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A few days ago I was home sick and ended up watching the new ABC show, The Revolution. To be honest, I was kind of saddened that this show replaced One Life to Live, as ABC soaps have been my chicken soup when I’m stuck home ever since I was a little girl (which believe me was a long while ago). Still, what the heck, I’m a captive audience. There is nothing else on TV.
The cast seems pretty good. Ty Pennington has done several shows that I have liked in the past. He’s a decent TV handyman. Today, the segment that caught my eye was all about using children’s artwork and memorabilia – how to showcase it. Watching the segment that you’ll see below, my heart stopped. I immediately started shaking my head and my blood pressure began increasing steadily and rapidly.
Watch the video at http://stagingandredesign.com/2012/wondering-what-to-do-with-your-kids-memorabilia-dont-do-this/
While, on the surface, this seems like an easy enough task, let the professional home stager in me come out and be clear for just a few minutes as a rebuttal to this “fantastic” idea.
First of all, the average homeowner moves every 3-5 years. While many may be staying put a little longer due to economic reasons, I have no doubt that this trend will go right back to where it was in short order. Even if it holds true and we were to say that it shifted to every 5-7 years, consider this…. If you chose to do this with your kids’ artwork, it’s gone forever once you decide you are moving or your child wants a room makeover.
It will not peel off. You will have to scrape it off in little unusable chunks and throw every bit of it away. Don’t think for a moment that you can just leave that to the new buyers. Would YOU buy a home with some other kids artwork wallpapered all over the walls?
Emotionally, how will you feel forever destroying their handy work? I have had to tell more than a few clients to destroy some of the most beautiful and sentimental nurseries or kids’ rooms, telling them to paint over hand prints, foot prints, height charts, custom murals and more. It’s never fun. They never want to do it. They always get mad when I tell them. It’s emotional. It has to be – it’s about your kids and their life and memories. Still, my responses are business-like. They are now selling a property. It needs to be marketed properly to the new buyers.
Click image for more ideas at Pantagraph.com
This idea is going to bring some short term happiness and a significant amount of pain when at some point – and it will happen – you have to rip it all down. Instead, why not try mounting it to a foam board decoupage style, or better yet, hang some pieces in frames around your home and switch some out as they grow, but keep some from when they were small.
I know that on the surface, this idea seemed charming, but the reality is something much different. You child will grow up and not want this as their room any longer or you will decide to move and it will all need to come down. The emotion of destroying all of your children’s artwork in that way is very troublesome to many moms. I have to tell them to do it all the time. Let me save you the pain in advance, just don’t do it.
Featured photo from Social Cafe Mag. They have some great ideas for displaying kids artwork.
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