It's been a while...

OK, well it's been a busy few months and I am finally updating the blog. In May I went on holiday for two weeks so obviously didn't get anything done and June and July have kind of whizzed by without me really doing much. However, the door is now pure white. You can't see Scooby Doo anymore. Had a bit of trouble with different types of paint mixing together and getting a bit lumpy, but have just finished off today with a roller. I've also taken off the door handles...wonder if I can get some nice new ones that will fit in the same holes?

Scooby Dooby Door

So I managed to get a bit more done last week on a day off from work, but not a great deal. Sanded it down a bit more. The white rectangle is me trying to get rid of some of the dodgy bits where in a previous incarnation some beading had been nailed to the door for some reason. So I sanded it down and then gave it a coat of paint to try and level it out a bit. There are still some small holes from the nails which I need to fill in before giving it another sand. Didn't get chance to do anything over the weekend as I was kinda busy running the London marathon :)

Scooby Doo, where are you?

The door is off! I gotta be honest this was never my favourite door. I really like Scooby Doo (original series of course) but this picture was always a bit flat. I was stuck for a background. I wanted to have some of the monsters from the show in the background or a creepy castle, but I couldn't find any material. This was pre-internet remember! So I ended up going for a hypnotic concentric circle type background instead, which I thought was cool at the time. But its kinda lost its appeal. I got some sandpaper on my way home from work and have given the door a good rough sanding, ready for some paint...which I have yet to buy. But at least I've made a start. Maybe (this) had something to do with my thoughts at the time. And I got rid of the box too. It was recycle bin day :)

More thoughts

So it's been a nice weekend and I haven't actually done anything yet, but I have had some more thoughts about what should be painted.

The door. My original thought here was to have an old english style promotional poster layout on the outside of the door. Like these, from the Burlesque book:

After having a proper flick through the Burlesque Poster book I found a poster by Gary Arnett for the "Dirty Show" in Miami, from 2004.

As you can see it features the iconic keyhole design, which is something I had already thought of for the door (from the English posters above) and so I am going to stick with this image. Though putting "Dirty Show" on the door might be pushing things a bit with the mrs, so I think I will have to change the text to something else. Then I found this. Now, I'm not so keen on the image within the keyhole on this one, but I like the text. Peek-a-Boo Burlesque sounds a bit more fun (and safer) than dirty show. So I will have to stitch the two together somehow. I'm thinking some glo-in-the-dark paint would be fun :)

The room in pictures

Just so we know what we're dealing with here are some pictures of the room as it currently looks.

From left to right, Scooby Doo door, skanky toilet complete with horrible plastic cracked cistern, some extra flooring from upstairs, the cat poo house, some buckets (and mop) and a box.

Note the multi coloured pipes under the sink. That was my idea to make the pipes look funky. Not the best idea I admit.

Here you can see the interesting hint of green used to paint the toilet with. The other colour for the skirting boards/door frame is purple. I don't know where I got these colours from, I think they were left over from something else. The blue thing in the middle is the water splash mirror from IKEA.

What's behind the door? Some old IKEA furniture, a shelf and a tall slim bookcase (in beech). The Pulp Fiction poster is a remnant from when I was really in to film posters. This was free from Woolworths (remember them?). I had the frame custom made to fit. I didn't have the heart to get rid of it, so hung it in here. I think it will have to go. Uma just doesn't cut it against curvaceous cartoon style women with guns and cars.

In the beginning...

Every project must have a beginning and this one has been brewing for a while. My downstairs toilet is basically a non-room. It's too small to do anything with, apart from making it into a big cupboard and apparently downstairs toilets are quite desirable in a house these days, so it remains a toilet.

But it's a pretty manky toilet, it is never used (as a toilet) and has not had anything done to it since we moved in, apart from being re-painted. It has become a dumping ground (if you'll pardon the pun) for unwanted bits of IKEA furniture, some buckets and now the cat litter box is in there. So at least something is using it as a toilet. I have to delicately flush it at least once a day otherwise the limescaled up filth box that is the cistern fills up and overflows out the front of the house via the overflow pipe. I say delicately because the plastic cistern has a nasty crack in it, which I'm sure is held together by the aforementioned limescale, so it requires an experienced touch.

I would like to replace the toilet and have had the brainwave to "do it myself". Eventually. How hard can it be right? But for now, after months of extra-curricular work taking up my spare time, I am chomping at the bit to get my art on and create an eye-popping mural-filled room.

Let's get something straight here though, I am NOT an artist. I couldn't draw to save my life. But a number of years ago, just to brighten up our house I drew and painted a Simpsons style picture of Mulder & Scully on one of our doors. I basically copied it from a magazine using "the grid method" to enlarge it on to the door. Painstakingly measuring points on the grids and re-drawing it on the door. It actually looked pretty good. I then proceeded to do ALL the doors in our house. Rolling on a few years my interest in Rock Art and Gig Posters blossomed into a rather sweet collection of Cramps (one of my favourite bands) posters. So I have got to know work by various artists such as Coop, Kozik, R.Black, etc. and have a few books of poster art which are very cool.

So what to do? A couple of months ago a Burlesque poster book caught my eye and I thought how cool it would be to give this non-room a Burlesque style make-over. I was intrigued by the posters announcing bizarre acts and the general style of the posters and thought it would make a great theme. I finally got around to buying said book and at the same time treated myself to the Art Of Modern Rock (Mini #2) for some extra research and inspiration.

While skimming through the AoMR book, I found a really ace poster by Stainboy (this one here) and all the thoughts of Burlesque have suddenly taken a back seat to the idea of painting a picture like that. Then while looking at the Stainboy website I found another image that I liked even better (this one). Same kind of style - woman and car - but better. Although in this one the woman isn't carrying a big shotgun. Shame!

So...I plan to have a mix of Burlesque and "low-brow" rock art in my downstairs toilet. The progress of which you will be able to follow on here.