360 DEGREES WITH MYSELF

I’m staring at a mint green wall. One year. The same wall has been several other colours in the span of exactly one year. So have its opposite and adjoining companions. Baby-blue, dove grey, sunflower yellow, egg white, terracotta brown, even burnt orange, and oh so many more. If I’m lucky, this wall will stay mint green, at least for another year or three.

My eyes fall on the light switch mounted on this wall. A round, elegantly white porcelain object with a same coloured toggle switch, reminiscent of a doorbell from days gone by, those round metal ones with a button you would push for the bell to ring. The light switch too, was changed a couple of times - from a retro grey plate featuring a small octopus eye, its tentacles spilling over one edge just above the switch itself, to modern day plates, some smooth and metallic, others rustic or brightly coloured.

Next I take look at the wooden buffet placed against the opposite wall. The mint green background lends itself to perfectly display the white washed wooden cupboard, having four drawers and four little doors made up of small wooden strips. In this one could store anything from cutlery to crockery, wine glasses, or table linen.

The white plaster ceiling design of the room complements the wall colours and makes the room look larger. At each corner of the ceiling, a grapevine design curls its vines around the sharp edges to give it a softer look. I don’t even want to be reminded of the previous suggestions by my clients, such as tin pressed ceilings. In very odd colours, I might add.

Looking at the floor, at this stage glimmering oak, it adds to the effect of the room being sufficiently invaded by natural light. I don’t know how long this feature will remain as is however, due to the indecisiveness of my clients. And not for the first time, a kind of sadness takes hold of me. Being isolated from the outside world does that to me, and I guess to any person who depends on interaction with people to keep their business afloat.

I click away with the mouse, adding furniture to the room on my computer screen with the specialised software I bought at rather a ridiculous price. Furniture suggested and requested by my clients to be placed in this room, to give them an overall “feeling” of what they want the result to be. It’s been a year already since I’ve taken on these clients, giving life to their restoration ideas. Normally I don’t take this long to finalise a project. Well, normally I don’t have clients who have the financial means to change their minds and ideas at leisure, either.

Although they sometimes get on my nerves with their obsessive requests for virtual meetings, constantly changing their minds and even ignoring the most recent interior decorating narratives, which I guess is their prerogative, I need to see this through to the end. That’s just the type of work ethic I have. One day, when I can afford to restore something of my own, I will do so without hesitation. For now, I have to ensure the satisfaction of my clients in completing this work.

The chair squeaks as I move my feet to adjust my posture in front of the computer, a reminder for me to get up and stretch my legs for a couple of minutes. Since I’ve been working in isolation from home – home being a bachelor flat with only the bathroom divided by a door - I’ve been pestered with muscle spasms. No one barging into my office for a chat, a coffee break, to enquire about something, or anything else reminding me to take a break every 20 minutes or so, resulted in me sitting in front of my computer for hours on end.

The sun still rose in the east and set in the west, day after day. At least I was lucky to experience this, as my bachelor pad had two huge windows. It overlooked a very neatly kept garden with a Koi pond in the centre, surrounded by colourful flowers and evergreen shrubs. Birds bathed in the soft-trickling water, their chirping loud enough for me to hear, but not being enough incentive for me to break free from this self-imposed isolation and rejoin the world out there.

Once I’ve relaxed a bit, I took place in front of the computer again, looking at the room I had to finish. I carefully placed the chosen furniture according to my clients’ script, and wondered whether it would be as difficult for me when my “one day” arrived, to redo a place of my own, as it was for them to keep to their decisions in revamping theirs. Nevertheless, I continued with the job at hand, eager to submit the latest image to them.

There is still a round wooden dinner table to be placed with the white washed wooden buffet, and four wooden chairs to compliment it. The chairs have high backs, the grapevine design on the ceiling repeated, carved out in the wood, and extending from the top down to the chairs’ legs.

There are two windows in the “renovation room” that need a change in appearance. There is a bay window and the other, an arched window, both in dark walnut wood. My clients were contemplating whether to replace these windows with aluminium or vinyl. I’ve tried to subtly intervene and proposed to keep the wood but style it to fit the white ceiling, white cornices, and white skirting. I will change it on the computer to the specifications I’ve proposed, but will only hear the verdict once I’ve submitted it to them. Keeping my fingers crossed, I make the changes and move on to the doors leading into this room.

Seeing that most of the fixtures are white at this stage, it seems almost fitting for me to make the colour of the doors white as well. If the clients need to incorporate something modern regarding the doors, I can suggest a pattern on the door and maybe doorknobs to add to the attraction, which they might fancy, or so I hope.

The sun is setting, sunbeams dancing around in my home and bringing movement to the shadows connected to my furniture. As my stomach starts to rumble, I finalise the last changes and save the file for submission to my clients. If all goes well, I will no longer need to spend much more time inside this room on my computer. It has been one year already…a full circle since I’ve started this project.