We All Live In A Yellow Submarine

I love painting murals for children’s rooms! Children’s imaginations are boundless! I knew Jacob wanted an underwater theme room, but he blew my mind with his request for it to be a submarine room. At first I thought he meant he wanted the room to be a submarine  which would have been awesome )…but no, he wanted a submarine IN his room ! Challenge on…..

The room was first sprayed with three shades of latex paint going from light aqua on the ceiling to deep teal on the lower portion of the wall to achieve that “submerged” feeling. This was further enhanced with deep teal plush carpeting.  Adorable sea creatures like jellyfish, turtles, hammer-head sharks were painted around the room, on the furniture, and even on the window top treatment.  There is even the underside of a shark painted on the ceiling which looks as if it is about to attack as you lie on the bed.

The room’s focal point …. A submarine!!!! I used a solid wood bunk bed as the frame work for the submarine. The lower bunk  bed was removed to create a play area so he could pretend to be in a submarine. The top bunk is the sleeping area. And as he climbs the side steps up to the top bunk,he is greeted by a ginormous  Octopus ! The octopus is so large that the tentacles wrap up into the ceiling, side walls, and around the submarine bed.

                           What child ( or adult ) wouldn’t want to live in a yellow submarine !!!

Tip The submarine front panel was cut high enough  to become a security barrier …and served to hide the sleeping area, just in case little boys “forget” to make their bed.

To contact artist Marty Wisher : 

marty.swanstudios@gmail.com

or visit www.swanstudio.net

A Baby Land Down Under

It was so much fun creating an Australian themed mural for this adorable infant nursery  ! The mother had selected a bedding with kangaroos  and koalas. So, of course, I had to go all out , bringing  them around the room.  The focal wall ( where the baby crib settles in front ) is painted as a  burst of sunshine flanked by 3-dimensional trees. Stuffed koalas were secured up into the branches. The tribal style  motif, used in the baby bedding is then painted around the room as a border.

Tip : The tree trunks are created from pvc pipes cut in half. The limbs and leaves are placed into drilled holes and secured with glue.

We also took great care on how far the limbs hung down , for safety reasons.

Singing the "Blues"

We were presented with a super fun challenge to change a formerly vanilla room into an Ultra Contemporary Living space.  And the palette we would be working with were primary colors….on the furniture ! The home owner’s girlfriend moved into his house and brought with her a round super comfy fits three snuggle chair, modular royal blue sofa, red accent chair, and an area rug that looked like a Picasso piece. The hardware was brushed nickel and she had a desire to use a metal finish on the wall.

The first step was making sure the right technique was used in burnishing silver onto the focal wall. Metallic paints are notorious for leaving trail marks, so technique is crucial. There was also an arch entry with raised relief, so that was deepened with black granite paint blended with the silver metallic.

After several trial attempts of sidewall colors ( offwhites were to blah, red was too much or just too wrong, medium warm neutrals were too----what’s the word? Horrible) , we found the answer ….. Royal Navy ! The deep blue allows the silver metallic to Shine as the focal point and gives the room a much needed balance.

www.swanstudio.net

Tip : Dark pigment colors like Navy can take a few weeks to totally cure. Take caution not to wash or use chemicals to clean the walls until paint is fully hardened.