Interiors - Children's Bedroom Inspiration

When my marital home was sold and I bought my own place I had to downsize considerably. Practically I just couldn't afford to maintain a house of that size on my own... the heating and electricity bills were crazy for a start. I'm sad to be in a smaller space with less impact. Interiors are one of my things... I just love interior design (I even did an evening course in interior design when I first moved to Glasgow). Although that said, it probably was good for me to move on and have a fresh start. 

I'm conscious that the kids rooms are really small. The littlest is in the smallest room. Anyway, I've been giving some thought about making the best use of the space that I do have, and I think it's probably time to sell the bulky single beds that I do have and invest in a cabin bed or midi sleeper of some sort. This way I can store plenty of her things under the bed and give her as much floor space as possible. She is four now so I think she's probably safe to be on a raised bed now so long as there is a barrier.

Unfortunately this bed is £2,330 at bobo kids!! But isn't it fab!

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This then got me day dreaming about all the other interior touches that I could add to make the space beautiful, and of course I've been pinning like crazy!!

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What is your favourite interior find that you have in your little ones bedroom (or yours for that matter!)?

{January Joy - 24th Jan}

Prompt for today's #JanuaryJoy is to 'have a clear out (cupboard or whole room)'.

For me this is a work in progress. I am reckoning that I will be selling up and moving house this summer and with this in mind I'm in the process of tidying, organising and decluttering everywhere.

I tackled the dining room, back porch and bathroom a while ago, and have since organised and updated the kitchen, my bedroom, son's bedroom, my daughter's bedroom and I've even improved the garden. I've also now changed the dining room into a playroom which has been fantastic. I now have a grown up living space which is toy-free and the kids are free to make a mess in their own lounge.

One other area that needed some attention was the utility space. Here are the before shots:

Note the mouldy blue carpet :-/

So first up was the carpet had to go. I decided to replace it with some linoleum.

Kids running around in the aisles!

Carpet up!

Without the carpet.

I also removed the white metal shelving that you can see in the above photo. I wanted to make better use of the space and decided to build some Ikea shelves instead.

The new lino

The shelving, that I built by myself!

It's still a work in progress, but I'm getting there.

I desperately need to clear out the attic which is next on my list. I have so many old children's clothing that needs to go to a new home. I currently have piles for charity shop, eBay and for passing onto family. If I keep plugging away at it, hopefully I can have everything sorted and looking nice for the house going on the market. It feels good to make progress with the decluttering.

{The White Company Christmas Bedroom Challenge}

I was just today made aware of The White Company competition over on Fresh Design Blog. The gist is basically that you style a Christmas bedroom with The White Company's home collections and there is a chance to win up to £200 of bed linen. The White Company?? I'm in!

All of the Christmas stock would appear to be off their website, but I've styled a room anyway - it may just not look very Christmassy, sorry!!

For me, grey is a favourite colour and my own bed has an amazing hotel-style grey padded headboard.

For the bed linen I've chosen the Genoa collection, which looks amazing! Exactly the type of bed I would love to crawl into:

Genoa Bed Linen Collection

I've also selected the Cliveden Throw in Silver, which also has matching cushion covers:

Cliveden Throw

And for a bit of layering, I'd add a faux fur throw in dark silver:

Luxury Faux Fur Throw

Mood lighting is a must, so I'd pick this Deco Shade Chandelier (I successfully changed a dimmer switch all by myself yesterday so installing this will be easy - I hope!):

Deco Shade Chandelier

I love The White Company pomegranate fragrance, so I'd have one of these candles lit on the bedside table:

Pomegranate large 3-wick candle

And I would lounge about the bedroom in a hooded cardigan (grey of course!) from The White Company that I've mentioned in a previous post:

{Merry Christmas}

Christmas is literally around the corner...just 7 more sleeps! We are very excited here at the Glasgow Mummy house :-)

Last Christmas I put together a photo card for friends and family using a Vol 25 template. I did the same this year using one of the room templates. Seriously, I love all these designs!

I managed to persuade the little ones to get into their Christmas outfits (star jumper is from M&S, tutu from Next and stripy tights from Baby Gap) and took a few quick snaps, which I think actually turned out ok. Phew!

Here is our card:

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!!

{Fabulous Finds - Safari Bedroom}

I thought I'd share another one of the rooms in my house as part of my Fabulous Finds series... this time my toddler son's bedroom which is safari themed. I'm a big fan of Etsy, which is where I found a lot of the artwork and vinyl stickers that I used to decorate the walls. The walls are Dulux Natural Calico with the woodwork painted white. My thoughts were that the theme could then be changed fairly easily as he grows up. You can find the post on my daughter's bedroom here. I've just realised that I didn't photograph his bed (probably because it wasn't made!) but it is the Nantucket Bunk Bed from Aspace, but we're using it as a single bed for just now.

Sonoma 10-drawer wide chest from Marks and Spencer. I featured the fairy lights in a previous post and the jelly mould night light is from Mathmos.

Monkey wall graphic from Solana Graphics Studio

Safari animal print from Smiley Walls Art Studio

Giraffe vinyl sticker height chart from Single Stone Studios

Storage baskets from JoJo Maman Bebe

Cloud B ladybug night light from Amazon.co.uk, thanks to a recommendation from a friend. Tonight is the first night that my son has gone to bed, and stayed in bed, until he fell asleep. This is night two with the ladybug, and it seems to be working a treat! The light projects stars all round his room and he can pick to have red, blue (his favourite) or green stars. They automatically go off after 45 minutes.

What would spiderman do? print by Peter and Janes at notonthehighstreet.com

Roar - Natural fabric which my mother-in-law kindly made into curtains for us.

More animal prints from Smiley Walls Art Studio

Washing machine laundry basket from Vertbaudet

Book storage on wheels from Vertbaudet

{Bamarang & Reader Offer}

The lovely people over at Bamarang.co.uk have recently been in contact with me regarding their website and have given me a special offer for the readers of my blog... yay!

Bamarang was established at the start of this year and it is a design site with a difference. The team of scouts, based in Shoreditch, London, scour the UK for new and inspiring items and bring exclusive discounts to their customers for limited time periods. You need to join the site, but it's free to become a member. They've got gadgets, accessories, homeware and they also have a special kids sale on at the moment. Anyway, I thought I would share the details as there were a few items that caught my eye...

I think my toddler would love the Rock n Roll red wooden guitar by Vilac...

And for me, I think the Tipsy Glasses by Loris & Livia, which are £55 for a set of six, are seriously cool.

I've also spotted that Flux Chairs will be joining the other sale items tomorrow. I spotted them in a local interior design shop a wee while ago and thought they looked very funky. It's one piece of polypropylene and it arrives flatpack, looking like an envelope, and it has notches in it so you fold it into a chair shape. Genius!

If you click here, then you will be taken to a special offer for £10 off your first purchase. Enjoy! Do let me know if you buy anything...