Art corner and unexpected beauty {an ode to ignoring trends}

I've noticed something among us bloggers. 

We are trend followers... at times religiously. You only have to be on Pinterest to see that one person has an idea, and then it gets repeated oh, say, 9000 times as a 'creative' design elsewhere on the internet.

I have nothing against Pinterest or trends or bloggers... ohhh no. But sometimes I have to remind myself that beauty isn't always in the form of a trend. It's really hard to be truly creative these days without shutting off all that 'inspiration' and coming across some happy accidents.

On that note, here is my art corner.

Nope, it's no studio. And you won't spot a white parson's desk or chevron patterned accessories anywhere (tho I wouldn't mind...)

It has it's own character that is utterly off-trend. A crate from the parent's garage (25 years old, crawling with spiders at the time of discovery), bits of card and paper that I've tested paint on, tobacco tins from my Opa (with ancient tubes of oil paint inside) and various other bits and pieces that just happened.

{You can see the rest of the office and before-and-after here if you haven't already.}

Some would call it junk...

 .... and I would have to agree ;) (partly). But it's functional junk. Kinda. I'm not saying I wouldn't change it if I could (I dream of an actual studio space), but it's good to find satisfaction with the quaint everyday bits and pieces - even when literally stuffed into a small corner - I believe.

You know what else I found?

A piece of cardboard I use as a palette when I'm painting.
I don't really pay attention to it when I'm painting, but I love it. I'm tempted to frame it. Those are my colours, yo. And the way they are loosely mixed and layered tells a bit of a story. Hmm, I wonder if it would be easy to recreate something like this on a GIANT scale???! Would be an amazing canvas, don't you think?