One Long Island City resident has found a way to jazz up one of the city's most ubiquitous eyesores: construction scaffolding.
Chris Carlson was looking for a way to make his surroundings a little more cheery after a wall of scaffolding was erected a little over a year ago, next door to his home on 47th Road, where a developer is building a new apartment complex.
The 43-year-old said he first got permission from construction workers at the site to paint the scaffolding a vibrant blue, and then took to regularly decorating the plywood with posters and funky art.
"It started as just a way to dull the horror of construction," said Carlson, a cameraman by trade who's lived in the neighborhood for about five years. "It was brutal living right there — they're nice, the builders next door, but it's still an eyesore."
The wall of scaffolding, located off 11th Street, is currently adorned with a string of holiday lights and funky art, plus photos of famous faces like Johnny Cash, Bill Murray, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits and Christopher Walken in a bunny suit.
There's a picture of a boom box, a B-52s poster and several small images of Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski meditating.
"I just pick out my favorite — Bill Murray, whoever I'm in the mood for that week — and then I'll just kind of print the picture," he said.
He says he puts up new images when the current ones get weather-worn. Last year, he'd covered the plywood with a large picture of Pac-Man and his four ghosts with the words, "Never Give Up."
His canvas has a shelf life, though: Carlson said the construction next door is expected to wrap up this fall.
He's not the first New Yorker to put a positive spin on unseemly scaffolding — business owners on the Upper West Side have garnished construction equipment with things like balloons and colorful umbrellas to draw attention to their shops, DNAinfo reported last month.