Boys Rooms and Nursery Ideas - 15 Mood Boards For Boys

There's a lot going on in the studio right now.  I'm working on  new art, upcoming changes to my website, a new ecommerce platform and a few items, debuting this winter, that will help you design your child's nursery or room.  So to bring some things up to speed here's some new mood boards to inspire, that I've been delinquent in posting.  I'm also including some of my pinner's favorites from Pinterest.  Do you have a favorite?  I'd love to hear which one and why.

Superhero Boys Room in Yellow and Gray Mood Board

With all the superhero movies debuting, boy's superhero rooms are a popular request.  Here I explore the genre with a an Up, Up and Away theme.  Look up in the sky, it's gray and yellow, one of 2013's hottest color combos for boys.  My Up and Away art piece is available from my under the radar Etsy shop.  I haven't announced the store opening so sssshhh.   It's official debut will be announced later in the year.

Superhero Room with a Spiderman and Wolverine Influence Mood Board

 Some of the new superhero pieces from my Etsy shop (see the caption above) make their way into this  big boy super room.  It works in superhero without being too cheesy.  The room's look will grow with the boy so it has great value and savings built right in.  The board introduces the neutral brown/tan/taupe color to dial down the primary feel of most superhero offerings.

Classic Sports Bedroom Decor for a Teen Mood Board

Man cave design is hot right now.  There's no reason it can reach into the young men's world.  This sports mood board combines the timeworn finishes of painted woods with the raw and very masculine textures of sisal and burlap.  My vintage art collection recently expanded with the addition of lacrosse and golf.  All are available from my site.  

Cowboy Southwest Boy's Room Idea Mood Board

 The earthen plains and grassy prairies are celebrated in this mood board.  It's southwestern influence boasts a nostalgic americana feel yet its simple and more modern.  The western art is, as mentioned above, available from my Etsy shop.

Modern Cowboy Nursery Decor Mood Board

Hold off on the wagon wheels and bandana print!  The tumbleweed nursery speaks to the old west in theme yet it does so in a more modern sophisticated way.  The great pouf from Surya and the simple shapes of the rusty bull mount and rocking house relay the idea without all the cowboy campyness.  The cowboy images are part of my latest releases.  They represent the old west in my pop vintage way.  I hope you like them.  Sssshhh, they're from my un-promoted, un-announced Etsy shop which will officially launch later this year. 

Boy's Race Car Transportation Room Mood Board

If this were a game show, I'd give you 30 seconds to name that theme.  Correct!  Theming a room doesn't mean you have to go over the top (I know, I'm guilty).  This race car room is updated with a cool ombre rug, the pinterest popular mason jars repurposed as pendant lights and some art from my speedway collection.

Light and Airy Boy's Airplane Nursery Mood Board

A light and breezy nursery with a sky theme is accented with chevron bedding and a few vintage wood accents.  The art is from my Up and Away series which includes kites and hot air balloons.

Here We Go.  Transportation Theme Nursery Mood Board

If you're a DIY'er search the internet for suitcase tables, they're easy to make and very charming.  You can also find a variety of them ready made on Etsy.  Combine those handled charmers with some great woodgrain and slip in some modern textiles and your set.  The theme could go train, plane or automobile real easy.  The America piece is from my American Byways collection.  

Teen Tween Surf Travel Theme Room Mood Board

As I'm sure you can see, I prefer for boy's rooms to grow with them.  Not that there's anything wrong with cutesy wootsie, it's just not my thang.... When you can swap a crib for a bed, change out a few pieces and the room ages instantly, that's my favorite.  In this case, we have the reverse.  This teen/tween surf travel room could easily go younger.  Switch out the teen fave papason chair with a glider for bedtime stories and add in some beach themed pillows and its fun for your elementary aged water boy.  The wall art is also from my American Byways series.

A little less Blam Batman Superhero Theme Room

The Batman movies have weaned away from the cheesy and campy days of holy smokes bat bombs and bat nipples (sorry George), so why not go with a less BLAM in the bat room.  Capture the caped crusader with a few implied decor items, subtle themed accessories and bring them together with a few grow-with-time investment furniture pieces.  My less Pow more Pop superhero series of art can add a sophisticated twist to the batcave.

Superman's Alter Ego Geek Chic Boy's Room Mood Board

 All that's geeky is groovy.  The worlds most famous nerd boy is Clark Kent and exploring his world would make for a great superhero room.  Focusing on the Metropolis urbanite and eluding to his super persona opens the door to fun accessories, mid century influences and a bit of geek chic.

Classic American Baseball Theme Nursery Mood Board

The classic americana baseball room is realized with my baseball art and color rich pieces from my pals at Newport Cottages.  The traditional wainscoted walls, the gallery art display and charming light fixture create a space that will grow with your little slugger.  Both the art and my vintage striped lamp are available on my site.

Desert Dwellings, Mesa Adventurers and Horseback Hip - Nursery and Kid's Room Design

Cowboy and Southwestern styles live outside the On/Off cycle of most interior decor trends.  While the overall popularity may come and go, there are fans that live the lifestyle not the trend.  Those who love the old west, the american prairies and deserts are happy to know that their passion has hit a resurgence over the past few years and there's no sign of it waining.

By other names, the Navajo, Aztec, Native, Tribal and even Gaucho (from Spain) influence has resulted in a refresh of cowboy and southwest living design.

For children's rooms and nurseries, the classic cowboy look has evolved to include reclaimed woods, faux taxidermy and a less is more modern feel.   Wandering outside of the strict cowboy theme, there's the addition of bears,wolves, camp out and USA traveler rolling into the western icon palette.  Patterns like native geometry, bows and feathers, cow skulls and even dream catchers are all the rage in children's and teen fashion and are popping up in home dec.

  

I've recently added some new wall art to my portfolio.  It explores these themes.  The group is designed for the home decor market but a few pieces cross over well into my kid theme design stick.  

Cowboy/ Western Nursery Mood Board featuring Aaron Christensen's wall art

Southwest Influence Adventurer Boy's Room Mood Board featuring Aaron Christensen's wall art.

Over on Pinterest I've also created a board exploring the trendier side of the theme with some DIY's, inspirational pictures and links to fun west by southwest goodies.

Nursery Shopping Art Spotting - Kim Kardashian

My family loves to spot my artwork on TV for me. One of my keen eyed spotters noticed my vintage princess crown art hanging on the wall at Joey Wahl Arts Children's Boutique in LA, during Kim Kardashian's visit. While it's no ringing endorsement from the pregnant reality star, it's an art spotting none the less. My daughter thought it was tweetable. OMG! #KimKardashian 

My vintage crown art spotted during Kim Kardashian's visit to retailer

The art is part of my Princess Collection.  I designed the pieces to veer away from the cutesy, animated princess look and go more sophisticated.  When I design rooms for little princess, I prefer to make them regal, not silly.  

Designing a Gender Neutral Nursery?

My wife and I utilized the book "how to choose the sex of your baby" with 100% success- twice! We wanted to know our babies "she wee" or "he wee" status before giving birth, but many parents do not. I wanted to know mostly because the nursery design was important. Imagine that...HA! We signed and passed on the book to friends, who did the same. I have no idea where the book ended up. I'd be curious if it's still in circulation and what the success rate is? How about you? Did nursery design play a part in your wanting to know your babies gender?

A gender neutral, but not neutral colored room I designed for a client.  She has since had a boy.

Render a Gender- Designing a Neutral Nursery for Baby

 There's a segment of the population that want their baby's gender to be a surprise until birth.  If completing the newborn's nursery ahead of time is a priority, then for sure the term gender neutral comes up.  Oh, but how I wish we could adopt a term other than gender neutral to describe that desire.  Gender neutral sounds like a physical impairment or a sarcastic answer to a Match.com dating preference question.  Regardless, whether they are inny-outty-unsure, seat up or seat down undecided or reproductive representation reserved, those choosing to wait on their baby's sex have decor decisions to make in their nursery.

From all angles in my work as a kids designer and artist creating art and products for the retail marketplace the trend of color is being shouted from the mountain tops.  How's color a trend you may ask?  Well, the trend nerds who spend their every waking hour looking for hints on how to forecast consumer's buying habits all look into 2013 and beyond as years of saturated color.  They are proclaiming the full spectrum of rainbow colored hues IS the new black.   They say it has a causality relationship between our rebounding economy and the need to feel optimistic, re-energized and alive!  Alive with color....say it with me....ALIVE WITH COLOR!  Extra points for your jazz hands and open mouth smiles, well done reader, well done!

This gotta-have color trend relates back to my topic of gender neutral, because basically, I'm not a big fan of mousey mint and rubber duck yellow.  Those official colors of nursery neutrality are tired and thankfully my most recent nursery client agreed.  When I brought up the topic of color, in our initial client meeting, I met no resistance to pushing the color palette into the super saturated one.

My client was ever so happy to put faith in my decisions and abilities.  She used the magic words "I trust you!"  So off I went shopping for fabrics and all that might inspire a color rich room while trying to remain neutral to gender or, P or V identification procrastination.   Having hit every fabric resource in town with my faithful designer counterpart Shannon Ponciano, whom was designing the rest of the clients home, we came upon a terrific abstractive chevron fabric.  It was color rich, fun yet sophisticated.

This fabric choice led me to my fellow children's artist Melanie Mikecz's wall art entitled the Rainbow Zebra.  What a beautiful mix of happy colors, a fun subject and textures I am so drawn to.  I was delighted to frame the piece with a custom frame, made here in the studio.

From there the room's design rapidly came into fruition.  I planned on saturating the walls with a deep teal, adding a vanilla framed color block of green on the ceiling and furnishing the room with blasts of color and the neutrals grey and white.

Throughout the home's interior, rustic woods are being used in modern ways, so I designed corner shelves for the nursery and constructed them out of 50 year old reclaimed barn wood topped with an acrylic polyurethane finish and lined with burnt orange paint.

For those of you that know me, you are aware of my love for building and creating unique items for my kid's spaces.  I drew up several ideas for a crib mobile and was ready to build my favorite until I came across a terrific DIY, by Jaime over at Sew She Sew's.  Her mobile design was an amazing mix of homespun ingenuity and artful elegance.  I couldn't imagine a better fit for the nursery.

Having solved the mobile dilemma my attention turned to props and accessories.  I created a custom alphabet piece, a vintage wood mirror and a cute green chalkboard to compliment the grouping anchored by a 30 inch tall giraffe sculpture.

A Red Ryder wagon entered my studio brand new, out of the box, and left a distressed and faux antiqued piece ready to act as a bookshelf along the room's bank of windows.
Inspired by the crib fabric I chose to render one wall with a series of elongated zig zags inviting more color into the room.

Once baby arrives the room can evolve to impart a more feminine or masculine attitude.  Of course that depends on their little one either having a wee wee or a she wee!  Yep, after that, I'm fresh out of gender neutral terms.

I have an extremely happy client, I've made the hidden from sunlight trend seekers proud and most of all had a lot of fun.  I did however piss off all of those mint and yellow fans.  Oh, well....sorry, I'll repay you in 20 years when the whole southwestern pastel aztec trend reemerges like a zombie.  Aaaaaahhhhh!

Best,
Aaron

This nursery is featured until September 23rd in an open home tour, in Vancouver Washington.  The homeowners are opening their newly completed home to visitors as part of the Clark County Parade of Homes.  If you're in town, I'd love to have you drop by and check it out.

Of course, I'd love to hear your comments here or you can join me on my Facebook page, where I'll share a few more details.  For you Pinning Peeps I've loaded up the collection of photos on a Pinterest board for you to share.