You Can Paint the Walls of This Melbourne Hotel

Holding a grudge from when mum scolded you for drawing on her walls?

Then heads up disgruntled wannabe-artists: this is one hotel stay you’ll want to book now.

The Olsen hotel in Melbourne – along with two other Art Series Hotel establishments, The Johnson and The Blackman – is letting guests decorate a wall in each of their hotels using stencils and spray paint.

The "Colour Your Stay" experience encourages visitors to get creative. After signing up at reception, guests are guided to a bright, whitewashed room on the hotel’s first floor, which looks less like a suite and more like a do-it-yourselfer’s paradise.

With a table full of stencils to choose from and plenty of blank space to make their mark, guests don fetching protective wear and grab a spray can. Then, they have a speedy two minutes to make their mark, big or small, on the wall, with the finished product to remain part of the suite at the end of the project.

This blank canvas also features a portrait of the hotel’s namesake artist, John Olsen, created by Canberra-born urban artist Elk – real name Luke Cornish – the first stencil artist to become a finalist in both the Archibald and Sulman prizes.

This the latest collaborative art piece in hotel group’s creative history – they aren’t called “Art Series” for nothing. In 2017, the “No Robe” campaign called on guests to de-robe and become a work of art, while in 2011 guests became art thieves-in-training in the “Steal Banksy” experience as they attempted to steal a real Banksy work from the hotel.

“Colour Your Stay” is on between 15 October and 30 December at The Olsen, The Johnson and The Blackman, with packages starting at $189. Sign up to the experience at reception.