D.I.Y or Don’t

By Katie Naphas /// Features Editor

As is the case for college students, my apartment is not the most decorated place. Sure, we have some wall art and miscellaneous items from years of staking out garage sales and taking stuff off people’s hands, but it’s still more scarce than preferred. So, why not take a perfectly good paint-by-numbers lying around the house and make something useful out of it?

The thought is fairly simple: lay out lyrics (or whatever) with adhesive letters on a painting, poster, or print of your choice, spray paint it with a color that’ll pop, wait for it to dry, peel off the letters, and enjoy a wholly original work of art with a phrase of your choice in the pattern underneath the paint.

Unfortunately, the execution didn’t go as planned. The letters bled out when the painting was spray painted and somehow the paint got underneath the letters as well. It wasn’t as crisp as I’d hoped for and, to recover it some, I had to fill in the spots where the white had bled into the lettering with random splotches of paint. Looking back on this experience, I can safely say I would have gone with the white version of the letters I picked up from JoAnn’s (to prevent the bleeding) and made sure that they were very, very well-attached to the painting before spray painting everything.

In theory, it should have turned out a lot better than it did and been an easy way to decorate rooms (or at least been an easy present for your friends). Frankly, it’s not worth it in my opinion — it’s a relatively costly expedition and takes a lot more time and effort than I wanted — but if you can do it and you want to, go for it. I can’t stop you.