The Beauty That Is Children Drawing On Walls
There is something so beautiful, to me, about a child’s perspective on what a wall is. It’s not a divider, it’s a canvas. It’s a lot of boring, open space that needs to be filled with a personal touch. Pictures of mummy, daddy & the dog. Little stories of broken English & infinite inspiration. It’s the opportunity to fill every space that hasn’t been covered by unimaginative picture frames or mirrors.
As adults, we treat our walls in one of two ways: we either do nothing to them out of procrastination & carelessness, or we choose to decorate them “the grown up way”. We put holes in them for hanging store bought signs, cover them in paint & on them, display photographs of our realistic selves. No different than children, we do this to express ourselves & our family. We do it out of love for our life & the people in it. But we do it in a way that is too literal & so routine.
Photographs, solid paint & “inspirational” quotes from your local department store aren’t yours. Someone else has that shade of blueberry indigo in their bedroom. Someone else is awoken to the hanging words of Albert Einstein’s quote on Creativity. And, while it’s doubtful anyone else has pictures of your family on their walls, what of it is really you? It’s not a bad idea to reminisce in the time you went to Disney World or your daughter’s old, favorite pink dress, but there’s no sense of perspective. It’s just exactly how everything was.
When a child draws, we get to see our same experiences through the colorful lens of a new human being. We get to see their loving interpretation of the world around them. They notice the small things, see the interest in monotone aspects of life & don’t restrict their senses based on the boundaries we manifest for ourselves every day as adults.
This year, hire a local artist for your interior design; your children. They will never run out of ideas, & no one will be able to say “Oh, haha, I have that on my wall at home too”. Not to mention, it’d sure be a lot cheaper than buying that much coverage. It doesn’t mean you can’t put shelves up or hang decorative objects. Their art will simply act as the wallpaper underneath. To a kid, a wall is huge & the little pieces of papers they’re subjected to draw on limit their capabilities.
There can still be rules, too. Limit their wall art to their bedroom, & remind your son not to draw out (in graphic detail) the time he saw his best friend’s arm split open when he fell from the neighborhood tree house. Enabling your kid’s creativity is considered very healthy & helpful towards their developing mind, & it’ll help get their urge to color on the walls out of their system in a reasonable way.
One day, as they grow older & don’t have the vision that they used to, or the will to express themselves in the cute fashions you miss so greatly, you’ll be calmed to see those four walls again. And, if they grow out of having their walls that way, you can always do a room switch (like moving your office into their bedroom & visa versa), or take a few lasting photographs & paint over it. You can even put up temporary wallpaper or invest in some chalkboard paint while they’re still going through their beautiful phase.
Obviously, if you live in an apartment, there isn’t truly an option for this. But for home owners, maybe it’s not a bad idea to keep it as just that; a home. Not just a pristine & structured house. It’s not about giving your kids the impression that they can do whatever they want, it’s simply about finding a midway to embrace your child’s heart-filled drawings that will be archives all too soon.
