Open Canvas

Julie, veteran blogger and home-renovator, came up with the best idea for alleviating pre-demolition jitters. As her family geared up for a complete kitchen renovation, the week prior to start date was historically dubbed "Open Canvas Week," a chance for friends and family to show off their artistic sides...all over the old cabinets.

Jump down to see the Kitchen - AFTER!

On her blog, Mom's Purse, Julie writes:

We had paint everywhere, but it didn't matter. It was all going to be demolished anyway. What a riot! When our contractor arrived with his son, they were so sad. They did not want to demolish the artwork.

It's a good thing she took plenty of pictures, which you can see HERE. Click over to her blog to see the BEFORE photo of the kitchen which, by the way, turned out great!

Thanks for the inspiring story, Julie!

Comments (19)

aw that is cute that they did that. just glad it wasnt for keeps! Haha

Those painted fish and the cat with the guitar are fantastic. I like the before the remodel liveliness so much better.

Ahhh!!! We did this twice when we were kids. Once all over the walls of our living room before we got wood panelling (wood panelling!!!) and once all over the unfinished floors before we got carpet.

Of course, my mom didn't exactly have all us kids do it as a celebration of new paneling and carpet coming ... she had us do it to force my dad to BUY that new paneling and carpet. ;-)

Regardless, it was so much fun!

That. Is. Awesome! I love the concept -- and those cabinets could TOTALLY be repurposed to the garage. Fun stuff!

I hope they at least saved the cabinet doors--it's a shame to demolish all that great art!

how fun! i hope they kept a few of those covers for art.. some of them are adorable..

i had ugly wallpaper in my room when my sister and i swapped rooms.. i had my friends leave messages, color on it, etc. my dad was pissed..but it gave life to my room.. :)

I love that idea! When we pulled out an old carpet I drew all over it first... it was so much fun, and of course knowing it was on it's way out anyway made it even better.

I hope you kept the old cabinets! We plan to put our old cabinets in our garage when we finally replace ours, and having art on your cabinets like that would be a lot of fun too. :)

The kitchen looks awesome!

I just checked out "Melissa's Pod" small cool entry. We all asked "Where's the personality and character?" Here it is! This is great.

I find that self-indulgent. Couldn't they have given those counters to a poor family that might need them?

Well, one thing is for sure. There's no diamond in the rough artist in her friend's entourage.

A once in a lifetime chance to do something that would be terribly naughty, otherwise. Your family will remember this fondly forever.

Hey Eleno - Those counters would never have survived being lifted off the cabinets. We tore out granite with the hope of being to give it to Habitat for Humanity and it cracked and broke into pieces during the demo.

Eleno and TheoJ - Way to rain on the parade. How do either of you know that these were salvagable cabinets? How do you know they were not old and falling apart? Who says you can't recycle them at a facility if they have paint on them? They're already painted white and adding color doesn't prevent recycling.

They made a memory and included their friends and that's truly special.

Also, the previous counters look to be made of individual tile so how do you propose donating them?

I love those tiles above the stove; where are they from?

At first (before I read the post) I was momentarily horrified, then after reading, my heart warmed up... What fun...

I did a similar thing when I was leaving an apartment... I had a party, we wrote all over the walls, I then painted them white for the landlord. We had so much fun... Although I would strong suggest something different than blue and black sharpies, they are a pain to paint over.

AWESOME IDEA FOR OUR KITCHEN PRE-DEMO & RENO :p