Painting my bungalow in Munich

For those living in Olydorf’s bungalows, painting your bungalow is nearly a rite of passage. During the semester break, I decided I would paint my bungalow – given the weather was honestly quite nice that week in February. Thanks to Olydorf’s club GRAS (Grünanlagen- und Umweltausschuss), the process is pretty straightforward and affordable! With only a €30 deposit, I picked up all the paint colors and equipment that I needed from their kiosk in Olydorf’s “Marienplatz.”

I took inspiration from tons of other bungalows in Olydorf. I combined aspects from them that I either just thought were pretty or seemed like they wouldn’t require a high amount of artistic skill to do (as aesthetic as the Pinterest board I’d made as inspiration was, I could not by any means replicate any of it by myself on such a large scale).

Ultimately, I settled on my design: a light blue background as the sky with fluffy clouds at the top and flowers scattered across the middle and bottom.

Executing this design, however, would require a good amount of teamwork. Four of my friends helped me paint my bungalow: Safiya and Schröder from JYM and Beata and Chiara whom I’d met through my language class.

With the help of a small IKEA table to stand on, and by precariously leaning over the balcony railing, we managed to cover every corner of my bungalow’s exterior and then some. As a sort of signature, we added our handprints in different pastel shades above my doorbell.

I have to say my favorite part was the wisteria that Chiara added right above my door that I walked under every time I entered my bungalow.

Towards the end of my stay in Munich, the flowers at the bottom were covered by real ones, and with the warmer weather I was almost tempted to paint it all over again...

By Josie Foust, JYM '23-24, Boston University '25