It's a Jungle Out There

We have lived in so many places over the last couple of years, and I've redesigned things so many times, there is always a part of me that tries to carry a certain memory from one place to another. I've always been a very sentimental person, and this is the way it translates to home decor I suppose. We saw it happen with Emily's birdy room (oh how I miss that perfect little room!) and we are about to see it happen with Adam's nautical room, although that is more because there was simply nothing else that seems to work so well for him right now than anything else.

I had some stickers from Emily's first room still lying around. No, not the bird room, her previous room!

I knew they'd come in handy someday, and lo and behold, I was setting up the play room last week (we've divided the huge living room into two parts - living room and play area), and it occurred to me that they might just be perfect for the job.

Take some boring old IKEA Trofast storage...

...and add colourful jungle wall stickers...!

And I think I was right.

The kids adore them, and every time I look at them, I remember setting up that first nursery, heavily pregnant and clueless. It feels like a metaphorical nod to 2010.


(Despite the huge amount of IKEA-bought toys in the pictures, this post is not sponsored by IKEA. They're just great toys!)

The Rainbow Room (Emily's Room)

I think it's about time I let you into this room....

Welcome to Emily's (huge) Rainbow Room!

She adores her "hiding place"

There was a very different plan originally meant for this room that involved completely different furniture.

Then we realised that the room this big wardrobe was meant to go into wasn't high enough to home it,

but we didn't want to get rid of it (it's huge and too good by way of storage to lose out on!) so Emily's room

adopted it, and before it was even all in place, we already knew it looked way better than the furniture that

was originally intended for her room. As Emily would say, "We got lucky there!"

She loves her room and will show it off to anyone she can convince to come upstairs with her.

Her Bedtime Brigade

Dolly sleeps in her own cot at the foot of Emily's bed

And then, a while after I took these photos, we finally had THE chandelier installed.

Not everyone was convinced it would work. My mother thought it might be too much for the room.

I think it completes it. The pictures don't even begin to do it justice.

...And my mother has since eaten her words ;)

I am extremely pleased with the outcome of this room, as well as with the fact that I was able to bring in elements of Emily's old bird theme room as I didn't want to leave that behind completely - we barely had eight months to enjoy that one... Here's hoping the Rainbow Room's reign is at least slightly longer!

Princess Canopy from IKEA

Alphabet stickers from JojoMamanBebe

Rainbow & clouds stickers from The Graphix Studio

Images in small frames from IKEA

Flower Nightlight from IKEA

Bookends from Sass and Belle

Blue wall colour is First Dawn by Dulux

Once Again, Emily's Room

Less than a year after I showed you her last new room, and for what will not be the final time (we move again later on this year), here is Emily's new room. She loves it. It is the first time we've been able to spend hours playing in a room of hers. I read in the armchair while she colours, or we play together. She will sometimes stop and look around her and exclaim with glee, "My room!" Yup, she likes it here.

As this is a rented apartment, we have not painted the walls or hung up all her wall decorations, but they are being saved for her next room, which is approximately the same size. I do miss her pink walls though!

Why God Made Little Girls

God made the world with towering trees,
Majestic mountains and restless seas.
Then paused and said, "It needs one more thing...
Someone to laugh and dance and sing.
To walk in the wood and gather flowers...
To commune with nature in quiet hours."

So God made little girls
With laughing eyes and bouncing curls,
With joyful hearts and infectious smiles,
Enchanting ways and feminine wiles.
And when He'd completed the task He'd begun,
He was pleased and proud of the job He'd done.
For the world, when seen through little girl's eyes,
Greatly resembled Paradise.

[Author Unknown]


When Denise and I were young, we shared a room. On the wall was a pretty pink frame with a picture of a little girl and the poem "Why God Made Little Girls." I remember reading it and imagining those majestic mountains and little girls in fields. I remember trying to understand what "feminine wiles" were. This poem had a special place in my heart. It made me feel special.

Years passed, Denise and I moved into separate rooms and didn't want sentimental mush on our cool walls. The poem was forgotten.

Until last week, while trying to think up something different to put on Emily's new bedroom wall, it came back to me. I couldn't remember the name of the poem, so I asked my sister if she remembered it. She didn't but my dad saved the day, and some good news: the frame still exists.

Whether it will be that original frame or an updated version, I will be seeing to it that this poem is on Emily's wall when she moves into it in a few weeks time. Maybe she'll read it in wonder when she's older too and know just how special she is.

[image cred]

Birdy Shuffle

We are planning a room reshuffle here in our home. Emily is getting a new room! 

And I get to design it afresh!

I'll give you a little hint....

We are planning to have it finished by the start of summer,
so look out for little updates in the meantime!


[image]

Changing Rooms - The Nursery

The nursery has started coming together, if just in my head for the time being.

So far, we've taken away the furniture that made up the guest room, leaving just the wardrobe which we decided to use in the nursery after all. The cot will be assembled this weekend and the dresser should arrive any day now - at which point things will start taking real shape.

But in the meantime, I've been working on some ideas for colour, content and style...



It's getting very exciting, I can't wait to start seeing it come together. The spare room was the first room I did up in this house, and now here I am again, come full circle - this time as Emily's room.

[images/ideas via Ikea, Babies R Us, Mamas & Papas, Amazon, Nimbus Lighting]

Gentle Fawn

Today was the bathroom's turn for a make over. We chose Gentle Fawn. The idea was for it to be subtle but bring out the stone colour of the tiles.

Another afternoon closed up in a room, just the paint and me. Within 30 minutes I was high on the thing and had no escape. I wanted to finish it, today.

Alas, the colour turned out to be a bit darker than we anticipated. It is verging on pink.



...I know, I was shocked too. Admittedly, it lightens as it dries so ask me again in a few hours. But if we ever have a baby girl, the bathroom can be her room. It's already painted right... a few teddy bears here and there, she can sleep in the bath.

So as I sit here, sipping my beer (the paint jobs must be doing something to my testosterone levels... I've been craving beer for two hours now and boy does it taste good!) & desperately needing a shower (my fingernails are encrusted with paint - I detest rubber gloves), I can think only of the reaction my father will have when he sees my handiwork.

All those years of patiently putting up with little me 'helping' as he did up the house, and I still can't paint a straight line to save my life. Sure, the rest is great... but those lines, oh those lines! (Note how I haven't posted a picture of the ceiling area. Oh no, I have way too much pride for that. I'll let you all tell me how amazing and professional it looks... you won't be seeing the edging and detail.)

My dad will. And he'll have a fit.

I do, however, feel the need to thank him for something other than passing his skills on to me (although debatable, of course). He taught me to always clear up right after I've finished doing something. I take this for granted and only today did I actually acknowledge where it came from. When we finished painting a room (or anything else for that matter), there'd always be that extra stage afterwards - the 'not really fun bit' - the cleaning up stage.

This 'skill' has translated to other areas of my life as I grew up. Cooking, leisure, DIY, what have you. I always clear up right away and I can't imagine being any other way! And for instilling that in me, as insignificant as it may have seemed at the time, I thank you Daddy :)

Ps: I get the crooked lines from my mother ;)