Collage rooms

Look what I found - another draft with uploaded pics that I forgot to post. I'll post it now. It's actually good timing as the photos harken back to "the olden days" when my older kids were teens. And since I've been spending time with my kids, and reminded that no matter how old they are they are still my "kids" (and family dynamics are still family dynamics - pause for me to roll my eyes - okay), photos of my kids' teen years seem apropros. Too, Deb's recent remodel of her studio and talk of "collage thinking" ties in with the theme as well.

What started the whole thing rolling was visiting some friends of our family who had built themselves a beautiful rustic farmhouse and their only daughter had a big room under the eaves on the second floor. We'd visited on many occasions but it was the first time we'd managed to wander into the teenage space. Her bedroom is now the office of the husband and the multi-layered collage that represented over a decade of their daughter's life is now gone (and their daughter, now grown and married, is a photographer - what a surprise?), but I still have the photos I took many years ago. The two bottom photos are of her room.

Her room inspired my two boys, Joe and Sam, to do something similar with their shared room and it inspired me to allow them to do it. The first three photos show their version of things. My only stipulation was that they had to personally remove every tack, staple, nail or piece of tape they put up before they moved out. Joe moved out first and he did a pretty good job of clearing off his debris (and the doorknob wasn't even cold before Sam started rearranging the entire room into his personal bachelor pad), but when Sam left a few years later he didn't live up to his promise quite as well and it took me days to get all the "hardware" out of the wall before I could repaint and reclaim the room for my studio (also before the doorknob had cooled).

I'm so glad i remembered to take these photos (although I didn't capture it at the height of coverage) because those days are now gone and you think you're gonna remember how it looked, but you don't. You can tell how long ago it was by how little William is, peeking out of the corner of one of the pics.

Okay - here ya go. You're either gonna gasp in horror or delight, depending on your personal ability to handle detail. Remember, you can click to see the bigger picture.