Exciting Room Themes for Little Boys

Looking for a fun and exciting theme for your little boy’s room?  How about doing something different for your son’s room? The trick to having a themed room is to not overdo it. Otherwise it can become overwhelming and start to look redundant. It’s not difficult to work with a theme. You can simply mix up colors and patterns for a successful design.

Sports

The most common theme that comes to mind is sports. Luckily there are plenty to chose from, which is good for creating a unique look. Pick one, two or even three! Painted words, sports balls, equipment, team names, logos, flags and more look really great on solid colored walls.

If you choose to do all of this on the walls, pick a solid color for the bedding and add sports patterned pillows. Chose painted or light stained wood furniture. The light wood can remind us of wooden baseball bats while the painted furniture is great to add a pop against the solid colored walls. For a finishing touch, try framing some pictures of your little guy playing his favorite sport!

Sailing

Maybe you want to stay away from the common sports theme room. Well, what about sailing? Little boys love blue and what theme could possibly have more blue than sailing?

Striped, dark blue bedding and decorative sailing pillows are a great place to start. Pair this with white furniture, Paint the walls a light blue. Hang up sailing prints or even mount a lifesaver on the wall. Finally, add a dark blue lamp base with a white shade, sailboat accessories and photographs of your rugrat boating with his family.

Construction

For my last suggestion, what about creating a real manly man theme such as construction? Little boys love cement trucks, dump trucks and tools, so why not bring this into their room? I recommend painting the walls a solid light color with construction images. Add construction theme bedding and pair it with solid colored decorative pillows. Finally, keep the lamps, accessories and stuffed animals of a non-construction theme to change things up a bit.

Exciting Room Themes for Little Girls

Looking for a fun and imaginative room theme for your daughter? Little girls are our princesses. Aren’t some of the themes getting old, redundant and boring? How about trying something different for your little girl, something she will love and be excited to show her friends? The trick to having a themed room? Don’t overdo the theme. It’s actually very simple – just mix up the theme with corresponding patterns and colors.

Butterflies

Does your little girl love visiting butterfly gardens? If so, why not give her a butterfly room of her dreams? Try finding butterfly patterns in “girly” colors such as purple, green and even light blue. If you choose to reflect the theme in the bedding, I recommend adding pillows in solid colors or simple prints.

To select a color for the walls, pick your little girl’s favorite color from the pattern on the bedding and hang a couple of corresponding prints on the walls. Try painting the furniture in the room white or use purple, green or blue shades found in the bedding. Painted wood furniture is always a great look for little girls. This is an opportunity for you to refinish some old furniture you might have laying around.

Finally, keep the lamps, accessories and stuff animals away from the butterfly theme. This will actually help add emphasis on what pieces in the bedroom are displaying the theme.

Flowers

How about flowers? If your little girl loves shades of pink, purple, yellow or green, this just might be the perfect theme! The best thing about flowers is that they come in different colors. Try to keep the color scheme to three colors and utilizing them in different shades.

Finding flower print bedding is usually quite easy so you may want to start there. Chose one color from the bedding and paint the walls the same color. Did you choose a dark color? If so, outline a couple of flowers in white. They will stand out nicely against the dark walls. If you chose a lighter color for the walls, I suggest a dark color from the bedding for the outlined flowers. This is a great and inexpensive way to carry out the theme throughout the room.

Hawaii

If you are looking for less of a “girly” theme, consider a Hawaiian look. A Hawaiian theme leaves plenty of room for creativity!

Start by choosing bright pink, blue and yellow for your color scheme. Paint the walls a light color and choose one wall for a bright, bold accent color! Try mounting a surf board to the wall to add an unique touch. Bring in the grass skirt, bamboo shades and chair for a fun addition to the space. Choose a Hawaiian flower pattern for the bedding. Pair this with solid colored pillows and use light stained wood furniture throughout the space.

Do you have another creative theme for your daughter’s room? Share your ideas and pictures!

Wow, Look at the Mural!

Do you have a large wall in your home and just don’t know what to do with it? Maybe it’s in your entrance foyer, or a curved wall that aligns itself with your staircase? Do you find yourself wondering how in the world you are going to hang wall art on that? Or is it a wall in your bedroom, living room, or dining room?

A large span of wall can cause us frustration and can leave us confused. In order to fill the large space with artwork, you will need to come up with a theme, find all the items to purchase and then finally hang everything up. Is it really worth it? It may not be. And if this is the case, my recommendation would be to think about having a mural painted in your home.

Murals today aren’t like the murals we used to see 10 or 15 years ago. They can be creative, simple, complex, vibrant in color or black and white. That’s right! Today’s murals might be as simple as a favorite quote painted on the walls of a long hallway with small illustrations.

Possibly your child’s room needs some added pop and you don’t want to hang artwork in there for various safety reasons. What about an animal mural on the wall above your baby’s crib? Or do you have a little boy who loves sports? Illustrating their favorite team’s stadium on the wall behind their bed is sure to bring a smile to their face! If this doesn’t fit your child, maybe you happen to have a little girl lost in the world of fairies and princesses, what about painting a fairytale forest theme on the wall across from their bed? This way they can fall asleep dreaming of becoming a princess or having a fairy godmother that grants all of their wishes!

Is the children’s bedroom not what you are looking for? How about a mural of a favorite vacation spot, such as the ocean, a village or a building? Large entrance foyers can be a perfect place to have a mural such as this painted because we typically find a large span of wall in a foyer and do not have enough artwork to fill it up!

One final place you may be looking for something on your wall would be in a large family or living room. Why not try a simple modern mural of a tree, building, or an abstract in black and white.

Murals are a creative, one-of-a-kind way to express yourself in your homes. Find a local artist to help illustrate your dream for many years to come.

Do you have a mural in your home? Did you paint it yourself? Where did you place it? Share your stories and ideas here!

Rid Your Space of Lead – It’s the Law

A new federal law that took effect this month (April 2010) requires any contractor that is doing work on a home, child care facility or school that was built prior to 1978 must now be certified and follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination.

When renovations or repairs are done in facilities where children are the primary occupants, the lead will be disturbed and could be transferred in dust to the inhabitants. Sanding, scraping, or even the burning of wood covered in lead based paint can lead to exposure. Lead-based paint was used in 87% of facilities built prior to 1940 and 69% of facilities built between 1940 and 1960. Between 1960 and 1978, only 24% of facilities built used lead based paint.

When the work begins, the contractor is required to seal off the area being worked on. No occupants or pets are allowed to have access to the area until all the work is complete. The forced air and air conditioning systems must be turned off because they can spread the lead contaminated dust throughout the facility.

To minimize the lead dust it is recommended that water be used to mist areas before sanding or scraping . Before boards are pried up or other materials are separated, paint should be scored with a knife to minimize dust and paint chips. When all the work is complete, a vacuum with a HEPA filter is used to clean up the dust and debris and then all surfaces are completely washed down. The key to this will be the constant use of clean rinse water.

When creating a contract for this type of work, make sure that a lead-free test is part of the work included. An EPA recognized lead testing site will send a sampling kit to you. You can collect the samples and return the kit for analysis. Because the facility can fail the test and may need to be cleaned again, it is important to make the contractor responsible for any re-cleaning that may be necessary.

Lead can affect our children’s brains and developing nervous systems (especially those under the age of 6), causing reduced IQ, learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Lead can also have negative affects on adults causing high blood pressure and hypertension.

Have you been involved in renovation work that involved lead paint? Does your home contain lead-based paint? If so, have you ever thought about replacing it?

Are Faux Finishes the Right Choice for You?

Is it time to think about painting a room in your home? Are you trying to decide between painting a solid color and applying a decorative faux finish? Go ahead, take a little more time and spend a little more money to make your room look great.

Faux finishes are still popular today. In fact, many professionals would consider them more popular than wallpaper. Professional artistic painters are available and can do a wonderful job applying a certain look to the walls of your home.

There are several do-it yourself faux finishes available. My personal favorite would be Ralph Lauren Paints and you can stop by your local Home Depot to find out how and what materials you will need. Personally I have never done this myself, so use caution when making the decision. I imagine it’s not easy.

Many faux finishes we have seen in the past would be sponging, ragging, dragging, and crackle. But there are several more updated techniques available to give you an amazing looking room!

My personal favorite is faux antique leather finish. It looks exactly like leather and adds a sophisticated upscale look to any room. I recommend trying this look in a grand foyer, library, or living room. When paired with cherry or mahogany traditional wood furniture, the look can be dramatic and inspiring.

Do you live on the water or down south? Ralph Lauren Paints have fresh, light, colors. Does your family room back up to the water with lots of windows? If you select a light spring green or blue linen faux, pair it with white woodwork and linen drapes. This can provide a relaxing coastal feel to your home. Add some painted white casegoods and you may never want to leave.

What are your favorite faux styles? Share your ideas and photos!

New Life for Leftover Paint

What should you do with your leftover paint after you finish a project? We’ve seen it a thousand times. You want to save it for touch ups but soon enough those old paint cans clutter your basement. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 10 percent of all household paints get discarded, which is equivalent to 65-69 MILLION GALLONS!!

We could really paint the town, couldn’t we?

Paint has a tendency to be high in Volatile Organic Compounds. Fungicides are often found in very old paint, along with their friends lead and mercury.

If you do want to keep your paint for touch ups I recommend the following:

Remove the lids and tightly place two, if not three, secure pieces of saran wrap over the top of the can and then place the lid on TIGHTLY! Funny as this sounds, store your paint cans upside down, like you would with a wine bottle. This will keep a tight seal and the paint inside will stay fresher for longer.

Other thoughts on what to do with those half used cans:

• Consider donating the paint to a local charity for reuse. For example: The Park District in my city will accept SOME used paint, depending on it’s age, for art classes in the summer and the students paint murals under the viaducts.
• Recycle it! If you choose a water base or latex paint it can be recycled, but please check with your local environmental agency and/or visit earth911.com for other recycling options.

Remember that older paints are oil or lead based and are extremely flammable! These older paint cans are actually considered hazardous waste. Be careful and make sure that you know what you are doing with these. Be aware of your local laws for proper disposal of hazardous waste. I would advise taking the old cans into your local paint store for help if you are not sure how to dispose of them properly.

Best of Luck! Be good to the environment!

Foyer or Foye’r – However You Say It, It Should Be Good!

I probably have the tiniest foyer known to mankind. You absolutely can not fit more than two people in it, and you definitely cannot remove your shoes and simultaneously take your coat off. It is small!

However, I do know though that no matter its size, it needs to be fabulous! Somehow, someway it needs to speak to who I am, who my family is, and something that we love. (Still trying to figure out how…)

The foyer is the room that greets you as soon as you step through the front door. I must say mine is currently neglected and lacking any sort of personality. I have cream-off white walls that carry on into my living room that is adjacent to this small pad. I am quickly changing my thoughts about what this area really means to me and my home. It is probably where people make their first impressions of me- how my home is kept, etc. Having my boots tucked in a corner is probably not a great idea…

There are probably many people who share my pain of having a tiny foyer. It generally comes with living in an older home so why bother with it at all? I have clients who struggle with the opposite – that it is so grand that it feels cold and uninviting, no matter what they do to it.

Whatever the size of your foyer, you should make the most of it! There is no reason why our foyers should lack a sense of comfort, definition and style. The tiniest of foyers can be made to feel grand. Likewise, the grandest of foyers can have a great sense of warmness and comfort.

Follow your heart! You can be as adventurous as you want with pattern and color in this room. You can get away with it in the foyer because you are only in this room for brief periods of time. You’ll want the room to have impact and make a statement.

Of course, keeping in mind the spaces your entry foyer may be linked to. This, after all, is the space where your guest will get a preview of the rooms to come. The goal is to create a continuous flow, room to room, each space complimenting the other.

I think I am going to paint my ceiling blue! And hang a series of frames on the wall. I will also no longer be fearful of my grandmothers hand knotted rug getting damaged, it is getting displayed- why else have it, right?

Show us your decorated foye’r!

What Is That Retail Designer Thinking?

Have you ever been in a store and wondered “How in the world is this display getting me to buy the products?” You are not alone my friend! Retail designers are trained to learn what will attract the customer to certain areas of the store.

First of all, window displays can be an important part of retail design when the windows are located in an indoor or outdoor mall. What the customer sees when walking by will determine if they will come in and shop. Bright colors are a must; our eyes are attracted to them! Most likely some sort of metal might be added in with jewelry, lamps, appliances, etc. Ah, they’ve grabbed your attention now!

Once inside the store, the displays are set up so you will walk into them and look at the products. Also a “pathway” of sorts is laid out so you can easily walk from display to display and not get caught in a “dead” zone. Now that means you won’t miss anything, which is great for the retailers to make more sales!

Lighting can be an added advantage – with the right amount of light focused on an item, our eyes are drawn to the display. When products are placed on shelves, shadows can take away from the coloring. To prevent this, lights are placed above the shelves to keep our interest.

Finally, color inside the store is a huge factor in keeping you inside. This might mean through the products themselves or with coloring on the walls. When color is used on the walls, the fixtures themselves tend to “disappear” so your eye will concentrate on the bright color you are most likely walking towards. Often you will find the bright colored walls towards the back of the store or near the sales counter. This will unconsciously lead the customer to the back and hopefully they will buy more if they walk through the entire store.

Some stores like to keep the walls, flooring and fixtures very neutral. Most likely this is so the store doesn’t become “dated” or clash with the color trend of the season. It is then up to the visual merchandiser to be able to pop the products by their color. Often you will see this in clothing stores, souvenir shops, or furniture/accessory stores.

Have you noticed anything that attracts you to certain stores more?

Grey Is Out, Stain Is In! Stained Concrete

Last night I was out to dinner with friends and I was discussing my latest blogging venture. The question came up “Well, what do you write about?” My response used the example of what was beneath our table. Stained concrete.

You probably see it everywhere and it never fazes you – used in large showrooms to small coffee shops and area restaurants. Stained concrete is a great inexpensive solution to flooring. Indoors or out, there is no excuse for that gray concrete slab. New techniques, finishes and color options are being improved to make concrete look less like concrete.

One method is stamped concrete. By using stamped concrete in stairways and pathways, you can introduce a stone-like affect with pattern and texture but not color. Stained concrete embodies your concrete with a huge variety of colors.

Stained concrete is a misnomer. Often when you think of “stained,” I think of a glass of wine spilling on a white sofa. But concrete stain is actually a chemical reaction between the acid stain and the cement within the concrete mix. This bears emphasizing. Concrete is made of both aggregate (rocks) and the binding cement. Because concrete stain works through a chemical reaction between the stain and cement, the aggregate will not stain.

Concrete staining is done on cured concrete and believe it or not, it can be done by you! Here are some simple steps that you may want to test in your basement or garage before you dabble in your backyard pathway or front stoop.

First, you will need to clean the surface. You’ll want to use an organic degreaser at medium strength. Note that because concrete stain is a chemical reaction, surfaces previously treated with acid or otherwise acid-etched cannot be stained. Concrete stain is not going to cover up existing imperfections in the slab, but it may embrace time depending on the style you are after. Rather than selecting one color, you may want to consider a “splattered effect” and select a couple of complimentary colors to lightly splash in areas to make it appear natural or rustic.

Concrete stain can be applied in many ways (mops, brushes, rollers). Depending on the size of the slab, you may want to consider spraying on with an ordinary sprayer such as you might use for herbicides. This provides for a wider, smoother continuation of the concrete stain.

Allow it to dry for eight hours before you walk on it. That is the general curing time, which is much less than a traditional stain that you would use for a wood floor…quite nice to see the time reduced! It is a money saver and if completed properly, it is a wonderful look for an otherwise dull grey concrete slab!

Have you ever stained concrete?  How did it turn out?

Creative and Inexpensive Recycling Projects for Interiors

I think one of the healthiest things you can do to better the environment is using what you have to create something new. Why recreate the entire wheel when you can simply patch it? As garage sale season is around the corner, it’s about time we discuss a few recreation techniques. These are just a few ways to turn a recycling project into a critical part of an interior.

One of the greatest “finds” can be old paintings. These could come from a garage sale, but why not your grandma’s basement? Anywhere you can pick up there are multiple parts that can be used from one find. The actual canvas can always be repainted, but if you are not a Picasso, there are other solutions for reinventing the canvas.

You can always try strip pasting on for size. You could use newspapers, old wrapping paper, paint samples – anything that you can cut into strips and has color. After cutting strips that vary in size you then layer them on the canvas and use simple glue that dries clear. You brush it on in layers until the entire canvas is covered in the desired material. You can either reframe this masterpiece or hang it with no frame.

The frame can always be reused as well. An easy repaint job can make a world of difference. If you are lucky enough to find multiple frames that have different sizes, shapes and textures, you can make them more uniform by painting them the same color. A neutral in a metallic, black or white would work best.

So, now from one “found” piece, you can create many inexpensive new art pieces for your space. Maybe even an entire accent wall! Old mirrors with frames could be used as part of this collage as well. It all depends on what kinds of garage sale finds are available this season.

Another neat piece to keep your eyes peeled for are old records (LPs). Old records, I think, can make the coolest accent wall. You will need many of them, and make sure you are not just going to hang a Beatles White Album on your wall without a frame like I am proposing. Depending on the size of your wall you will need quite a few albums, so if you can find them for five cents a piece you are in good shape. Use goop off or another sticky remover to take off the label.

Pick out some nice looking screws or nails, meaning the head is a good size and attractive shape. From there just arrange them on the wall and make sure all the edges touch. The neatest part about this design is the negative space versus the positive space. Meaning the space between the albums can become the focus, the skewed diamond shape.

Depending on who holds the garage sale, you should be able to take recycled objects and make them something worth while. How have you used recycled objects in your interior?

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