home decorating

4 Top Tips for Decorating Kids Rooms

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I have another guest post to share with you today, all about top tips for decorating kids rooms. I am actually thinking again about rearranging and redecorating the boys rooms, although we did it not so long ago. You can see the budget room make over I did for the older boys’ room last year

decorating kids rooms

Now I’m thinking to shift the children around with Mr Z having his own room and the younger two sharing instead so that he could keep his older toys separate and away from his little brothers. Although Mr Z and Mr T are actually closer in age (17 months age gap), Mr T and Mr R (19 months gap) seem to be more similar in their interests so it may work out better we will have to see.

I’m always looking for more tips as it always helps to be prepared, and I may be prone to forgetting some of the obvious things – like mentioned below: Furniture at child height. For some ridiculous reason I had shelves put in very high up in Mr Z’s room and I have to get books down for him all the time! Although this one does have to be weighed up against things being too easy for toddlers to reach and access, so there’s a balance to strike with the different age groups…

Over to my guest poster Sue with the tips:

tips for decorating kids rooms

4 Top Tips for Decorating Kids Rooms

Getting a room ready for a young child needs a bit of planning and forethought, so just follow this plan and your room will be ready for your little one to grow and play in no time. We have thought of all the possible needs of a parent
and their child, but if we’ve missed anything out then do let us know in the comments.

Everyone remembers their childhood bedroom and how such a small space seemed like an endless kingdom of play and exploration.

Here’s how to decorate your kids room:

Choose furniture at your child’s height

This one is a no-brainer really. Try to keep tables, chairs, and storage like shelves and coat hangers at a height where a child can reach. This will get your child doing things independently by themselves and prevent any accidents caused by
trying to reach objects that are teetering up on higher places. It will also leave the room tidier. You might need to adjust the height of furniture and shelving when your child grows older but this can be done without too much difficulty if
you choose shelves with adjustable shelving height, etcetera.

Install a display area

Here’s a really great tip to encourage your child in learning and creativity. You can buy sheet metal and install a magnetic display space anywhere you like. Magnets are safer for children than corkboard pins and they can change and adjust the display themselves. The kids painting, writing and home-made cards will look fantastic displayed in their room.

Choosing lighting

It is advisable not to choose halogen lighting for child’s room as these lights emit lots of heat. You don’t want your little one to get burnt fingers! If you install wall lighting, make sure that its high up off the ground so that there is no danger of
your child coming into contact with it. Block off any wall sockets with heavy furniture. With very young children, one ambient light in the room is good enough, so perhaps make that light adjustable for nap time and bedtime? For the
older ones that need special lighting for homework, check out a stylish hanging lamp:

Like this one from Lamp Commerce

multicolour lamp

Colourful wall

Think about using a palette of colours rather than getting the room painted in a single colour (people who are thinking of creating all pink or all blue rooms, we’re looking at you!) You can choose colours that represent the sun, sea and the sky, or all the colours in a Neapolitan ice cream. Go in to paint store and tell them your idea and they will help you pick out the colours for you.

Don’t be afraid to ask your kids for their preferences–your little ones might have some great ideas already. Get them to think about what they need from their room and get them invested in thinking that the best way to use it and keep it tidy. If they love to write, then give them a desk with lots of light. If they love sports, then help them to create a fantastic display of their favourite sporting hero posters.

Above all, get ready to have a lot of fun!

If you’re interested in Kid’s room ideas, have a look at my Pinterest board for Kids bedrooms and playrooms here and follow along!

pinterest

 Are there any tips you would add? Let me know in the comments!

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*Featured Guest Post*

Martha Stewart Home Office Wall Organiser

By in Home and Lifestyle 2 Comments Tags: , , ,

As its coming up to back to school time, it’s not only the children who need to get all their school supplies ready, as parents there can be a lot to keep track of during term time so the new school year is a great time to think about improving organisation, and getting our home space organised to easily keep a track of who needs to be where, what needs to be done and when, what needs to be paid, what needs to be bought, and all the little things that need doing day to day.

I had the chance to review some products from the Martha Stewart Home Office Wall Order range, which you can see below.

Wall Organisation Lifestyle.logo_crop.sThis is a modular system, so the picture you see above is made up of four wall mounted sections that are each bought separately, and then you can add shelves, drawers and other accessories.

I was really excited to try out this system, I love the idea of it and I often find myself with paper work, pens and various little things cluttering up one corner of my kitchen so I was hoping to take down my old pinboard and replace it with this system to make that area look so much more organised, neat, and much more appealing.

The boards come with an inbuilt spirit level, and four nails to attach each one to the wall. I got my husband to do this as I am not brilliant at even simple DIY, unfortunately it does not seem to be one of my strengths so I leave it to him. I asked him to attach the boards to my preferred wall in the kitchen, without considering what time of wall it is. With it being an external wall it was not easy at all for him to hammer the nails into the wall, they were getting bent out of shape and not going through so we had no choice but to rethink the location.

We decided to attach the boards to the inside of the cupboard door under the stairs, as this is another place that I like to keep things to hand and the surface was much easier to attach the nails.

marthastewartOnce we had attached the wall panels it was very easy to attach the accessories. The drawers, shelf and storage just slot in sideways onto the wall organiser.

As you can see, I was sent two wall panels. The upper panel is a magnetic board which is great for attaching small notices or reminders and the lower section is a really versatile one which can be customised in so many ways, by putting the different drawers, shelves and containers wherever you like within the space of the wall panel and can be rearranged as often as you like. I have included a small shelf at the bottom, a set of two drawers, and a storage compartment at the top. I am keeping post it notes and pens here so that I can write a quick reminder to myself while I am on the go.

I was a little disappointed that I was not able to wall mount this in the spot I had in mind, but it will still be really useful for me to help keep me organised. From September, we are thinking of starting Mr R in nursery for a couple of days. This will mean all three kids in different schools, then there is all the speech therapy and other appointments starting up again for T, the meetings with school and nursery SENCOs, and all the other day to day things to remember once school is back. Now that this is placed on the door, I will see it everyday when taking out the shoes so I can see it coming in really handy for last minute reminders and check lists to make sure everything is remembered and nothing gets overlooked.

The Wall Accessory boards are £13.00, and accessories priced from £2.00 to £10.00

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Welcome to my Home with Out There Interiors

By in Home and Lifestyle, Other Reviews 8 Comments Tags: , , , , , ,

out there interiors logo

Out There Interiors are a company specialising in designer furniture and accessories. I have been trying to make an effort recently to add a few more accessories to my house and get it looking a little more welcoming and tidy, rather than cluttered and disorganised. We moved into our home a year and a half ago now, but still have loads more finishing touches to do. The hall way is an area that does need quite a bit of improvement, and as that is the first thing people see when they come in I would like it to look more inviting and appealing.

I recently had the chance to choose something from Out There Interiors to review so after looking through the range, I thought it would be great to get an accessory for my hallway and I went for these coloured building blocks spelling out “welcome”

welcome bricks out there interiors

They can be arranged any way you like to suit your space as all the bricks are individual. I knew exactly were I wanted to place them in my hallway. We have a wall mounted shelf with space to hang the coats, and I thought it would be ideal on top of this. It all fits in just perfectly.

welcome hallway out there interiors
It gives a lovely splash of colour to the Hallway, which is great against the white wall and white shelf. It also looks much more smart and presentable – I hate to admit but I was leaving some clutter up there before and it did not look good! I have found that putting something decorative on the empty surfaces stops me from leaving clutter on those surfaces so I am trying to implement this all around my house.

Each of the bricks are quite large in size and have a weathered vintage look to them, to give a bit of character.
out there interiors The colours are not overly bright so as to look tacky, but they do have some vibrancy to them and are in a lovely mix of shades. out there interiors wOut There Interiors also have some very similar bricks spelling out “Home” which may be suited if you have a slightly smaller space. I like those too! But Welcome is a perfect message for my hall way! I really like the fun and childlike aspect to them how the design reminds you of children’s building blocks. Being a home with small children, I felt it’s a nice touch to reflect the character of our home.

What areas of your home are you looking to improve? I would love to know if you have anything planned or have your eye on anything in particular so let me know in the comments. The next step for my hall way will be a new mirror and lighting to get the whole space finished off!

Room For Improvement

By in Home and Lifestyle 25 Comments Tags: , , , , , , ,

boysroommakeover

MoneySuperMarket are running a Room for Improvement competition to see how we can make over a room in the house on a budget of £50. We have recently been trying to decorate the upstairs of our house so this is great timing! After living in our house for over a year now, we still have quite a bit to do but we are slowly getting there.

I decided to use the budget to liven up my boys’ room a bit. It had recently been painted but still lacked the finishing touches to make it look more appealing, as it was pretty boring – as you can see below!

bedroom "before" picture from a room make over. boring looking boys room
Before – Needs something to liven it up.

Before we painted it blue, it was even worse, but I don’t even have any pictures of that. But just imagine it, very old fashioned grannyish flowery wallpaper which was ripped off in places by my toddler – not really what a nearly 5 year old boy would like!

So with my budget of £50 kindly provided by MoneySuperMarket, I set off to Dunelm Mill with my oldest boy to have a look around and choose a few things to add a bit of character to the room.

He chose a new bedding set with numbers on it, a small rocket rug, and his favourite new addition to his bedroom – a plush red car cushion.

dunelmmillrocketrug plushcarcushion

This cost me £19.99 for the rug and £9.99 for the car cushion (both shown above), and £8.99 for the duvet set.

I have just seen these items are quite a bit cheaper on the website thought! Should have checked before I went! Did not really expect such vastly different prices in store to online with it being the same company and not massively impressed with that, but I will know for next time! I had been meaning to go and have a look around the big new(ish) Greenford store for a while and just wanted to pick the things up today rather than waiting for delivery.

I also got a Finding Nemo wall sticker from e-Bay which my son had asked for before, as fishes match well with his blue walls.

finding nemo wall sticker, finding nemo wall art, porthole shaped wall sticker, wall sticker with dory nemo and marlin, clownfish wall sticker, large fish wall sticker, disney finding nemo

We also took out the old pine chest of drawers that was hanging around in there not matching with the rest of the furniture, and that created a bit more space.

So here is the new look:

Boys room with rocket rug, numbers bedding and finding nemo wall decoration.
After! Looks much more appealing

boys room, car and thomas cushions, blue walls, numbers bedding, finding nemo wall art

I think it is a definite improvement. It has a bit more character now and looks less boring.

You can see more details of the competition here. All the entries will be shown on the Pinterest board here.

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