Dreaming of a new bathroom

Our family bathroom sucks.  Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that we have a bathroom,  I especially appreciate that we have a main (family) bathroom, a separate shower room off our bedroom and a downstairs loo.  With four of us in the house, it's so handy and will only become more so as the boys grow... But, back to my opening statement, the family bathroom sucks.

It's dated and old.  It's ugly.  It's clean but never looks it due to (despite much bleach and elbow grease) black mold everywhere.  The loo seat moves  when you sit on it.  The taps don't match.  The cold tap at the basin has started to leak.

I don't even want to show you a photo... so here's Felix in the bath:

I like to fantasize about the day we can afford to get it done up.  We've had quotes (you can easily get quotes at myjobquote.co.uk) and we have a good idea of the cost.  We just can't afford to do it right now.  Another reason to get earning that dosh when Felix starts school...

In the meantime, we've decided it's not worth a "for now" fix like we did with our (also dated) shower room.  I just close the door on it, spend as little time in there as possible and spend time on Pinterest fantasizing about the bathroom we will have.... one day.....

Ahhh... just imagine it..  Image source: Google

This would be beautiful! Image source: Google

Decor inspiration for kids rooms

I've mentioned a few times that we are moving house.  Ever since we accepted an offer on our house and had our offer accepted on another house, I have been thinking about decorating.  I am slightly scared of the work that will need doing when we move (bathrooms, kitchen, carpets etc) but I am very excited about having a blank canvas again!

The rooms I am most excited about are the boys rooms.  Decorating children's rooms is so much fun.  One of the reasons I love Instagram so much is that there's just so much wonderful kids decor inspiration on there.  I think my boys already have pretty cool rooms but I'm looking forward to starting afresh in the new place.

I'm thinking white walls, feature posters/walls, cool shelves..  My boys already have the makings of super cool rooms but I think with the right carpets and walls they could really come alive.  Ethan likes the idea of a Minecraft theme so we're thinking maybe a Minecraft mural on one of the walls.  He's asked if his bedding could be made to look like a Minecraft bed (easy enough, a red duvet cover and a white pillow case!).  I love the idea of getting Ethan a high sleeper at some point.  I adore the way high sleepers allow you even more floor space to play with.  Plus you get the thrill of sleeping up high.. And, to be entirely honest, it's one of those things I always wanted as kid but never got.  Like a slide from a bed.  Wow, I would love something like that.. Nothing like vicariously living through your child!

For Felix, I want to go very Monochrome.  I am in the process of making a car play mat for him.  I fell in love with a car mat/rug that H&M were selling, it was black and white, but it went out of stock far too quickly.  So I thought, why not make my own?  I've bought a large piece of black faux leather/PVC type material and a white fabric pen.  I'm going to cut it to size and then draw on roads and a town!  I hope that it'll look good and make a nice focal point for his new room.  I'll have to feature that on the blog when it's done.

Designer: Humpy Dumpty Room Decoration via homify

I think the biggest issue I'm going to have is knowing when to stop.  Probably never.  What with Instagram, Pinterest and all the other websites dedicated to decor inspiration I'm going to need a bottomless purse!  Talking of cool inspirational websites, I stumbled across homify.  I think they have images of just about everything decor-wise you could imagine on there!  Slides from beds?  Check! Colour schemes? Check.  It's endless.

Image Source: homify.  Designer: Raumdeuter

I'm not sure if I ever will live out the fantasy of a slide from a bed but it is such an epic idea.  What I love about all these cool rooms is how they inspire creativity and imagination.  I can't imagine a child wanting to leave rooms like these either, which is great for parents;  nice and easy to have a cheeky cake, coffee and book break that way!

I love the colours used by designer Desjeux Delaye in this room.  It still has a monochrome feel.  I love the softness of the grey and the colour pop of the blue.  Good sturdy looking ladder as well!

Designer: Desjeux Delaye via homify

For now, I will have to be happy with taking screenshots from websites, pinning on Pinstagram and loving photos on Insta.. in the hopes that one day soon folks will be doing the same with the images I share of my boys news rooms!  Not long now, I hope...

Where do you like to get decoration inspiration from?  Or are you a source of inspiration yourself?!

Fitted furniture? It fits in!

We've been in our house for over 10 years now and in the last few months we've started to think about the possibility of moving.   We're in no rush, we have enough room, but the boys are growing older, getting bigger, and we would like to have somewhere a little larger one day!

As moving has been at the back of my mind, I've started to pay a little more attention to the houses for sale in the local paper and online.  Something that's struck me is that quite a few houses seem to have built in furniture such as wardrobes.  Built in furniture has never been something that's really appealed to me, in my mind it brings up memories of dated decor and, quite frankly, bad taste.  The houses I've seen advertised with fitted furniture mostly seem to fit into this category as well.  Which got me thinking.. Sometimes, it does make sense to have fitted furniture or wardrobes built in.  There are some rooms that really do lend themselves to it, perhaps wardrobes fitted either side of a fireplace in a bedroom.  Still, if I were to have built in wardrobes, I'd want them to look good.  I'd want them to fit in. Not stick out like a sore thumb!  After all, that's the point of built in furniture, isn't it?  To save space and to fit in!

Having a bit of a browse online I have managed to find one place that offers modern fitted furniture.  Urban Wardrobes.  They seem to have a pretty well rounded collection to me.  There are classic ranges like the Windsor shaker style range.  I can see that working really well in period properties - I've always wanted a 1930's house, I could see this range fitting in!

If you're looking for something really modern, they have that covered too.  Take the Liverpool Street range, I could see that looking fantastic in a city flat!

Something I'm really loving the look of is their range of built in bookcases.  I could see these working in any home!  I really want to have white walls and exposed floor boards in my next house.  I wouldn't mind adding in one of these too then I wouldn't have to limit myself to how many books I keep anymore!

Do you make plans for your next house?  It can't just be me!  Any thoughts on fitted furniture?

My Wall Stickers Review

We're big fans of wall stickers in our house.  I first became aware of wall stickers, or decals about 8 or so years ago.  My husband and I like Threadless tshirts and they were working with another company producing what they call decals (wall stickers) that were inspired by some of their t shirt designs.  I bought some for hubby as a present and it all spiraled from there!

Pretty much every room in our house has a wall sticker.  We have robots in the bathroom, a tree with owls and squirrels on the landing. Ethan's room has Space Invaders, Soot Sprites and geometric shapes. Felix's room has Soot Sprites, raindrops, clouds and a Totoro.  Our bedroom has an owl on a branch.  We really go for wall decoration in a big way!

My Wall Stickers recently offered us the chance to review on of their extensive collection of wall stickers so you can imagine that appealed to us!  It was very hard to choose a sticker, the choice is quite substantial.  I have to admit that a deciding factor for us was the lack of wall space remaining in our house!  I wanted to choose something different to the wall stickers we have already.  My Wall Stickers stock a range of chalkboard stickers that struck me as different so decided to plump for an A3 Chalk Sheet.  I liked the idea of something a little interactive.  Not just another cute design stuck on our wall, something I could plan blogging projects on or Ethan could draw on.

Our chalkboard sticker arrived quickly and was well packaged to prevent creases and damage.  On opening I found detailed step by step instructions for application and a very handy tool for smoothing out the sticker when applying it to a wall.  A little extra was a free packet of chalks - My Wall Stickers send a free pack of chalks with every chalkboard sticker.

It took me a little while to decide where to place the sticker.  After all, as I mentioned before, most of our rooms have wall decorations.  I decided to go with the living room.  That way, all of us can have access to the "chalkboard"!

Placing it on the wall was straightforward enough.  I found the instructions helpful, though I must admit that being a bit of a wall sticker aficionado also helped!  Basically you position your sticker on your wall and once you are happy with the placement you secure it with some masking tape, usually across the middle of the design.  Once you have done this you remove half of the backing from the sticker and then begin smoothing it out with the tool over the top.  Once the top half is stuck down you can remove the masking tap and the other half of the baking paper and once again, smooth down over the top.  Once this is done you can remove the protective covering and there you go, your wall sticker should be happily attached to your wall!

I think our new chalkboard looks great.  I'm especially pleased to find out that you are able to use chalk pens as well as traditional chalk.

I'm going to have some fun writing lists now!

Our chalkboard sticker retails at £13.99.  I was sent the sticker for review purposes but all opinions are my own.

Linked with Family Fever for Tried & Tested Tuesdays.

Felix's Room Tour

For SO LONG now I have been planning to feature the boys bedrooms on the blog.  Out of all of the rooms in our house, they are quite possibly my favourite.  I enjoy being in them and I have real fun decorating them.
One of the reasons I've held back on writing about them is that they never seem to be "finished" or "perfect" but I've come to realise they probably never will be.  After all, they are children who are growing and changing every day.  Their rooms reflect that!

There are two things that I would like to change in Felix's room to make it feel more "finished" in my eyes, but I can't see that happening any time soon.  I would like him to have a cotbed and I have the perfect one in mind.  Cosatto sell two beautiful cot beds and either of them would look amazing in his room.  I have my heart set on the Babushka though.  Why do I want one of these?  Well, they are a little bigger than a cot so will last him longer.  What I'm really attracted to, though, is the storage space.  They have draws underneath them.  Storage is an issue in Felix's room because there is only space for a chest of draws, not a wardrobe.  All of his clothes and cloth nappies have to fit in there.  Extra storage that is purposful and tidy under a cot bed would make a huge difference.

Image Source: Cosatto

The second thing I would really love to change is the carpet.  A few days ago was the 10 year anniversary of the day we moved into our house and apart from the living room carpet, the carpet in Felix's room is the only  other one we haven't changed.  It's not bad quality but it's not a style I would ever pick.  Firstly, it has a really dated pattern on it.  Secondly, it is covered in marks and stains.  Really covered. I don't like it at all.  Every time I go in the room I feel it brings it down.  I would really like something hard wearing in there instead and there are some amazing hard wearing and forgiving carpets you can choose from these days.

Having had a quick nosey on the Carpet Right website this evening, I've picked out what I would go for.  Something that will work with all of the colours in the room (we do like colour in our house!) and something that will be very forgiving when it comes to stains.  I have to be realistic, what with it being a child's bedroom, stains are inevitable.  Just think about what happens when you have a screaming feverish baby in the middle of the night and you're trying to doll our calpol in the dark..

This is what I'd put in there if I could:

Tivoli Cream Loop Pile Carpet - Image Source: Carpet Right

Due to the two tone pile, it'd be very forgiving!

Well.. on to the main event.  Felix's room as it stands.  I really am very proud of it, I feel it's such a happy space.

There is such a lot going on in this room which I know won't be to everyone's taste, but I feel it makes a good reflection of a child and in particular, my child!  The walls are quite a bold solid green colour.  We actually painted this room green when I was pregnant with Ethan, we felt it was a good colour for a young child.  Since then, fashions have changed a little and it seems paler walls or even white walls are much more in, but I can't see us getting around to painting any time soon, and whilst it is a statement, I do think it still looks good.

Felix's chest of draws I found in a charity shop when I was pregnant.  We sanded them down, re varnished and attached some cute new draw knobs.  A nice easy facelift!

I love the iconic Farg Form cloud print and found these storage boxes on offer at The Pippa and Ike Show.   They have proven to be very useful.  I keep nappy changing equipment in the middle sized one and medicins/creams etc in the smallest one.  The largest one has bandanna bibs in at present!

Felix loves "cat clocks" so we bought one with his birthday money which really made his day (week, month, year!).  He enjoys watching the tail and eyes move.  Orange looks gorgeous against the green walls we think.

You can't have a child's room withiout some Lucky Boy Sunday cuddlies.  Fancy Nulle is just about the best cuddly ever.  He's pretty much the same size as Felix at the moment and so soft.  Felix likes to roll around the floor with Bow Jovi, kissing him..

I'm a bit obsessed with wall stickers (or decals as they are often called).  Why do I like them so much?  Well, they are a quick and easy way to update a room.  Many of them are easy to remove and are even re-positionable (or, in my experience, even if they aren't officially re-positionable, you can move them around if you are careful!).

Felix has heaps of wall stickers in his room.  As you can see above, there is a cute hello from Hello Apparel via Southwood Stores.  The birds & leaves I bought a long time ago and in all honestly, I can't remember where.   The Be Brave is a Shanna Murray design stocked by Deco Baby.  I love this one.  It's simple, sweet and inspiring.

We also have a huge love of Totoro and other Ghibli films in our house so you will find a great many soot sprites on Felix's wall.  I found a gorgeous Totoro under an umbrella on eBay which works perfectly with Farg Form's raindrops.

Speaking of Farg Form, look closely and you'll see some of their cloud stickers on the walls too!

I adore displaying Felix's clothes.  Items that are especially beautiful or perhaps too big from him yet.  That's where the Red Hand Gang come in handy.  Abi makes these beautiful hangers which are perfect to display clothing.  I even had my own one commissioned!! 

Even just looking through pictures of this room I can see how much it changes week on week.  Mostly because I buy new additions for it like the pom pom garland from Woody & Florence.  Run by Chloe, you'll be hard pushed not to want to buy everything they make (which is why I've had to ask her to make me some bedding!!).

Some things I have to move around because Felix's is getting taller and more able to pull at things but not old enough to fully understand being asked not to do something... the tiny felt bunting has had to move around a few times.

How amazing is the fox rug?  Felix has a bit of a fox theme, he's my Felix Fox.  I had to get this for him when I saw Molly Meg stocked them!

There are just so many items in Felix's room I don't think I could list them all.  I will include a list of my favourite stores to buy from at the end of this post though.  How would I describe the style of Felix's bedroom?  Hmm.. Most of my house I would call scandi-shabby-chic and I suppose this is in a similar vein.  There is no doubt I am very inspired by scandi style but I don't have the white walls they often do.  I do love white walls but am somewhat frightened of them in children's rooms!

I plan to share Ethan's room soon and probably other rooms in the house if this is well received.  I adore decorating my home.  It's not what I'd call my "forever home".  I'd like a 1930s property ideally but until I am working we have to stay where we are.  We are lucky, we have three bedrooms and it is a good size.

Favourite stockists:

Molly Meg

The Pippa and Ike Show

Southwood Stores

Bimbly

Woody & Florence

The Red Hand Gang

Deco Baby

Cissy Wears

Velveteen Babies

Sleeping in style - obsessed with bedding

If I ever want to freshen up one of our bedrooms, I start with a new duvet set.  I am rather addicted to them.  Luckily we have a large airing cupboard and under-bed storage so I am able to store quite a few.  We probably have too many, but at least we have plenty of bedding available for guests or when the children are sick (or have an accident!!).

I love how you can keep your room fashionable with something as simple as changing the bedding.  You can suit the season, your mood and for such a small cost.  What is even more fantastic is that it is so easy to pick up bargain bedding these days.  Whilst I really love buying from smaller independent companies, I am also a bargain hunter.  These days I have to admit that the supermarkets are the places to go for bedding.  In particular, George at Asda are brilliant at staying on trend and affordable.  You can often pick up a new duvet set for around £12.  Fitted sheets come in at around £5 so for less than £20 you can have a completely new set!

I thought I would share my top 5 places to buy bedding and some of my favourite picks from their current collections:

1) George at Asda

George are excellent at staying on trend, their prices are hard to beat and the quality is actually very good:

Bedding from George at Asda

2) Ikea

Ikea bedding makes my palms sweaty.  When I visit Ikea my heart rate increases once we reach the bedroom part of the showroom.  I find it very hard not to buy bedding when I go to Ikea.  Good prices, some are crazy cheap, most are average prices.  The quality is astounding though:

Ikea bedding

3) Wilkinsons

Wilkinsons were a real surprise to me.  I hardly ever go in "bargain" shops like Wilkos, I always think it's a little like a 99p shop.  However, I ended up on their online shop a few months ago and was astounded at the choice. Like Asda, their bedding prices are amazing and very up to date:

Wilko Bedding

4) H&M

I started shopping online with H&M a few years ago when I discovered just how good their children's clothes are.  I love them for me and the boys.  Even hubby relies on them for their underwear!!  Their homewear range is growing all the time and is very stylish.  Their bedding sets are fantastic and often sell out within hours (anyone who knows about their very Mini Rodini style tiger bedding set will know what I mean.  I actually feel like crying when I think about missing out on that..).  Prices are very good and quality is also great:

H&M Bedding

5) Argos

I stopped buying from Argos a while ago feeling they were very old fashioned and out of date.  However, a recent Google for geometric bedding led me back to them and boy do they have a good selection!  Prices range from the very cheap to the much more expensive so there's something for everyone.  I'm impressed!

Argos Bedding

How do you like to brighten up your bedroom?  I hope I've inspired a few people today to try some new bedding out and maybe try somewhere new to buy from! Have fun!!

I'll show you my...son's bedroom!

I'll show you mine... is back again!  This time I'm giving you a chance to nose at Ethan's bedroom.  I'm going to post a few photos, but this time I'm also going to include a little vlog.  It's my first vlog, so be kind to me!  I apologise in advance, the sound is atrocious so you'll need to have your volume up high.  Hopefully you'll still get the gist of Ethan's room even if you can't make out my mumblings.  I'm still new at this vlogging lark!

If you'd like to join in, it's simple.  Write a blog post about your child/ren's bedroom, post a few pictures, a video if you fancy it and then link up using the easy to use linky below.  The link will be open for a week from today so there's plenty of time to join in.  Please include a link to my blog in your blog post.  Don't forget to tweet me the link as well so I can re-tweet to my followers and share on my blog's facebook page. This is still quite a new linky, it's not well known and I could do with increasing awareness so if you can, please tell friends you think might like to join in about it and share the link on twitter.  It's good for all of us!

Enjoy!

Ethan's "Big Boy" Bedroom:

Ethan moved into his big boy room this May.  Before he was in the smaller bedroom next to our room.  As we plan to have another child one day, we knew we had to move Ethan.  He had to move out of his cot anyway, so it all happened at the same time.  Ethan was excited about a new room and it was really fun for us to redesign a room for him.  I decided that we would move all his toys (which were spread around the house) to his new room so he can have easy access to them.  It also meant we got our living room back (though he is allowed to bring toys in there, they just go back in his room at the end of the day!).

We were lucky, Ethan's new room didn't need painting or carpeting, or new furniture.  My Mum and Dad leant us a single bed (it was my bed as a child).  We just bought curtains, duvet covers and a few bits and bobs from Ikea.  Ethan loves it and I feel he's grown up a bit since moving in to a bed and a new room.  Here are few pics:

And now for the video.. again, apologies for the sound:

Right! Now I'm going to hand over to you, lovely readers and blogging friends!  Join in, link up and let me know about it!  I can't wait to have a noise at other children's bedrooms, I love to see how other people decorate!  If you join in, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! XX