Commercial Art on a Budget/Very Literal Art

When I began the design process for the new Pulaski County Criminal Justice Center in early 2006, I realized almost immediately that the budget would be tight, particularly when it came time for wall art.  With over 14,000 square feet and about a jillion feet of wall space, to say that some creative thinking and planning was necessary is a huge understatement.  The facility that previously housed the 100+ deputy prosecutors, cops, social workers, and support staff was uncomfortably overcrowded, in poor repair and was furnished primarily with a dilapidated hodgepodge of what could be salvaged from other county offices.  It was important to the elected prosecutor who had for years fought for the new building, that the facility reflect the importance of the job of its inhabitants as well as the victims and citizenry served.  Tall order/short budget.

The following pictures (yes, I took them so they are awful) are a sampling of how we made the most of our commerical wall art budget.  SPECIAL NOTE TO MY CURRENT CLIENTS AND POTENTIAL CLIENTS:  We used wall graffiti in this office, 4 applications in almost 15,000 square feet.  We are not going to use any wall graffiti in the common areas of your home, and if we use any in the private areas of your home, we will use it only sparingly, and in tasteful applications.  We just can't paper the house with either of the books of the letters to the Corinthians.  We just can't do it.  No matter how much we love Jesus (and for the record, I am crazy about him).

We hired a professional photographer to shoot some of our favorite parts of the historic Pulaski County Courthouse.

Dixie Knight took this gorgeous shot of the rotunda ceiling--we had it transferred to canvas and it hangs in the atrium area located just outside the office of the elected official.  It was not cheap, but it is a beautiful piece of photographic art that will hopefully hang in the halls of the Proecuting Attorney for many, many years. 

series of black and white photos by Dixie Knight

featuring architectural elements of the exterior of the Pulaski County Courthouse

We also utilized stock photography from the Arkansas State Parks Department, AND folks on staff who are much more talented than I took a few pics too.

The Sixth Judicial District is comprised of Pulaski and Perry Counties.  The photographic art used in the Citizen Complaints Department of the office reflects the rural beauty of Perry County.

We used 4 applications of wall graffiti--this one is my favorite

Another view, you can see one of the few paintings we used in the entire building in this pic.  It is lovely, but for whatever reason reminds me of corn casserole.

These are actually acrylic letters, beautiful product, beautiful words.

I'm really excited that next week real live, famous photographer Jacob Slaten will shoot the children's interview room.  Please check back for a great post with extraordinary pics!!!

 

Stretching your dollar--before and after!

One of my close friends asked us to help create a special space for her daughter who also happens to be one of my daughter's closest friends.  It was important that we use as much of the existing furniture, bedding, and window coverings as our budget was limited.  We hoped to be able to stay within a budget of $500, and here are our before pics:

It's sort of difficult to see, because as I've shared before, my pictures are always awful, but the bed was pushed to the back right corner of the room,the desk was on the diagonal in the other corner and the tabbed panel curtains were not correctly sized.

The Pottery Barn comforter was a Christmas gift for the teen owner of this bedroom and she loves the vibrant paisley swatches on the black and grey background.

Mom checking her list

So we began the planning process and the shopping process.  We had to plan carefully and shop smart in order to stay reasonably within our $500 budget.  After many days of sketching, searching, shopping and painting, we were able to make our sweet girl's new room a reality, please take a look then we will go thru the elements and see how close to budget we came.

We lucked into a couple of wonderful finds on craigslist--the green velvet desk chair we used to replace the old blue one, and the iron piece we used above the platform bed.  I love to -scan craigslist for treasures and was certainly lucky to get both pieces for $75.  We painted the iron piece and used the green velvet chair in its original condition, adorned by a simple oblong floral accent pillow with a price tag of $30.

We had a couple of shams custom made, white linen with green banding, we re-upped the client's body pillow at a cost of $129.  The forms are all feather-filled--a little more expensive but very important in terms of the richness of the look you are trying to achieve!

We removed the curtain panels and had a seamstress band the bottoms of the panels with white, repeating our bed treatment and our apple green primary accent color. The extra fabric made our curtain panels the correct size to cover the floor to ceiling space.  We replaced the rod, choosing a black cafe rod and hung it close to the ceiling.  The seamstress charged us $40, the new rod was $18.

Lamps and wall hangings, really cool black and white photography with a glossy finish, came to about $200, so yes, I busted the budget.  Oh yes, and a rug.  We ordinarily would not do rug on carpet, but my clients really do not like the carpet and replacing it is not an option, so we did a 5x7 to provide as much coverage as possible.  I think it was a success. We got a lot of change for not a lot of change!  Get it, change, change?  The girll who sleeps in this room deserves my best effort, she is an angel and I hope she lives well in this space!

Upholstered Headboards

Mom and I have enjoyed using upholstered headboards for the past few years, they are so pretty, can be created in virtually any style (we have an upholstered who can do ANYTHING!), can be covered in any fabric, and they are comfy when you lean up against them!  Another plus, is depending on the cost of the fabric and the complexity of the design, they can be very easy on the budget.  Here are a couple of my favorites that we have recently created for clients

Shallow tufted velvet in charcoal

Add shams

Add Flambeau, a tween room in progress!

This beauty is a little more detailed--our upholsterer is a genius and we were able to simply draw what we wanted the finished product to look like, a clean, modern design made extra sleek by the houndstooth fabric in sky blue



Safari Room Elements

Adding personal touches to children's rooms makes them extra special!  We used a super cool Fathead of this beautiful boy, along with a personalized Jeep CJ7 door.  We found the door in salvage and had signage created at a local sign shop!

Pic of Door Before Signage

One of my favorite projects in the past few months was a Safari themed boy's room!  We used all of the above along with the homeowner's existing furniture to create a super space with some serious game! 

Easy on the Eyes

A plan and a grid add order and continuity to a gallery wall.  Using one color for frames and mattes is also very helpful!!

A cool, gray color plan with a small infusion of yellow-green makes for a great teen retreat.  Clean, cool and edited replaces the hot pink boa of the tween years!



I really don't know how to blog, please don't judge

We added a little bling to some crazy styrofoam skulls to use in an Extreme Sports Boys' Room, but how cool would they be for Halloween decor??

 

I really have no idea what I'm doing, I have lots of technical difficulties and if you have looked at any of my pics, it's obvious I can't take good ones.  Just bear with me, I might get better, or I might not, but still bear with me.

More Christmas in the Summer!

The King

And one tired sock monkey