ONE DAY, THE WHITE WALLPAPER WITH LITTLE red hearts in my bedroom seemed unbearably childish. It was cute, and I was done with cute. Cute, I probably thought, is for little kids. At 13, I was definitely still a kid, but I’m pretty sure like most teenagers, I was at least 90% confident that I was a. an adult and b. had everything all figured out.
It was time for a change, to create a space that better reflected my good taste, creativity and maturity. Mom and I steamed the wallpaper off the walls, which was a miserable, sticky, damp experience I have no desire to ever repeat. The only wallpaper I will ever consider is wallpaper that’s never coming down.
Then, a blank canvass. Four walls and a nook ready for fresh paint. This was a big decision, so I called in trusted reinforcements— my best friend Abby.
Mom drove us to the store, and we stood in front of every color that ever existed.
Swatch after swatch, every shade you could imagine at our fingertips. Given such options, who would choose to limit themselves to one color? Boring people, that’s who.
From the bank of colors we plucked purple, yellow, green, pink and probably a few more I can no longer remember. As our excellent choices were mixed and shaken, we gathered our supplies—paint brushes, tape and sponges.
With so many colors to use, the only logical option was to make each wall its own unique masterpiece. We dipped our star-shaped sponges into golden yellow and pressed them onto a purple background. Night sky complete, next up we painted alternating vertical stripes of green and pink—this was the watermelon wall.
It is, as you can imagine, pretty hard to forget fruity stripes and a purple, star-spangled wall. The rest, however, is a little fuzzy. I remember polka dots around the closet, but the color combo has since mostly faded from memory (dark pink on light pink sounds about right, though).
Recently, while my mom and Abby were chatting, Abby (now a mom of two) asked what she was thinking letting us do whatever we wanted to the walls of my room. Mom later told me about their conversation, and said the same thing she told Abby— we got to have some fun, it made me happy, and walls can always be repainted. You won’t be shocked to learn this was eventually the case.
When interviewing Kerry Sheridan for “The Comfort Factor” on page 34, something she said brought back the way I felt when our multicolored paint job was done.
“It’s very satisfying and very fulfilling to be around things that are beautiful, that are put together thoughtfully, that make you feel good when you walk into a space,” said Sheridan. “People sometimes don’t get that.”
No matter the space—living room, office, kitchen—Sheridan told me, if we spend time in it, it should make us feel good, not just meet basic needs. I don’t think anyone other than 13-year-old me would call my room “beautiful” or “put together thoughtfully,” but it did make me feel good. It was an expression of my (and Abby’s) creativity, and it turned a bedroom into a special space made just for me.
While I’m not sure I recommend my teenage approach, I hope our interior design issue inspires you to find your own version of a watermelon wall.
