going through the house in
a whirlwind trying to make it look civilized was
a huge job. Without a doubt the room that
needed the most work was my youngest son
Sam's room. Cleaning it up I wondered if it
is really such a good idea to be a respectful
parent and let your children have "their
own space." Of course it is, but perhaps
we should have reviewed the decision to
stop getting a house cleaner to come in and
make sure the room (and the rest of the house)
was passably clean.

So we scrubbed the place up, got a new bigger
bed, new curtains, a new curtain rod, and made
it look as good as we could in the short time frame.
Still the walls needed painting badly, and there
were cracks everywhere. The new more generous
velvet curtains covered the repairs that need to be
done beside his window. But what to do with the walls?
Answer -- the Sam gallery.

We put up as many of my large paintings as
we could fit in the room. On one wall we
displayed some of the paintings he's posed
for -- and I've got to admit it gave the tiny
room a feeling of size and panache.

I'm just saying. If you have a similar
decorating (hmmm) issue with a teenager's
room in your house. This is a quick fix.
We hope that we'll be able to get painters
in this year, and that will radically transform
the room, but in the meantime even Sam was
impressed when he came home from university
for a visit this weekend.

Have a covering-up-the-flaws-with-beauty day.