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! 

12 Great Baseball Decor Ideas and DIY's for Boy's Rooms and Nurseries

Please visit our new site for 12 great uses for vintage baseballs.

http://www.embellishmentsstudio.com/studio-news-and-journal/12-great-baseball-decor-ideas-and-diys-for-boys-rooms-and-nurseries

Thank you, Aaron

New Wall Art and Decor by Aaron Christensen- Perfect for Boy's Rooms

Introducing the American Byways Collection

I'm happy to announce new additions to my wall art and decor line.  The collection explores the ever-popular transportation theme in a nostalgic, vintage way.  With distressed and reclaimed wood imagery in wood tones, turquoises and teals, the pieces are on trend with a color palette and textures popular in kid's rooms.   Featuring a U.S. map and forms of transportation, the collection offers a timeless look that has terrific value being able to transition from toddler room decor to art for adult spaces.

Hopping from cornfield runways to small city airports the American
Byways Prop Plane piece brings to mind the joys of small aircraft travel.

While Hot Air ballooning is no longer a current form of transportation,
the image of a balloon evokes thoughts of traveling amongst the clouds and
soaring the skies in days bygone.

Hitting the dusty back roads in a Pick-up truck, visiting every small
town in-route is inferred in this nostalgic piece.

Clickety clack, clickety clack.  The Locomotive image reminds us of
the glamour and intrigue of transcontinental railroad travel.

With it's road signs and vintage ephemera, the American Byways map pays tribute
to the cross country road trip.

The American Byways Lampshade/Lamp set coordinates with the collection.

My new introductions are only available, for the first six months, artist direct through my website or exclusively through brick and mortar stores that carry my line.  This gives Main Street America a chance to present and sell the pieces before the online retailers.   

Teen Bedroom $300.00 Makeover Challenge - Today's Creative Blog

A dear friend I worked with years ago turned creative blog high priestess asked for a favor and presented me with a challenge.  Could I take over her $300.00 gift card budget for a sponsored room makeover and transform her son's room?  And in 72 hours?

Tattered and loopy from a 14 day commercial project that whacked out my body clock with graveyards, swing shifts and too many hours in traffic, I must have been in YES man mode.  Why YES Kim, I'd love too.  Why YES, I'll scour your sponsor Lowe's store for ways to spend the moolah, create unique items and install in 72 hours.  YES, YES, YES.....

Kim's son Lucas' room was trapped in transition.  The explorer theme had yet to evolve to match his young teen soccer loving bravado.

All kidding aside, my friend Kim Demmon and I have reacquainted via our social media endeavors with hers being top notch and mine part of my jack of all trades learning curve.  Her love and labor Today's Creative Blog features an array of talented bloggers, creatives and puts the artistically challenged in touch with tools and technology to make their creative whims easier, better and smarter.

Our project at hand was to transform her son's room utilizing her blog sponsor Lowes $300.00 budget as part of a blogosphere challenge.  Top on Kim and her son's list were a desk, some storage and a fresh teen attitude.  He had existing bedding from Target and lot's of sports memorabilia, but that was about it.  Pretty much bare bones.  Part of her reluctance to further his room was the disconnect between the bedding and the wall color.  She felt they didn't work together.  I resolved the issue with an unexpected solution.  Can you spot the change in either the bedding or the wall color from the before and after picture?  It's a subtle change that made all the difference in the world.

The bedding was too vibrant, the colors on the verge of fluorescent.  The stark difference between the brilliant white, hunting vest orange and other colors fought with the neutral wall color.  My solution was to treat the bedding in a custom blend of Rit Dyes.  Adding an antiqued over-dye to the bedding enriched the colors, changed the white to cream and toned down the kid-like color palette, making it more mature for a teen.

Sticking to the $300.00 budget I devised a way to cut up and assemble hollow core bi-fold doors into a desk, a headboard, shelving and create a casing around one of those clever ClosetMaid storage cubbies.  Would you believe all of those items cost under $90.00?  The remainder of the budget was spend on paint, sundries, lighting and materials for the custom bulletin board and hexagon shelving, I designed for Lucas.

I had Kim and her husband paint the wall stripe, his existing dresser and name cut-out with a spicy orange.  

Given the room's size of 9.5 feet by 11 feet, the dimensions for the desk and cubby worked out great.  Just enough room for his laptop and effective storage.  I crafted the hexagon shelves out of a new pre-cut lumber Lowe's has, it's a super high quality plywood trim with a birch veneer.  I left the edges unpainted to showcase the pattern of the laminated ply.

I took creative liberty to work in one of soccer pieces from my line of children's art.  The Soccer 100 Yards piece is available nationwide through retailers the stock Oopsy Daisy Fine art or online via my website or online retailers.

I enjoyed designing and creating the memo board.  As a matter of fact, I'll provide a D.I.Y on how to make your own turf board in a future post.  I had Kim, with her technological craftiness cut out a vinyl #14 (her son's player number) with her Silhouette Cameo cutting system.  It was a great way to personalize the desk chair.

All in all, I think for $300.00 and within 72 hours we gave Lucas exactly what he needed- a teen room with attitude, a desk and much needed storage.  If you'd like to dive into the details closer, here's a outline for you.

If this makeover's inspiration isn't enough to talk you into making over your child's room, relax I can help.  That's what I do, I create children's rooms.  Visit my site for details and give me a call for a free in-home estimate or to discuss e-consult recommendation.

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.

Pulling Teeth- Re-imagining the Pediatric Dentist Office

Setting one's self apart from the competition, in my mind, is the new age mother of invention. With technologies ability to crawl, index and categorize everything from A to Z, it seems to me that the only way to be noticed is to be extraordinary at what you do. I have had the distinct pleasure of working with a new Pediatric Dentist on the scene whose ideals and vision is more akin to the extraordinary Walt Disney than a dentist.

As a child, I did not have the greatest of experiences with the dentist. Mine was a seemingly nice guy in his later 50's, white coat and pressed slacks. He spoke softly filling the air with a medicinal blend of mouthwash and cologne. His office was very clinical with textured wallpaper, old magazines, vinyl covered chairs and a walled off reception desk that seemed more like a security check point for what goes on beyond the walnut door marked "Please check in with the receptionist." The office was the product of the clinical mindset, function over form and was designed to get straight to business and get it done effectively and efficiently. There wasn't a surface material in the office that couldn't be pressure washed, scrubbed with bleach or hauled off in a hazmat suit. Counting the precisely place holes in the acoustical tiles, while he rummaged through my mouth was the only escape from the reality of the situation....cavities!

I open the door, expecting to see the recycled vision of my childhood dentist standing before me. This was my first meeting with Dr. Dustin James and I was manifesting the pains of dentistry through the sweat on my brow and the quiver in my hands. Although this was a meeting over design, I somehow felt I was going to end up driving home with gauze in mouth and drooling. To my surprise, standing before me is a thirty-something, bright smiled engaging man with an honest whit, personable way and thankfully no medicinal smell.

Usually when I'm hired to consult or design for uber professionals like dentists, lawyers or doctors, there's a huge communication gap to overcome. I speak in the abstract of the imaginary, waiving my hands as if to carve space into realized objects. They on the other hand are products of their disciplined education hoping for well defined ideas, pragmatic principles and designs that fit into blueprints not storyboards or renderings.

With Dr. James, the initial awkwardness was a product of my experiences now a preconceived notion. Straightline linear this....color theory that, speaking with my hands restrained were all futile exercises designed not to frighten this Doctor of Science with my left brain visions. In a moment he shattered those notions by starting to waive his arms around, motioning objects in the air and talking about movie sets, old restaurants and Walt Disney World. I had entered the twilight zone. Feeling more like I was being punked than interviewed for the work to be done.

Dr. James and I have been friends and collaborators for three years now. We communicate with our hands flying, chicken scratches on the back of napkins and pages of renderings depicting the imaginary realized. Between us we have a museum's worth of story boards, design sketches and mockups of our ideas. Our inaugural project Dentistry for Kids was a success and it's neighboring DFT- Dentistry for Teens recently debuted as the first dentistry office geared especially for teens.

If you haven't experienced the extraordinary in pediatric or teen dental care than I invite you to Wilsonville, Oregon, to visit his offices.

Designed from the ground up for teens, DFT features a technology counter for MAC browsing, smoothies and online music and game play. Props from my studio line the movie theater like cloud above the counter.

There's a bank of Video Game screens for XBox and Playstation play amongst the comic book wall. A vintage Ms. Pacman table console and a DVD jukebox offer entertainment.

After the visit his patients drop by the prize cabinet for a fun take home gift.

The rock n' roll operatory features a 9 ft guitar, video gaming and movie playing on the patient's video screen.

If you'd like to see more pictures be sure to check out and like my Facebook page.
Also, you can see some of our themed operatories here.

For those of you not familiar with the birth of Disneyland, I recommend the book IMAGINEERING-A behind the dreams look at making the magic real from Hyperion press.