We often have customers asking us how to hang art, so here are a few tips.

To give your art the exposure it deserves, hang your wall art at eye level.  (Sure, if you and your husband aren’t the same height just find the average.)

If the wall art is going to be hung above a couch, crib or bed  take care not to leave too much space between the couch, crib or bed and the art. If the gap is too large, the wall space will take attention from the art (still keep eye level in mind). The Oopsy daisy art we sell at Colorful Rooms is very light and easy to hang. But children’s wall art above cribs and beds should be made double secure by adding brackets or adhesive.

Not all art has to be hung on the wall; try using an easel, or leaning art against a shelf. If you are planning a nursery, add a chair rail to the walls. This is a great way to feature the many photographs, personalized wall décor, etc… that you will be collecting from your little one for years to come! A plate rack works great for smaller wall art pieces.

To create strong impact in a room, try hanging all your wall art in clusters or groups. If you are hanging a group of pictures, lay them out on a big table or the floor first to play with the arrangement. You can also lay them on paper, trace around each piece and then tape them on the wall to check the layout.

Vintage Sport Room

Consider many pieces grouped together as one large piece.  When you hang them you want the center of the unit to be at eye level.

Play with different groupings.  Four small pictures next to each other could give the illusion of a large piece.  Another interesting combination is to hang one large piece with two small ones on either side.

If you have a large wall make sure you have enough art to fill the space.  One small piece alone will look lost on an otherwise blank wall.  If you have one art piece you really would like to hang but no other art to match, consider pairing it with a mirror or other accessories.

For the actual hanging, use a picture hanging kit available at any home improvement store. Consider the weight of the piece when choosing the hooks/hanging package. If the art is very large, multiple hooks may be necessary.

For more great tips, check out this great article from Rental Decorating Digest.

This Thanksgiving, we give thanks for the talented life of one of our favored artists and friends, Gale Kaseguma. With great sorrow we learned this September that Gale’s battle with colon cancer had ended. Sure to be missed by her husband, son, extended family and circle of loved ones, the artistic community has lost a good friend and creative artist. We remember Gale for her exuberant and playful spirit, her incredibly imaginative and playful art and for being a supportive partner in the creative process of bringing wonderful artwork to children everywhere.

In Gale’s memory, Oopsy Daisy is donating 20% from every piece of her artwork and accessories that we sell through this holiday season of November and December. Charities selected by Gale’s husband will benefit from our donation. We will follow up on this website with how those funds are doing good work in Gale’s name next year.

Thanksgiving is a time to hold your family and friends close… to celebrate what you have and be appreciative. This Thanksgiving season, we are thankful for Gale Kaseguma’s artistry, her lovely spirit and all too short life.

Halloween is now the second most “decorated” holiday after Christmas. The exciting thing about decorating at this time of year is that you can be unconventional and go a little wild! Some folks like cutesy pumpkins as their home decor, some like dark and spooky holiday decorations. At Colorful Rooms, we provide Halloween wall art that is a little of both. Our personalized “Haunted Parlor” custom canvas goes perfect in a haunted house dining room setting. I like to create my own haunted dining room by dressing

Haunted Parlor

skeletons to sit at the table. I bring out grandma’s china & fill wine goblets with “blood”. Then I cover the table with a sticky layer of spider webs. My kids go nuts! Our Picture & Patterns collection allows you to reserve those precious memories of your little ones in their Halloween costumes from year to year.

Custom Cute Canvases!

Back to School with Colorful Rooms

Back to School with Oopsy daisy Fine Art for Kids

With the kids back in school, it may be time to look around your child’s room and freshen up their space. Having wall art in your children’s room creates an environment that is both stimulating for the child and can be educational as well . At Colorful Rooms, we carry the largest selection of Oopsy daisy Fine Art for Kids. Our ALPHABET wall art pieces are perfect for teaching the “ABC’s” to your little ones. Our LICENSE PLATE MAP wall decor is great for those 4^th and 5^th

License Plate USA Map

graders who need to memorize the states and capitols. We have INTERNATIONAL kids wall art as well to help promote global awareness.

Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to get to know, Aaron Christensen, one of Oopsy daisy Fine Art for Kids most popular artists.   Aaron, a self described “big kid” in a 43 year old’s body, juvenile delinquent, professional browser, people watcher  and  amateur gardener is  most notably an  accomplished painter and complete room designer.

“Vintage pop” would be one way to describe Aaron’s style as an artist.   What is so alluring to his fan base is the unique way in which he captures the essence of vintage inanimate objects in his wall art for kids.    Aaron loves to manipulate paint to reproduce the perception of texture from objects of days past.  The patina of an old metal box, the chipped paint of an old Coca Cola bill board or the cracked and worn out leather on a 1950’s baseball become the inspiration for Aaron’s paintings.   Aaron f

Artist Aaron Christensen

eeds his passion by consistently scouring old antique stores and road side shops looking for objects that look like they have “survived”.   He loves to imagine the “back-story” behind mid-century billboards, rusty signs, and other neglected items.  These “back-stories” become his muse when he paints.

Aaron was raised in Southern California.   He comes from a long line of artists,  his mom and great grandfather are painters.   His dad was a marble mason who built props for the movie industry.   Art was integrated into Aaron’s life as far back as he can remember.   It was in second grade when he realized that he had inherited the family gift.   Others began calling him a little artist when he entered a painting of a leprechaun family for a St Patrick’s Day billboard contest and won.   It is the real and articificial memories of his youth, a time associated with Brady Bunch and Bewitched shows, that he strives to recreate with his vintage styled art.

The process Aaron uses to achieve his vintage looking wall art is self invented.  He uses unconventional processes of lifting paints that he has learned through trial and error.   Aaron paints an image several times, one on top of the other,  then uses  techniques to reveal the underneath layers.   In his mind he is achieving the opposite of time.  He attempts to uncover the billboard and reveal its original state by removing the pieces of paint on top.

Super Bowl Bound Sports Wall Art

Aaron is constantly worried about color.   He strives to capture the often huge and sometimes subtle color variation inherent in vintage artifacts.    His use of light, perspective, vantage point, and overwhelming sense of drama can be attributed to his admiration for the works of Michelangelo.   Surprisingly, Dr. Seuss is also an influence in how Aaron chooses a vantage point.   The works of John Alvin (creator of promotional posters for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings) have also played an important role in Aaron’s creations.   He likes how Alvin manipulates light, text and images to create his dramatic imagery.

When asked about artist block, Aaron says he has the opposite problem.   He feels he does not have enough time to paint all the things he would like.   Between flying from coast to coast doing custom murals for people (yes, he is available for hire!), running his own custom decorating company, Embellishments, and being a husband and dad of 2 wonderful teens, Aaron is one busy artist!

What makes Aaron the most happy is when a child walks into a room that he has designed and their eyes pop and their jaw drops wide in excitement.  This is his reward.  Aaron takes the vantage point of that

Princess Wall Art for Kids

young child while designing and painting.   When he conjures up the child’s reaction to his design he is given the fuel he needs to keep painting.

Aaron now resides in Oregon, and does most of his painting in his pj’s at his home studio.

TIPS ON ACCESSORIZING YOUR ROOM

Good to BAM!

It takes a village…….As in many things in life, the creation of the Colorful Rooms website took many   talented folks. Thanks to our great graphics team, dedicated buyers, and a careful photographer we feel  we have created a unique online shopping experience.  If   the right group of talent is assembled, we know things can go from “good to great”.

We are fortunate at Colorful Rooms to have a nice “village” of talent to tap into.

Kevin Winn is our featured guest for the quarter. Not only does he have a great eye for detail and an ability to create rooms that  “pop” but he also happens to be my husband!

In setting the stage for our photo shoot,  we spent hours and hours shopping, painting & picking out great accessories to best highlight our main product line, wall art for kids. We wanted to make sure our room shots felt cheerful, lively and just right!

Just when we thought it was time for the photographer to snap the shot, along came Kevin.  When asked for his feedback he would look around, nod his head, and say it looks “very good”. He would ask if he could move a few things around and add a few elements, of course we approved.  By Kevin’s little tweaks our room turned from a “very good” room shot into a “great” room shot.

Kevin’s fun sense of humor, finger snapping attitude, whirling speed of execution and incredible vision would result in a shout from him  of “BAM!” (yes, like Emerill) when he knew the shot was nailed. Hence our  photo shoot  mantra of “Good to BAM”!

Here are Kevin’s tips that turned our rooms from “Good to BAM”.

1. Add height

• Naturally your eye movement follows the shape of a “Z”. So when placing accessories, organize them in a manner that the eye will follow naturally and comfortably. Usually,  larger items should be placed in the back on the left  and the smallest item in the front. Smaller objects can be elevated on books or pedestals to create the appropriate height.

2. Create groupings of similar items.

• Instead sprinkling items throughout a large space. Pull similar items into a grouping. Items are more  interesting when placed in 3’s or 5’s. Say you inherit your grandma’s collection of teapots. Instead of placing them on a shelf in the kitchen or one here and the other over there. Choose your 3 favorite teapots and place them in a grouping in your dining room. Incorporate the above tips to create height  by placing one on a stack of books, maybe another  on a pedestal.

3. Mix Old and New

• Don’t be afraid to mix old with new. This approach makes a room feel  personal and “homey”. Find family heirlooms or items that “tell a story” and incorporate them into your rooms.  Some items that make great accessories are antique vases, unique china pieces, old books, mismatched frames of family photos, or grandma’s old chipped bookshelf. All of these elements add your personality and can become a nice conversation starter when guests visit.

4. Mix Textures.

• Combine various textures, such as hard and soft, to create depth and encourage a space to come alive.  Mirror, chrome, wood, glass etc… are considered hard surfaces. Some examples of soft surfaces are leather, wicker, cotton and paper.

5. Create cozy seating arrangements

• Set the tone for your home by creating spaces that people feel relaxed and comfortable. Place sofa and chairs close together in either an “L” shape or opposite one another. Keep your seating arrangements “tight “. For example, try not to place a sofa against the wall and the chairs against the opposite wall. This makes a space feel awkward and bare in the middle. Instead, try placing your sofa opposite and parallel to a focal point (fireplace, large window etc…). If your space is small and the sofa needs to be placed against a wall, always include a coffee table and at least one chair to the side. Again, this is all about creating a comfortable conversation space.
• If a couch is floating in a room (as suggested above) . Place a table or bench behind it. This way, the plain back of a couch never becomes a focal point when walking in a room.

Kevin Winn has worked in the various merchandising and visual designs professions for several  large retailers including Guess Jeans, Limited Inc, Ann Taylor and Disney. His passion and hobbies include playing with his kids, building furniture and landscape design.

We are thrilled to announce the winner for our Mother’s Day Contest! This year’s contest winner is Heather from San Francisco who exclaimed “OMG, I never win anything!”.

Custom Canvas Photo

Heather’s winning streak begins with receiving a custom photo canvas where she will create a unique personalized piece of wall art for any room in her house. Heather will get to choose the pattern and colors of a border that surrounds a favorite image.  After her choices are made then we reproduce the image on a cotton poly canvas using the Giclee printing process (which provides superior color vibrancy) then we stretch the canvas around a wooden frame for a high end gallery effect.

Congratulations Heather! We hope this is the beginning a winning streak for you! Better go buy a lotto ticket!

Photos on Canvas