When you go to Berlin there's no avoiding that spark that wakes up the left side (or is it the right?) of the brain that screams for some out-of-the-box thinking and creativity. Everyone in the city is either "working on their music/art/film" or studying, and those that do have actual jobs are boring ol' graphic designers. My friend Emma who I stayed with and her roommates have "construction days" in their apartment in which actual wood and tools are involved! So instead of denying the hipster-gentrified neighborhood I was in, I embraced it and picked up some some markers, construction paper, and stickers to put together an original recipe I should have done a month before for this wedding I went to in England 4 days later. It was exciting, my friend and I spent 3 hours working into the wee hours in her kitchen, talking about racism and Scandinavian babes, while pouring every last ounce of creativity we had into our works. I hadn't felt that creative since high school field hockey when I would spend hours (ok really 10 minutes) working on the biggest and most glitter-fied"secret psych" gift for my fellow teammates (to "psych" them up for a game, not that kind of "psych").
So along with pounds of chocolate and English tea I brought home some of that creative spark I rediscovered in Berlin. "I love maps, and why not take that love of maps and decorate a little with them. Make our place feel a bit more 'lived in?" I suggested to Gio. It turned out we only had the maps from the 4 cities I visited on my trip, plus a map of San Francisco and a map of the Everglades we didn't really much care for. But it didn't matter, we were off to the hardware store! Before that we went through postcards, photos, beer coasters and other memorable items we had collected that were now on our bedroom floor (a bookcase is the next item on our furniture shopping list!). Seeing as we have many a blank wall to decorate we immediately thought of the numerous guests who come over during our non-existent dinner parties, and decided to give them a little something to look at while relieving themselves, making good use of our worldly postcards.
Of course after we got back from the hardware store we were tired and didn't feel like continuing with the Berlin project. So instead I left the layout of the maps and postcards on the floor, right in the middle of the living room, for the day. Waking up the next morning, I stepped around my short-lived inspiration, and only after going to the mall and buying myself a pretty dress did I come back reinvigorated to finish the weekend's project.
Postcards decorating the bathroom wall
Still adding to our map collection... of course the idea here was to use one whole wall as a big map of the world, placing each map in its place within the world, i.e. maps of Europe east of the Everglades map. It's a concept in progress
Berlin inspiration: Emma's improvised clothes wardrobe using hooks already in the wall and chains.
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