I’m still working on getting the mural wall in the studio finished. It really is a big job. After all, it’s the main wall, so I want it perfect. Plus, there are things to do that aren’t really seen, like getting the outlets inside the cabinets installed. But the fact is that this wall has taken me way longer than it should have, and I think I realized yesterday why that is. I’m afraid of it. Seriously.
I spend a lot of time in my studio because I love being in there, but I don’t spend nearly enough time actually working to finish the mural wall. And I realized last night it’s because I’m afraid to be too close to that countertop. (If you missed how that countertop project destroyed my skin for several weeks, you can read about it here.) After weeks of misery, my skin is finally feeling almost normal again, and the thought of it happening again really scares me. My logical mind tells me that it can’t and won’t happen just by being near the countertop. (It happened in the first place because I was literally covered in dust from sawing those laminate flooring boards.) But my irrational mind hasn’t wanted to be near it.
So instead of spending my time in the studio actually working to finish the mural wall, I’ve found myself spending lots of time sitting in my desk chair, far away from the countertop, and just admiring the mural wall from afar. So yesterday, in order to get through this obvious psychological block, I cleared off the countertop, vacuumed up the dust, sprayed down the whole countertop, and wiped down every inch of it about two or three times.
I don’t know if that will do the trick to get me past my psychological hurdle, but I sure hope so, because this wall is so close to being finished! And it’s darn near impossible to actually finish it if I won’t get close to it. ? I’m so ready to get it done and move on to another section of the room. Of course, that means making another countertop. *Sigh* I just need to push myself through this, and put all the precautions into place so that I don’t end up with a relapse of pain and misery. I just need to get it done.
After cleaning the countertop really well yesterday, I did finally caulk the window trim so that it’s ready to paint today. I also installed the wall sconce. Last time I mentioned the sconce, several people didn’t remember there being a sconce on this wall. But it’s been there as long as the pendant lights have been there. And it, too, started off solid black. You can see it right in the middle of the wall, centered between the windows, in the photo below.
When I redid the electrical wiring on this wall, I contemplated removing the sconce completely, but for some reason, I decided to keep it. Now, in hindsight, I wish I had removed it.
The whole reason I put a wall sconce there in the first place was because I had originally planned to hang something on that wall. It seemed like the perfect place for something like a chalk board, a large dry erase calendar, a bulletin board, or something like that. And I liked the idea of having a sconce over it.
But now, I don’t want anything hung there because I don’t want anything covering up the flowers. I want the flowers to be the stars of that wall, so much so that I made sure my two favorite flowers were right there in the middle. So now it doesn’t really make sense to have a wall sconce there in the first place. What is it lighting up, exactly? My favorite flowers on the mural? That’s weird.
But I had already made the (stupid) decision to keep the wiring, so when I installed the new mural, I cut a hole in the mural for the junction box for the light. After all, you can’t bury wire connections (or capped off wires) inside a wall. They have to be accessible.
So a few days ago, I gave the sconce a makeover similar to the pendant lights — gold leaf on the canopy, the adjustable arm, and the inside of the shade, and white on the outside of the shade. The problem is that the white shade doesn’t really show up against the mural. It’s fine, but it’s not great. See how it disappears in the photo below?
I mean, you really have to be up close to even notice that it’s there. I think it’s pretty, and I love how it matches the pendants, but I just don’t love how it disappears on the wall. And I also don’t love that it doesn’t really serve a specific purpose anymore.
So now, I’m not sure what to do. I could try gold leafing the outside of the shade and see if that makes it show up more.
Or I could try to find another sconce that I like better, but I’ve already spend about 30 minutes looking, and I don’t really think that a different sconce will solve anything. It’ll still be a sconce without a purpose.
One other thing I could do is remove the sconce completely. If that particular wire that powers that light isn’t actually hooked up to power, then it’s fine if it’s abandoned in the wall. There’s nothing it could harm from being there if it’s just a random wire not hooked up to anything.
But then that leaves the issue of the hole in the mural. To be honest, I think it would be fine to patch it. After all, there’s been a hole right there in the mural all this time, and I would venture to guess that most of you have never noticed. Do you notice it in the picture below?
You may see it now that you know it’s there, but I would bet that most of you never even saw it until now. And it wasn’t any more noticeable when you’re standing in the room, either. So while I absolutely abhor the thought of putting a wallpaper patch over that area, I’m also convinced that precisely 0.00% of people who come into my studio would ever notice it.
So I’m a little frustrated that I didn’t remove it when I had the opportunity to do so before the new mural went up. I’ll probably still try to gold leaf the outside of the shade first just to see if that helps it show up more against the mural. If it does, I might just live with it for a while and see if it grows on me. But even if it shows up and look really pretty, it still seems like a sconce without a purpose to me.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
