Lacrosse Wall Art - The latest sports art series.

Fueled by special requests, I'm happy to reveal the latest sports wall art series to add to my collection- Lacrosse.

Live Love Lax!  Lacrosse Collage featuring nine images on one canvas or poster.

Available as one canvas or print in sizes from 12" to 36" the collage wall hanging features Lacrosse terms, slang and equipment.  Also available from my website are individual prints of the images in the collage.

Lacrosse Wall Art - Attack Area  available as stretched canvases and paper prints.

Official Lacrosse Ball Wall Art - available in sizes from 12" to 36"

Lacrosse Canvas and Prints available - Division Champions

Lacrosse Decor - available as prints and canvases - Rip the Duck

Stick Doctor - Lacrosse Wall Art in Canvas and Paper

Lacrosse Painting / Print / Wall Hanging - Bullseye

Yard Sale - Lacrosse Wall Art for Teens, Kids and Home

Lacrosse Ball - Available on Canvas and as Paper Prints

Lacrosse Art Print and Canvas - Slash

Blanket Forts and Toilet Paper Ghosts - Rosenberry Rooms Shares my Story

Top children's retailer, Rosenberry Rooms recently interviewed me for their Very Rosenberry Blog.  The owner Susie Fougerousse had some fun and interesting questions to pose.  I enjoyed having the chance to share some behind the scenes stories and a little backstory on how my path as a children's designer began.

up, uP, UP on a pedestal - The Good Doctor, Dr. Seuss

While most artists rattle off a list of historical figures like Picasso, Monet or whomever as their inspiration. I take a somewhat more whimsical path into the dewberry dawn...the shimmering seas, where the swamie swans swim in the suntacular breeze. That's where you'll find the mind of Dr. Seuss. Theodore Geisel, the good Dr. Seuss is one of my most favorite artists. Although my art generally seems quite opposite to his. I share his love of advertising, having fonts be a subject matter and rethinking what's been thunk before.

Tomorrow, I will be posting a terrific Seuss-like adventure into my first D.I.Y. on this blog. It will also be a place to have conversation with visuals about being an original artist. Original artists takes what they find for fun that is funner, shake it around in their brain until it's new, like no other. (sorry, had to put a Seuss-like spin on it).

In the children's room decorating business, there's a lot of copyrighted properties that children love ie. Batman, Hannah Montana, Yo Gabba Gabba and so on. During my fourteen years designing children's spaces, I've been asked to duplicate or create murals of all the popular characters. As a business person, aware of copyright theft issues and liabilities and a sense of wrong versus right morally, I've chosen to steer my clients another direction. Yes, it can be hard work, but it's worth it. They appreciate originality and in the end respect you more for your creativity.

Understand that abandoning the idea of duplicating copyrighted works doesn't mean you can't please your client. You can create Batman's world, with skyscrapers, the moody night sky and even a cave as long as you are inventing the ideas yourself and not duplicating the work of others, which include his likeness, the logos or pages from comic books. Paint a great Batman-like room and order the licensed products to fill it, if that's what your client wants. But do not steal or as it's technically called infringe upon the intellectual property of others.

What about Seuss, what's this to do with Seuss? Okay...I had a client whom collected Dr. Seuss's art. Not only did they collect his illustrated works, they own several pieces of his contemporary art and sculptures. They wanted me to create a Seuss room for their daughter. Having had a lifetime love of the good Doctors work, I was eager to take on the challenge.

I worked up some drawings based upon my thoughts of what I thought Dr. Seuss would do. How would he address a bed, paint a wall or decorate? If you are inspired by an artist, a designer or a product, you are free to use them as inspiration to generate something new. This doesn't mean color copying, collaging, tracing or altering it, it must be something new, from your own hand. In this case I dreamt up Seuss-like objects, that I sculpted in my studio. I do not claim for them to be Seuss, it's not using his characters or brands, I'm not selling them in the market place confusing people into thinking they are Seuss, they simply are inspired by him one-of-a-kinds. Because they are original, now they are my copyright, my creation that can not be duplicated, or used without my permission or license. I hope this makes sense.

My client is happy, they have a Seuss like room, no copied characters, no rip offs, nothing but originality inspired by the good Doctor.

I made it my own with Seuss in my thoughts. A tribute to him, no stealing, no cops. Now look what I did, enjoy it you may. Now look what I did, be inspired this way. As you sit on your bumple, scratching your head, "what is it to be original, what is it I said?" It's a place in your heart, a place in mind, a place that all artists must honestly find. So with these kind words, I bid you good day said Aaron the artist, on Seuss's Birthday!


If you need some studio magic for your child's room we can design, create and ship nationwide.  Visit my website for details.

What's old is new and what's new is hot!

What's old is new and what's new (meaning old) is hot, not that new (as new) is not, uhm.....we'll something like that....

Meaning, there's been a resurgence in interest of all things old, especially those of an industrial and pre-industrial era to expand back further than the recent revisit to mid-century. When companies like CB2, Restoration Hardware and Anthropology are looking backwards for design ideas and even offering vintage one of a kinds, that's something to take note of. Have you seen the recent Pottery Barn catalogs and in-store offerings? They're taking us back, way back to pre-industrial era with rustic pottery and rough hewn pieces.

Pottery Barn offering vintage cameras

Restoration Hardware's factory cart table

Restoration Hardware's Aviation inspired aluminum side table

Obviously, as an artist who enjoys vintage inspiration in his modernized pieces, I'm excited to see the trend grow.

In the realm of children's room design, I've always been a bit of a retro kinda guy. I like to procure vintage pieces or have reproductions and one of a kinds made by through my studio, to incorporate into our room designs. A vintage piece adds character and provides a sense of longevity or timelessness to the room.

Instead of a slick ultra bright race car, this client chose for us to create a

room with a sense of heritage and time worn charm. Our custom twin sized truck bed, although new, looked like it had been parked for 50 years.

My Speedway Art is available as reproductions and prints

Our Speed Demon room featured vintage objects combined with "new" creations we made

in the studio. I used my art as a visual replacement of a headboard.

The Max Transit wall art collection

http://www.embellishmentsstudio.com/store/c77/TRANSPORTATION_%26_RACING.html

Max Transit Art Collection is available as individual reproductions in many sizes and as a full collage containing all nine.

My latest art release entitled "Max Transit" does a bit of a switch a roo. Instead of reaching the vintage stage via texture I chose to go for a more graphic approach. With its gears, maps and instruments it has an industrial feel but done in a modern way. These pieces can bridge the gap between the slick modern furniture you see in stores today and yet allow the homeowner to bring in a vintage look.

Here, I've provided you with 3 vignettes showing how my work could be incorporated into a boy's transportation room that utilizes vintage industrial looks combined with a modern aesthetic. I'm quite fond of raw, unpainted metals like aluminum, galvanized, chrome and zinc plating. If you stick to the white metals you can mix and match freely. If you prefer the golden metals you can tone them down by using brown waxed shoe polish as you would a traditional wax polish. Be sure to let the piece dry before handling.

Option A utilizes one of a kind pieces, products from higher end retailers 1stDibs, Rejuvenation Lighting, Serena and Lily, Room and Board and a few off the shelf items.

Option B draws it's vocabulary of items from traditional retail environments like Rosenberry Rooms, Land of Nod, Lowes, Urban Outfitters and Caden Lane with some one of a kinds.

Option C incorporates similar looks for less with help from Target, Toys R us and Ikea.

The Max Transit collection is part of my spring introduction and is available through fine retailers and independent boutiques. Email me if you need assistance with finding a retailer or if you are interested in purchasing them directly from Embellishments.

Also available in a personalized growth chart.

Great resource for vintage industrial are Ebay, Etsy, 1stDibs.com, Dog dish lights, Rejuvenation and even Craigslist. Here in Portland, I love to browse a material handling company store. They often pass on used equipment such as carts, dollies, work benches and more. If you have a great site to pass on please leave it in the comments for others to browse.

Enjoy!

Teen Bedroom Makeover- Goodbye Kid, hello Young Adult!

Back in July, I opened up a contest on our facebook page asking for submissions of kid's rooms for a makeover. Having a hard time deciding on just one, I chose three winners. The first of our three winner's, Nick has been anxiously awaiting the reveal of his new room. As a Birthday gift to him, yesterday we completed the room while he was at school. Now, I'm happy to share with you the finished project. We've taken Nick's room from a messy, eclectic one he's outgrown and turned it into a more modern, sleek, storage filled one with plenty of room for friends to hang out.

If you want to follow the progress of the makeover from the beginning, I've posted links to the project beginnings at the end of this post.

First, and most obvious from the original pictures of Nick's room, he needed storage. One of the leading causes of a messy room, other than age appropriate procrastination, is inadequate storage. To remedy the issue, I designed a wall storage niche, desk and headboard configuration which we built on site with the table saw artistry support of Nick's Dad. We then removed the legs from his 2 x 6 constructed bed and mounted it "floating" between the headboard and the walls. To dress it up we created a "weathered steel" facade which mounted over the face. The accent wall of red was highlighted with a custom 3D, backlit piece of art comprised of 5 dimensional letter "N's" of various typestyles. This was an abstract way to express Nick's various interests in science fiction, music, theater and acting.

Our secondary storage goal was to get his closet back into working order. The bypass doors had been removed by this parents to create an area for his TV, and AV equipment. In doing so it left his hang bar and other shelving open and exposed.

To return order to his chaos, we installed and finished out a new wall in the middle of the closet niche. This would serve as a divider between the two revamped areas. To the left, shelves were installed to hold his electronics. To the right a hang bar and shelving was reinstalled, restoring his closet into working order. We reinstalled one of the bypass doors with a facelift of blackboard paint and new trim.

To free up floor space and create seating opportunities we removed the roll top desk and replaced it with a revamped and restyled chair. The newly found space also gave room to display his guitar and a personalized piece of art we had Nick create. The art is a collage presentation of his goals, dreams and images to motivate and inspire him (see detailed photos at the end of this post).

Pictured below are details about the room including the custom roller shade and cornice.

This 10 x 9 foot room went from very crowded and underutilized to seemingly spacious and clutter free. It's personality reflects that of Nick, a young man with aspirations and confidence in who he is. It was a terrific project and I'm glad to have been of service. I'd like to thank Nick's parents for their faith in my ideas and their hands-on assistance during the project. The following images offer some details about the individual features of the room.

If you would like to see more of our custom bedrooms be sure to visit our website EmbellishmentsKids.com. Aaron Christensen's Embellishments is based in Portland, Oregon and is available for consultation/hire throughout the west coast. We also offer design packages created remotely with correspondence via internet and phone.

http://embellishmentskids.blogspot.com/2010/07/kids-bedroom-makeover-with-ryan.html
http://embellishmentskids.blogspot.com/2010/08/before-to-after-teens-bedroom-makeover.html

A Teen Room Makeover in Process

A continuation of our kids room makeover series of posts.....

We are in the midst of turning Nick's teenage room from it's blue and green disorganized state into a stylish, storage filled hangout. Gone are the chunky furniture pieces, replaced with a sleek headboard and space divider that melds into a floor to ceiling desk and storage area. The multi colored scheme of blue, aqua and white has been buried for good under a contemporary gray and red palette. The 9 x 10 room has grown in scale, visually, due to the reduction of those colors and the unifying of walls and ceiling by using a single color. At our studio, his new art monogram wall art is underway. It will mount relief style in front of the red wall, reducing the red to a graphic border. With the help of Nick's Dad, we are returning his open closet to a closet with a rolling door, with one alteration. We are shrinking the closet to half it's original width. The unused half will be home to open shelving to be used as his media center.

Next up...

1) Transforming his existing 2x6 wooden bed frame into a floating faux metal masterpiece utilizing paint techniques and Hollywood movie prop style embellishments.

2) Creating a one of a kind work of art by making tangible Nick's goals and dreams to become a Broadway Singer and Actor!

3) Bedding - a touch of plaid honoring his Scottish heritage, but with a rock and roll edge.

And more.....stay tuned.

Before to After - A teen's bedroom makeover in process.

Today, I met with Nick and his family to review my ideas for his teen bedroom makeover. He's the all american 15 year old. He loves music, plays the guitar and the violin. Hanging with his friends, computers and science fiction are a big part of his life. His room is his hangout, it's filled with glimpses of his younger years and aspirations for the future. Wanting to be an actor / musician he's got his eyes set on performing in the theater, hopefully on Broadway. During his remaining years at home and through high school, I look forward to him enjoying his soon to be made-over room. The before pictures can be viewed on my previous post.

Nick's room is only 10 x 9, so utilizing every inch is the easiest way to improve his conditions. We will replace his oversized writing desk and hutch with something more efficient. I've proposed building a custom headboard and desk storage area to accommodate the book collections and memorabilia he has. We will be altering his wooden bed to make it look made from metal. A unique backlit, relief mounted piece of focal art will enhance the red background behind his bed. It will feature five custom 3 dimensional "N"'s of various typestyles and colors to express his interests in Rock, Classical, Modern Technology and Sci fi in an abstract way.

His window wall will be dressed up with a cornice board to hide his louvered blind mechanism and hold his new custom roller shade. It will be painted with a NY skyline. Small holes, resembling stars and little windows will be cut out of it to allow light to shine through. Giving the illusion it's a night sky. Art and a mount for his guitar will round out this view.

His closet wall will be altered from an open closet niche to an enclosed closet with adjacent storage shelves for his media components. A reclaimed, reupholstered chair and a wall shelve will flank a unique piece of art that I will be helping Nick create. It will be a realized projection of himself in the future, using photographs, magazine clippings and some of my painterly touches. It will serve to remind him of his amazing personal goals.

The color scheme for the room will be warm tone grays with antique reds and hints of denim/chambray blues.

Nick has been packing up his things, getting ready for the process to begin. He's very excited as am I. It's a pleasure meeting and working with such a fine young man.

Kids Bedroom Makeover with Ryan Seacrest? What?

Last week, I wrote on our Facebook page asking for submissions of kid's rooms in need of a makeover. I have some new products and new techniques I was hoping to experiment with and photograph in the made-over room. There was an overwhelming response. Now came the hard part.

I'm more of a Paula Abdul judge than a Simon Cowell. I'd much rather tilt my head side to side, smile and see the opportunities within, rather than be critical. But, unless I wanted to do twelve makeovers, I had to start narrowing things down. Immediately, there were obvious rooms that could be cut from the contenders and I don't think they were surprised by my actions. They really didn't need a makeover, just some editing and creative storage. They were the Chris Daultrey's and Adam Lamberts of room makeovers, just a little grooming and styling and they're done. I'm on the hunt for the William Hung or tone deaf, two left feet kinda spaces.

Down to six candidates, I posted them to our Facebook page looking for opinions. The comments and observations were fantastic. But, even with the great feedback, I was presented with a dilemma. A makeover theoretically means there's a before and after. It's the contrast between the two that shows the depth of change. Undoing what's been done and creating new would be the intriguing part of this. Much like this room. The room with no closet, technology spiderwebbed all over, nursery colors and the teenage need for storage. Undoing this "kid's" room and making a "teen" space would be great fun and a challenge.

The dilemma is this room presented as a blank slate, and I mean blank. Does that qualify? The accompanying story is sweet of two girls, sharing space who love fairies and princesses. Surely, two little fairy girls are deserving of a makeover...right? To create more challenges, I find out the room has 3 mysteriously placed attic access doors. Sweet and challenging....hmmm. The owners hit more of a road block which means the room will never progress past this point. There are a lot of parents that hit that same obstacle. They've purchase furniture, placed it in the room and have no idea what to do, especially when presented with two girls of varying ages, likes and 3 weird doors. So, Yes it is a makeover, officially candidate #2.

A third option consists of a room that started off okay, but lost it's direction. It lacked personality so it's a great makeover story in the making. Two boys, rough and tumble, love building things, how things work and are fast becoming the best of friends. Their room could be a place of imagination, fun times and brotherly bonding but it's missing the fun factor and bonus...there's a weird air duct "growth" just hanging on the wall and a out of scale door that leads into their attic play space, under the eaves. What to do...what to do??

The remaining candidates were all very similar, they are great spaces needing something to make them function better or come alive. They were good candidates, but in my American Idol analogy, they could sing, but couldn't find their voice. They're Top 10 material, but couldn't make the cut.

So, as of this post my top three are evident. The "I'm a teen, not a toddler", "Blank - a design roadblock" and "What's that weird duct thing doing in my boring room" rooms.

WHO'S THE WINNER OF THE MAKEOVER?

So, in classic Paula Abdul fashion, I nod and clap, hymn and haw, talk nice and vote all three through. What does that mean? Well, instead of just selecting one room, I select all three, THREE WINNERS!

In depth, this will mean three separate makeovers, with three separate goals and looks. All of which, I'll document and share with you here on the blog. Now, the intention is for these to be made-over, which doesn't mean a full revamp with all new this and all new that, like some game show prize. I'm going to rework the rooms, add some Embellishments tricks and techniques, build things from scratch, shop for a few new things, alter the existing and put the parents to work. We will be teaming up for some sewing, painting, crafty stuff and handyman hardwork. If we can work out our schedules to accommodate this, I'll be working on one room each month for the next three months and sharing the progress with you, here.

Thanks to all the loving parents whom submitted their child's room. I appreciate your faith in my abilities and willingness to allow me to take on this task. This will be fun. Be sure to bookmark or follow the blog for updates.

Coming soon....

Visiting the rooms onsite and discussing ideas for the makeovers.