Famous artist covered his entire home in doodles over two years to make his dream house a reality.
Sam Cox, also known by the name Mr. Doodle is a well-known illustrator. He was made famous by his transformation of an Appear here pop-up into a live art installation in Old Street Station, London, in 2017.
He was not only a famous artist but also had another lifelong dream. He had always wanted to have a “doodle house” since he was a teenager. He was inspired from the cartoons and videogames he had as a child.
He and his wife Alena bought a 6-bedroom house in Tenterden, Kent, in 2020.
The seller of the house didn’t want doodles on its walls but he was open to their request. He was an artist and his passion for drawing doodles drove him to start drawing in every corner of the house.
Cox shared a stop motion video of his dream home, covered in doodles, that he created. From the walls to the furniture and even amenities, he didn’t leave any surface free of drawings, including the television, stove, and bath, which are filled with black-and-white doodles.
Cox says that he didn’t plan any of his doodles, but he did create a theme for each room. The stairs are chock-full of Heaven and Hell drawings while the Hallway is bursting with Noah’s Ark creations.
His main bedroom has a “dream” theme while his en-suite bathroom has a sea theme. It is covered with doodles depicting different sea creatures on 2,000 tiles.
“I had a rough idea of the theme but the individual doodles are spontaneous,” he said.
“My main inspiration still goes back to when I was a kid watching Tom and Jerry, Wacky Races and SpongeBob SquarePants, and video games like Crash Bandicoot. I always wanted to draw characters for video games.”
Cox shared that he used black acrylic painting for his doodles, and a bingo marker pen of four sizes. For a more artistic outcome, he used spray paint to paint the outside. He used 286 spray paint bottles, 900 liters in emulsion, as well as 2,296 pens.
It took him two months to complete the first phase of his doodling projects. But the great illustrator insisted on finishing it by himself. ‘It’s the longest project I’ve done. I wanted to say I’d done it all myself.’
He was proud to show the world his dream home, which he doodled without anyone’s help. “The whole house is real, everything is doodled, the doodles were all hand doodled for the animation it’s not CGI,” said Cox.
The artist shared an animation of the outside his house, which included his doodled Tesla. The post said, “the world is getting doodled!” He said that he did the whole animation by himself, consisting of 1857 photographs that he took over the last two years.
Cox stated that he is thrilled that his doodles now live in the UK. He and his wife plan to continue living in their doodle house for the next few weeks.
There is only one downside, though: curious neighbors couldn’t help but ring the doorbell to ask about his doodle house. He has not had any complaints about his doodles, so it’s not necessary to change the aesthetics of his home.
‘I’m unlikely to be persuaded to move, even if it was amazing money,” Cox said. ‘I’d feel sad leaving this house because it’s my first one.’
The success of his dream “doodle” house inspired Cox to further spread his creativity by doodling more houses in his area and possibly making a “doodle” town.
“The completion of the house is just the beginning of my childhood dream to doodle the entire planet and to encourage the art world to recognize doodles as an art form,” Cox concluded.
Follow Mr. Doodle’s Instagram page to see more of his works.
