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.

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!

Letting your art be the focus: How to celebrate your big purchase

Summer will be here before we know it. And with that comes sundresses, flip flops, aloe vera (for me at least!) and a personal favorite, art fairs! Call it what you want – stimulating the local economy, funding starving artists, or just plain shopping! At the end of a long day of gazing and hunting, hopefully you will be the proud owner of a one-of-a -kind art piece. So, how do you take your street purchase and give it a home of distinction in the room of your choice?

If you have purchased a large painting, for instance, make sure you have a wall substantial enough to frame the piece. A good rule of thumb is to make sure the wall is three times the length of the painting. In other words, you should be able to hang three identical painting side by side on the wall. That way when you center the single painting on the wall it will have room to “breathe.” If you have purchased a set of two brother and sister prints, be sure to space them apart. A good measure on this is to take half of the width of one painting and make that the distance between the two. Be sure that you are measuring the piece as a whole, so include the frame, if applicable.

Let’s talk color. If you are planning on hanging the new painting or art piece on an accent wall in your home, make sure the wall color intensity is comparable to the colors in the art piece. So, if you have purchased a landscape portrait that encompasses a scene at sunset, there are most likely bright intense tones of orange, red or pink… so your wall of choice (if a color) should be of a similar intensity. In other words, the saturation of the tones should complement each other.

If your walls are neutral, great! Just be aware that an intense piece, like the one I described above, on a stark white wall could look out of place or wash the piece out. I have noticed that art museums have recently gotten away from all white walls – the warmer the space, the more inviting. So they have moved to warm beiges or even dark jewel tones like navy or crimson. You can take this same approach with your home.

Lastly, when placing a new art piece in your home, be aware of the lighting. Natural and artificial light will need to be considered. If you place an original painted piece in an area that gets flooded with direct sunlight, this will not allow for a longer lifespan of the piece. So be sure to shield the piece from windows and/or skylights. A good way to highlight the piece is to use track lighting to focus safe, neutral light on the wall. A nice soft but direct light works best.

With these tips in mind, Happy Hunting!

Looking for a New Color Scheme?

Are you going to redo a room in your house soon? Are you feeling overwhelmed with colors? Not sure if you are using too little or too much color in a room? You are not alone! There is a simple rule of thumb that will help you get through this. It’s the 60-30-10 rule. This is not to say there cannot be any other color in the room, but just focus on these three main colors and you will succeed.

Do not count your wood color on your casegoods as one of your colors; this is a color that is naturally expected in the room. The main color you choose should make up about 60 percent of the color in the room – such as the majority of the walls, a large piece of furniture (perhaps your sofa, duvet cover or a background color for a rug). 30 percent of the next color should be focused on bringing a pop of color into the room – such as on an accent wall, chair upholstery fabrics, decorative pillows, accessories, rugs and/or wall art. Finally, 10 percent of your last color will add the additional pop of color to break up the other two main colors. This may be used as greenery or an additional color on a print in the throw pillows or chair fabrics. A decorative throw you may leave on your sofa or upholstered ottoman will also work. You may even find some of the color in wall art or accessories.

There are many popular color schemes being used right now. Some examples might be:

- Gray (60), yellow (30), and pale pinks (10).

- Beiges (60), brown (30), and blue-greens (10)

- Grays (60), brighter purple (30) gray blues (10)

- Gold (60), Brown (30) and rust red or paprika colored red (10)

Or try these (10) accent color/materials in your room:

- Metallic

- Brushed metals; silver, gunmetal, gold’s, copper’s, and bronze are all in style right now!

- Look for Pearlescent to be on the rise as a very popular accent (10) in the near future!