Carpentry Spirit

For the past months since last year, my wife and I have been busy or enjoying activities like room renovations and the like. One long-awaited condo unit has finally become available as the entire construction was completed after being delayed for several years, mainly due to the pandemic, when everything slowed down, especially the construction industry. There was another unit we rented out, but at the end of last year, the tenant left after almost eight years.

So, in short, there are two condo units that we needed to renovate—one is new, so we need to furnish it, and the other is old, so we need to refresh it for another possible tenant.

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From December 2024 to January 2025, we’ve had many activities like year-end gatherings, reunions, parties, lunches, dinners, and even trips. Among all these things, my wife and I also found time to visit home improvement stores and hardware stores to purchase various items like building materials, paint, plumbing and electric equipment, furnishings, décor, and the like. The shops called Home Depot and Wilcon Depot are well-known here, as well as various small and medium-scale shops. We even explored visiting warehouses to purchase items at lower costs.

There have been overwhelming choices. Perhaps this type of DIY industry is quite popular. And moreover, these things are indeed the foundation of our human living. Without them, our day-to-day life couldn’t be managed.

They are often taken for granted, but all these things are a kind of lifeline for us. If you visit the restrooms in a shopping mall and are impressed by the way all things are well-crafted and nicely done, interestingly, you might feel a sort of creativity. Imagine such a situation where you perform an act of art appreciation while visiting a shopping mall restroom. Likewise, when you visit hotels, there are various options, from reasonable pension types to glamping sites to Airbnb homes to five-star amazing hotels and the like.

In all of them, there is, in one way or another, a significant amount of effort by people who want to make them beautiful. Knowing these efforts, we can consider them works of art; hence, everywhere around you could be an art museum. Isn’t that fascinating?

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So, for the past months, my wife and I have been acting like carpenters and artists. Especially, I feel my wife has been enthusiastic in this creative role. While she keeps saying she is doing this out of necessity, at the same time, I can clearly sense her carpentry spirit has been ignited, making her passionate. If she says it is a necessity, then I can tell this necessity has transformed her into a passionate carpenter and artist.

Whatever we do, all activities can become the act of an artist if we do them with the carpentry spirit.

My wife and I have spent a good amount of effort selecting the best items for our room renovations. There are overwhelming choices of vendors and products. And of course, we also have to design the rooms, such as deciding which color of paint and what combinations of colors should be used, and what materials would be best for this case or that.

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There are tons of DIY videos on YouTube, so my wife has been checking many of them. Also, every time we visit various facilities like hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, and museums, our interest is on the furnishings, décor, and the like.

Imagine being in a museum; aside from the artworks exhibited, everything there, including the museum itself—its architecture—is an object of art appreciation. As mentioned above, this attitude extends even to shopping mall restrooms!

Artworks are everywhere if you have your carpentry spirit. Your curiosity might lead you to ask how they did it, what materials they used, and so on. Furthermore, we also feel a sense of respect for all the workers who did such good jobs. They are indeed artists!

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In school, we learned that one of the first artworks humans created could be the cave paintings of Lascaux, located in the Dordogne region of southwestern France. These are some of the well-preserved examples of prehistoric art, dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period, approximately 17,000 years ago.

But one thing we should remember, in my opinion, is that these paintings are not exactly artworks in the modern sense, like “professional artists” creating for fame-driven creativity, often self-deceivingly or unconsciously so. Such a mindset of professional artists is possible only in the context of modern and postmodern consumerism.

The “intention” of the painters of Lascaux at that time, I imagine, would be purer if not primitive. One reason is that these paintings emerged from their sentiments toward everyday hunting activities. Those animals were a strong concern in their lives at that time. Without them, they literally couldn’t survive. Another possible reason is what I call their carpentry spirit.

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The cave might have been one of their living spaces or a special space for rituals or social gatherings. Whichever the case, the initial desire was to make the place a little bit better, igniting their creativity. It could have been the effort to make things beautiful and comfortable, just like the way all carpenters work—from furnishing to decorating, even plumbing and tiling.

Just a few days ago, my wife and I completed tiling the kitchen area. The new tiles, while industrial products from a factory, were so nice and really transformed the space. We felt art in it. And we felt that a carpenter helped us become good artists. We both felt like creators and art appreciators.

The next step is to select good WPC fluted wall panels. While they are far different from the cave paintings of Lascaux, I am certain that my wife and I, as well as the people in the caves 17,000 years ago, share the same carpentry spirit, driven by the intention to make our spaces beautiful and artistic. We are all artists as long as we are passionate, ignited, and driven by this carpentry spirit.

Image: Photos captured by the author.