Outdoor art...

My friends recently built a house (coincidentally, on the coast of Maine) and B has spent the past year or so making it their own with clever, creative touches often including re-purposed or upcycled items (like the salad bowl light fixture that I covet!). One of my favorite things that they have done is to build an outdoor shower using mismatched old doors. 

I had the pleasure (as announced to me through the window by the 7 year old as she stood on the toilet resting her elbows on the sill over my head during my shower and chattered with me) of being only the second person to have showered out there. I'll admit that I quite enjoyed the view of their back yard and surrounding woods through the clear glass panes and unfettered screen door. However, after Alex enlightened me about the lack of privacy from above, I looked around and realized that although the view to the back yard is lovely, the view from the kitchen door down into the shower is... revealing. 

Later, after A was informed of the residual soap on his neck by the helpful 7 year old from her perch in the window, B and I decided to undertake a quick art project before we had to hit the road to address at least some of the privacy issue (which we are still chuckling about!) Luckily my ever-crafty friend has a ton of supplies so we pulled out some brushes and paints and started painting window panes. (How she's going to rig a privacy screen between the window and the outdoor shower remains to be seen but I imagine she will come up with something!)

Their family quite enjoys collecting sea glass so she made a painted sea glass mosaic on her side. She only did from the shoulders down so as to preserve as much of the view as possible. 

On my side I painted a pseudo-Cape Cod beach scene. I don't LOVE the finished product but it's not bad for a quickie painting. The water, sky and sun came out close to my vision but the sand/water interface and the wave peaks aren't quite what I had in mind. (A tells me I'm too critical of my art... Yup.)

My side faces the aforementioned kitchen door so I opted for a solid design. B's side faces the once-a-month-propane-delivery-guy possible peekaboo so less privacy is really required. 

B had also purchased some fun outdoor vinyl to add some privacy to the screen door. When it's done, it's going to be a funky, eclectic piece of art in the yard!

The best part? An hour and a half of gabbing with my dear friend while enjoying the sunshine. (We love to do projects together!) Even if she decides she doesn't like the designs and scrapes them off to start again, that's okay with me because the fun was in the bonding! As a matter of fact, it might be fun to change the scenes on the panes now and then!