Design on a Dime, Ghana style

Ok, so the long awaited pictures of my house are in, Mom, I know you are thrilled. I’ll take you through the process provided you should ever want to decorate with little to no funds in an impoverished country. (some of the pics are included here, the rest can be viewed as a slide show, its listed under My House, to the right)

First let me say that one of the most important aspects to my personal comfort is an attractive space. Maybe it’s the architect in me, but I’ve been this way since childhood, moving my bedroom around every few months and staying up way too late to put every little thing in its place before going to sleep. I’m not going to pretend that I keep everything in its place after, but nobody’s perfect.

I also love to create something out of nothing. I practically majored in dumpster diving, considering that several projects had material lists which ordered us to go to the salvage yard. In my own home, everything was recycled from somewhere. I don’t think I’ve actually ever purchased a piece of furniture in my entire life. Oh, yes I did, the beautiful mahogany vanity with the busted mirror, whose life I saved for 20 bucks and free delivery in North Carolina. Beyond that, it’s all hand-me down, and resurrected stuff.

So, to begin, I live in a duplex, with concrete walls and glass windows. (Here’s the plan.) This is far nicer than I ever anticipated. The furniture was already here and I have no idea how old it is, but its really heavy. Moving one of the chairs practically breaks me. The place was not cozy in the least and the walls were plain old dirty white. I couldn’t wait to begin the transformation, so the first Saturday I was here, I found paint. You only have about 5 choices for paint, so I chose yellow and red.

(The bedroom was already green and I decided to leave it for later.)

First, I painted, which took a while because the ceilings are high and I don’t have a ladder, so I had to climb on the backs of the chairs and stretch and somehow, I reached. Tip: when painting in sub-Saharan climate, paint will dry as fast as you roll it on. You have no choice but to finish the job that day because the paint will dry up. I ran out of paint at the very end of the living room and I just haven’t bought more. You can only buy gallons and I need just a tiny bit, so for now, there’s a giant unpainted square beneath the windows.

I decided to paint a chalkboard on the wall by taping off a square and filling it in with black oil based paint. I didn’t really know what I was doing and once I painted it, it was too glossy for the chalk to work, so as it dried, I patted the entire square down with baking powder, allowing it to dry with the baking powder on it. It worked!! I have a real chalk board and its awesome for my schedule and shopping lists.

OK, SO I WROTE THIS WITH THE INTENTION OF PLACING PICTURES IN IT BUT I'M OUT OF TIME, SO THE TEXT CORRESPONDS WITH THE SLIDE SHOW, YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO VIEW THEM SEPERATELY, SORRY.

I bought the cheapest fabric, its used as lining, in plain white and washed all of the windows and hung the curtains using simple nails and just hammering it in leaving a little extra in between so that it has a nice flow.

I used the old broken door from the bedroom closet as a bulletin board, because you can’t really use the walls since they’re concrete. I took some of the extra panes of glass and placed pictures of Louisiana between them and placed them on the coffee table.

I found some chicken-wire fencing and cut a piece big enough to fit the space above the sofa and cut some pictures out of a book someone left behind here and made a wall hanging. It suspended by two rubber-bands between the window frames, the only thing you can hammer into.

I used stuff I already had to decorate, like my straw hat and market bag, they’re easily accessible and look nice hanging in the red kitchen. I moved the furniture around and brought in the wooden reclining chair from outside where it was never used. I cleaned up the kitchen counter, which was disgusting, and repainted it with the left over black paint.

The Christmas tree is from my mom. I can’t remember if I mentioned the day I got it. I came home from the post office and opened the box with the little tree and the tiny ornaments and I just couldn’t get over how much mom’s know what you need. She made Christmas so special for me by sending that tree, words escape me. I love it so much, I’m not ready to put it away.

So that’s it really. I love it here now. I sit in the living room listening to all of the hustle and bustle outside while I paint and draw and boil water for tea and I feel at home. It makes such a difference.

My courtyard is small but nice because I can hang my laundry privately and store my bike. This is my gate to the outside. I’m not ready to take my camera out in front of people here yet, so I only have inside pictures. I’m going to gradually ease myself into taking pictures here. Its different since I live here. I am trying to be equal, not the rich white lady.

The pigs are behind my house in a mud pen and I save all of my peelings and food compost and feed it to them. Someone had just fed them, so when I got there they were pretty happy. As I stood there, I saw this sunset.

And finally, my little bathing area and my room ready for bed. It’s a great little place.