Mural Map of Places Past

[KerryB]

I am not sure if this is an appropriate place for this thread. Please let me know if it's not and I'll do my best to fix it. (Still learning my way around here...)

Anyway, many years ago, I had this idea of creating a mural depicting all the homes that we've lived in -- a map of sorts, though it wasn't until this morning that it occurred to me that it might qualify as one here... maybe folks here could weigh in with some long needed advice...

It's in a very small bathroom that is terribly claustrophobic -- about 3'x3' plus a few inches -- and I thought it would be a good canvas. I put a large mirror on the wall opposite the part of the picture that actually has paint and the result is a bright vibrant space that draws your eye upwards, instead of the door that's in your face, (if you desire privacy...lol...)

I pushed my boundaries with this one, because I'd never painted anything folksy before and I challenged myself to mix my own colors, using a book that limits colors/teaches interactions of color mixing, not just theory, Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green by Michael Wilcox -- linky if anyone is interested:
https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Yellow-D.../dp/0967962870 )

Anyway, my mojo ground to a halt when we put heat in an attic room and the only place for the pipes were through that already tiny room -- thus the ugly wooden flex-column. Totally broke the flow of the map and I couldn't reconcile how to make the image work -- every inch of un-mirrored space was sketched out.

A year or five went by and I picked up stained-glass making, (yep, I made that piece in the window...), and another year or five went by...

Every year, I say I'm going to just paint over it, wallpaper it -- something to make it look finished. My family has become accustomed to it as it is and they don't want me to remove it. Problem is that my sketches are starting to get smudged and dirty looking ... (Remarkable really, that they've lasted this long!) I did purchase some clear acrylic-based stuff, thinking that I could topcoat it, which would preserve the pencil marks ... then once it's cured, I could experiment with some wallpaper and see if the bathroom looks more like those found in normal grown-ups houses without losing the pencil & paint underneath...

A part of me wants to finish it. As hokey-folksy-immature as the painting is, it does sorta "work" in the space -- Everyone who comes to our house, (and happens to use that bathroom), asks about it and seems to enjoy the whimsy. I get horrified looks when I say I'm thinking about painting over it instead of finishing it.

What do ya'll think?
Any advice about covering heating & electrical pipes solidly enough to be a firm canvas? (That flex-column is not a permanent thing--I just couldn't stand looking at the pipes & wires..)
(Should I even bother?)