Rock and Roll Wall Art Hits Ireland!

Rock and Roll Wall Art by Aaron Christensen

How sweet is my client? She's my latest international wall art client from Ireland. Her Mom and I had some international shipping things to overcome at first but now my girls Rock and Roll art and wall decals have a wall to call home. They sent me this picture today and it made my day! 

ABC's Modern Family Argues While My Art Just Sits There

I received texts and emails last night that my Girl's Rock and Roll Art had some serious airtime on ABC's  Modern Family.  The hilarious show aired in 2009 with my art as set decoration in Alex Dunphy's bedroom.  It's had some great screen time through the years, but the funny thing is, it's almost always during some kind of conflict.  The two daughters fight, the mom Claire fights...it's a regular backdrop for family disfunction, which is what Modern Family does best.

If you're in the Dunphy decorating mood and want a backdrop for your parent and teen disfunction, it's available in reproductions on my site-  http://www.embellishmentsstudio.com/music-and-rock-art-by-aaron-christensen.html

If your little Rock Star need some attitude in her room you could always pick up my Peel and Stick Wall Decals by RoomMates at your local Target store.

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.