diy by Grace Bonney 32

who needs wallpaper?


yesterday our sneak peek editor anne sent me a link to this story from a september issue of lexington herald leader. lawyer (and artist) charlie kratzer had $10 and a vision of decorating his basement entirely in sharpie artwork. one hamilton later, kratzer had a mini masterpiece on his hands and, i’m guessing, a massive headache from the smell of sharpie ink. headache or not, the result is fantastic and definitely makes me think of all the ways you can decorate your home with your own two hands. click here for the full story and a moving image of the room.

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diy / interior design
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32 Comments

Sarah

This is wonderful…. if only I was an owner and not a renter… someday!

Elizabeth W

this made me think of those stop motion animation shorts of paddington bear – does anyone know what i’m talking about?

this would be neat to do if your walls were made of dry-erase panelling!

Katya

I really love it, but I would love it even more if the whole space was black and white and not all full of ‘basemanty’ stuff like the treadmill. For example, if he had a white couch with black piping to continue the whole pen line feel. Other than that, the drawings themselves are absolutely fabulous!

lauren

what a gorgeous effect! my first thought was that my own freehand stinks, but borrowing an overhead projector and tracing a bunch of transparencies made from, say, edward gorey sketches could work, too. thanks for the inspiration!

Betsy

I love that they put all the literary/historical/artist figures in there–very well thought out! I will say though, (and here comes some geekdom) that the first thing I thought of when I saw it was the foyer in the apt. in 3 men and a baby. Although, this is about 200% cooler.

Meredith @ Studio Debris

ooo I bet it smelled bad. I’ve had sharpie drawings go grey on me – but as long as the basement doesn’t get too much U/V light (sunlight) it should hold up alright.

And if he wants to paint over it – I wonder if it would bleed through or be easy to cover?

Katie

I totally did something like this when I was a display coordinator for Anthropologie! (I painted the walls read though). It looked super cool, as does this guy’s house. love it!

Anne A Wong

This is fantastic!
I’d want to see Julia Rothman take on a project like this. Her unique style would be perfect for it…

Jillian

Not to be a killjoy, but permanent markers bleed through just about anything painted on top of them. We had a sharpy incident in a hallway that could never be covered up. Every coat was bled through. You might have to cover it with primer meant for metal or plastic to keep it from bleeding…

steven

im sure if you painted it with some killz first it wouldnt bleed through

Katrina

OMG this is fantastic! I’m so going to try this.

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