It’s been years in the making but in just a couple of hours I FINALLY put up a giant blank canvas!
Yep, for around 10 years I’ve had an 8×4 foot canvas follow me around the various places I’ve lived. I always said to myself ‘one day I’ll paint this’. That day has taken its sweet time – but I feel there is good reason. It’s taken me a long time to sort out something pretty important in life; I procrastinate and put off things I need to do. In a lot of way this canvas has become a metaphor for my mind; I come up with an idea but don’t see it through. However, that’s finally changing!
Large blank canvas in old room
Buying a large canvas was one of ‘those ideas’. I originally bought it as the place I was living at was rented so I couldn’t paint the walls, this meant my room was just a box with a bed in it and I really wanted a bit of a character/ life/ something to make it a bit more interesting – so if I couldn’t paint the walls then a canvas made sense! I think. So I had an idea, measured everything up, bought the bits and some weeks later (again procrastinating) I put it together. That’s when everything stopped and I moved on to something else. For the last 10 years this canvas has been a running joke between pretty much everyone I know – including me.
Canvas laying in my current room
However, after years of looking at this blank canvas I thought – you know what, it’s not really that funny anymore, it’s actually a shame there was this idea an initial drive that just wore out so I want to see this through. The same goes for this website. I started it, got somewhere then left it for years. So today I want to get things back on track!
This blog will be my journey, the projects, thoughts, stories – well everything that goes on! I want to see it as a way for me to progress in life and maybe even inspire you, the reader! I figured some years back that one of the most important aspects to life is just to do something, see it through and then use what you’ve learnt to make next time better. With this attitude it means things will progress, whereas it’s all too easy to expect things to be perfect first time and therefore never complete or even start because you believe you’re not ready. This is what I though, but did I heed my own advise? Nope. Should I? YES!
I’ve started with this canvas, now this blog – lets see how far I can get with all this. Subscribe to my blog, follow me on Instagram/ Twitter and join me on this journey – NO MORE PROCRASTINATING!
So, the objective is to mount the canvas on the wall and make a clear area for me to paint it. My original plan was to make a slim frame that the canvas could be mounted on (like a big easel). However, in the place I’m currently living in I can drill the walls and this is a lot easier to do so all I needed to do was make some small brackets. The design is a simple one – a bracket for each corner and two for the middle. They’re made from a short spare bit of wood and an adjustable foot used for a kitchen cabinet. If anyone wants to make something similar then check out this link for the same product:
https://amzn.to/2XSQEsX — Adjustable bracket/ foot
I chose to use the adjustable foot over a solid bracket as that would mean I’d have to be pin point accurate with my drilling (which, for me is very unlikely) and it’d make it a lot harder to put the canvas up and eventually take down.
I drilled these in to the wall with a couple of screws allowing for around 5mm of gap from where the canvas would end up and the foot of the bracket. This meant that I could place it on the bracket then tighten after – which would allow for any (rubbish) drilling and mis-shapen canvas.
The final step was to put the whole thing up! Pro tip – rest the canvas on the bottom bracket then tighten the middle foot at the top to jam it all in place then tighten the two corners. Or if you have friends then get them to help you hold it up. However I tried to do this on my own and it was a challenge – one I am glad to say I passed!
Now all I have to do is paint the thing. Before I bought the canvas I did come up with an idea of how it would look so in honour of that I will paint the design from 10 years back. It comes from a place of smoking – a lot – so be prepared for something relating to that.
Thank you for reading and be sure to subscribe to see how this develops!
The canvas is up on the wall