Oh, today is a great day. I got to do the final “show and tell,” my favorite childhood school activity turned career. The mural on the barn, painted by Rachel Jackson, is finished (and has been for weeks) and I couldn’t love it anymore. When we started this process I didn’t really know what I wanted other than to cover it in farmhouse-like flowers. I’m very drawn to Scandinavian folk flowers and very drawn to Rachel’s work (plus we’re both friendly Portland locals). So where we’re at is this perfect combination. In the end, I felt like the folk flowers could look a bit too “preschool/daycare” for the size of the property, and since this barn is a little far from the house, I liked the idea of larger, more organic flowers (not realistic, but definitely grounded in our actual flowers) . Like most great art (and what I often advise you to splurge on), this mural was unnecessary, and yet the pleasure I feel daily when I see it – outside my writing window, on my way to feed the animals of the barn, with many of our animals come neighborhood friends -It’s really special.
The barn was formerly made up of two halves – on the left is where the pigs and alpacas are fed and sleep, and on the right is now the ‘craft barn’ (aka art barn, as we don’t seem to call it anything else internally. It’s old, and of course not It’s in tip-top shape, but it’s nice, it has original windows and doors, we gave it a fresh coat of paint but left the rest to Rachel.
Ringside here is what I was worried about – very dirty! Will animals continue to rub their dirty bodies everywhere in search of shade in the summer? maybe. Will they roll in the mud and then cuddle up there in the winter? maybe. So I almost skipped the mural on that side, but I’m so glad I didn’t. And I realized the best solution was, (DUH!) just two long benches along that wall, bolted to the barn so the pigs couldn’t move them.
Flower inspiration
We decided that a more coherent course of action would be to take inspiration from flowers from the garden we love – and just decorate them and tweak the tones a bit. I gave Rachel a tour of the property and pointed out my favorites and why.
The whole square has soft, deep pinks – sure, some are more saturated (like the Echinacea below) so we went a little deeper with that (I didn’t want hot pink on the mural, I felt like all year it would be too annoying).
Rachel took this inspiration and prepared a proposal to send to me. We went back and forth, tweaking it for hours. What I’ve learned about myself (continuously) is that I crave being a really low-maintenance person but I know that if I don’t even talk about the little things before they’re permanently installed, I always regret it. She was very patient with me when I asked her to play with the composition (I wanted to see my favorite flowers – the echinacea from my writing window) and I wanted it to be full enough, but with some negative space and of course balanced but with some tension (not quite symmetrical). Here’s a screenshot of our round trip:
Once I agreed on the formula, I thought we were good to go, but then I got nervous about the colors – Rachel is much bolder than me, and Brian’s reaction was that he was scared. Even though I know a lot of you want me not to listen to my husband because he’s not a designer and he’s not visually invested in the outcome of this mural (“Go for it, that’s your thing,” he’d say), he lives here too and I want him to love it. I quickly realized it had to do with the color palette. He was afraid of the flowers too (he thought they were too big) but I was so sure of the actual mural that I didn’t want to start over. So the morning she was supposed to start, I sent her a panicked text saying, “Hey, can we edit and can I pre-approve the colors?” This mural was an investment on my part, so I really wanted to make sure I felt it 100%. I sent her some of my favorite colors (more muted burgundy pinks – cocoa berry, sparkle, rosemary) and she deepened them and added pops of color. She sent me the colors from the paint store before she left, and after making a few more adjustments, I was happy with them. Thank God.
After approval, she came and displayed the mural on the barn and painted it (at night). Then the next day came to start.
What an absolute thrill to be able to do this – it’s a different level/brand of adulting to be able to hire one of your favorite artists to paint a mural on your barn. I felt (and feel) so lucky and grateful.
I don’t need to say much about her process, it’s not a modus operandi, it’s a “look at this!” Share 🙂
I love how you went beyond the windows and doors as if they were just solid walls – to connect the flowers.
About half way through Caitlin came over and took some pictures (I think it took Rachel three not-so-full days to do this – we had some rain).
Here’s the video of the finished product if you want to watch it (just wait for the ad to play!)
Here she is!!!! I honestly couldn’t love him anymore. It makes me so happy every time I get out there, and of course now I’m ready to invest in landscaping (and landscaping) outside the barn. We’ll start with that soon – something natural (likely a landing pad with plants and shrubs).
I like the composition. I loved how the flowers from our yard looked. I love that the colors are so many tones and colors within our home. It all feels coherent and deliberate while being completely unexpected and subtle.
Bert and the boys watched her draw the whole thing – it was so cute (if you’re on social media, be sure to check out the clip we made of them sitting and watching it). Of course the pigs rubbed it and covered it in paint.
Look at our funny farm! Against this beautiful mural. What a funny life we have here 🙂
Huge thanks to Rachel Jackson (i.e. Banyan Bridges) for bringing her talents to my home. While we still have a lot of work left on the property (it seems like it never ends) I hope to bring in more items like this. We’ve gone safely with our house and sometimes it feels like we’ve grown up for Brian and I – but this mural really helps tell more of the story of who we (or me, lol) are.
I feel very lucky to have worked here permanently. I was nervous. What if I invest in something I don’t end up liking? Sure I can draw over it, but not if the entire internet sees it! These were the concerns I had the other day because you never know what a piece of art is going to look like before it’s finished.
I honestly couldn’t be happier with it. It’s very visually pleasing – large-scale, easy on the eye, cohesive color palette, etc. – but more than that it’s cheerful and wild and all the things that Banyan Bridges does so well.
Thank you Rachel for your talented hands and mind 🙂 And thanks for our prom photo, haha. Be sure to follow Racheal on her Instagram (and of course she’s always up for custom murals and art – inside and out). The next step is to landscape this bad boy to give him the real “after” he deserves (without just the dirt in front of him). It will come to you in the spring (hopefully). xx
* Mural by Rachel Jackson
**Photos by Kaitlyn Green
