Creative family homes Archives - A Baby on Board blog

3 Tips To Sleep Well When You Have Small Children

Gillian — Wed, 03 May 2023 12:15:59 +0000

Here Are 3 Tips To Sleep Well When You Have Small Children ad – Sleeping well never stops being important, especially so when you have small children and sleep is in short supply, so here are three tips to sleep well and the best pillows to help. No matter what type of sleeper you are, from an early bird to a night owl, here are tips to make the most of the sleep you do have (especially when it becomes more precious than ever!). What’s Your Sleep Personality? What time do you go to bed? If I’m asleep by 11:30pm it’s an early night. Sleep deprivation is tough – something Even Prince William referenced, read my post on the seven rules of the sleep deprivation society – but despite swearing every morning that I’ll be in bed by ten that evening, guess what? I never do it. I’m the stereotypical mum who stays up late because I value my precious pockets of child-free evening time as THE time to get everything done. Even if that time is spent reading or scrolling through Instagram until the early hours. (It’s not just me, right?). It was no surprise that I’m a night owl, according to the sleep experts at TEMPUR®. They define a night owl as someone who is more productive in the evenings, doesn’t go to bed until midnight or later, and finds early mornings are their least favourite way to start the day. Which sounds spot on! Find out your sleep personality by taking the quiz here. Making The Most Of Your Precious Sleep Because sleep is in short supply when you’re a night owl with small children, it’s important to make the most of the sleep that you do get. Read our three tips to sleep well when you have small children, including the best pillows for a sweet sleep, however short it is. Three Tips To Sleep Well When You Have Small Children Buy The Biggest bed You Can My top tip for happy parenting is to get the biggest bed you can. Because at some point you’ll all be sleeping in it. It’s inevitable! You will need the extra space. Buying bigger bed bases can be life-changing. Trust me It means you’re not squished on a narrow strip of the mattress with a small foot in your face. We went from a small sized double to a super king in the space of two kids. Warning: it’s impossible to go back. Make Your Sleep As Comfortable As Possible Having a comfortable bed will make a world of difference to sleep. Buy a big duvet so you’re all covered. Having a memory foam mattress can also help. When it comes to the best pillows to help you sleep well, TEMPUR® is rated #1 in quality of sleep by customers, so they know what they’re talking about. To help this night owl get a good night of sleep, TEMPUR® sent us the Classic Comfort Original Pillow, which is filled with TEMPUR®Material micro-cushions. This means it’s huggable and shapeable to you, while still being supportive. Which makes it super comfortable. I had no idea pillows could be this cosy. Everyone in my house is currently fighting over it. The pillow is also machine washable – perfect when you have little ones in with you – and it fits a standard pillow case. Eliminate Night-time Distractions My final sleep tip is to get rid of anything that can distract you and stop you sleeping. For me, this means: Using an eye mask An eye mask will block out all light and let you sleep well in seconds, even in the day. I have an eye mask that wraps around my entire head (this works brilliantly for naps). I now take it absolutely everywhere. Playing Sleep Sounds Playing white noise or ambient sleep sounds can help you block out all other sounds. It’s also super soothing when you’re trying to sleep. Our favourite is rainforest sounds, or a sleep sound called ‘rain on a tent.’ P.S. this works for both adults and children. Don’t Look At Your Phone In The Night I’d love to say don’t look at your phone before bed but, well…it would be a lie. Instead, if I wake up for any reason. I never look at my phone as the light wakes me up so much I can’t go back to sleep quickly. It’s much easier to go back to sleep if you just don’t look. You can watch my TEMPUR® reel over on Instagram. Sweet dreams! Also read what not to do when you’re sleep deprived and twelve signs your child is no friends of sleep and follow me on Pinterest. This post is in conjunction with TEMPUR® but all thoughts are my own.

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How To Make Googly Eyes For Plants

Gillian — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 09:48:47 +0000

Here’s How To Make Googly Eyes For Plants How to make googly eyes for your plants…but why would you want to make googly eyes for your plants, I hear you ask? Well, why not? It something really simple to do that looks fun. And plant eyes are a good Halloween decoration, if you decorate your house for Halloween a lot (or even if you just want some simple touches that won’t get glitter and glue everywhere). Or it’s a decoration for any other time of the year too. If you have a lot of plants – which I know loads of us do, as a post-lockdown hobby – then they will be a huge part of your house, so it makes sense to decorate them too. It’s also really fun for children, as it’s simple to do and really easy for them to help out and get involved in. What You’ll Need To Make Googly Plant Eyes Here’s what you’ll need to make googly eyes for your plants. (Contains affiliate links). How To Make Your Googly Plant Eyes It’s really simple! Here’s what you need to do to make googly eyes for your plants. And there you go! Ever feel like someone’s watching you? You can see more over on my Instagram: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Gill Crawshaw (@gill_crawshaw) More Crafts For Children Once you’ve made google eyes for your plants, try one of these ideas:

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IKEA Malm Drawers Makeover: IKEA Hacks For Kids Rooms

Gillian — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 11:57:55 +0000

We’ve Given Our Old IKEA Malm Drawers A Makeover… Read This Simple IKEA Hack For Kids Rooms, Using The IKEA Malm Drawers And Paint Hands up who has something from the IKEA Malm range, and who has the IKEA Malm drawers? They’re a pretty ubiquitous and sturdy piece of furniture, aren’t they? Here’s what we did to upcyle ours. (This post contains affiliate links). We’ve had our IKEA Malm chest of drawers for forever, and wanted to make them look a bit more pretty by mixing things up a little with an IKEA hack using paint. Our IKEA Malm Drawers: A Little Upcycle Our IKEA set of Malm drawers were a quick purchase from a speedy trip round IKEA when we first moved in together, to an unfurnished rented flat (it was a new build in south London and we were the first people to have lived there! The dream). Fast forward 15 (!) years and the IKEA chest of drawers are still going strong. While aesthetically they’re not at all what I would pick now, they’re still a practical chest of drawers that hold a lot of clothes. But as they’re a little boring for a tween’s room, we wanted to make them look prettier. Here’s what we did to upcycle the drawers. This is actually the third of fourth attempt at upcycling these drawers. Previous makeovers have included washi tape stripes and the inevitable layer of kid’s stickers that get stuck everywhere when they’re little. IKEA Malm Drawers Hack: What We Used How We Painted Our IKEA Malm Dresser IKEA Malm Drawers Hack: Verdict We love our new-look IKEA painted Malm drawers! It’s such a simple IKEA hack but it looks great. It was also handy to use paint we had around the house, as well as give a new lease of life to old furniture instead of buying new. I’m not always sure about painting furniture, especially if it’s vintage. But it’s given these old IKEA drawers a new lease of life. Read Our Interiors Posts For Family Homes:

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Interior Design Books For Family Homes: Five Of My Favourites

Gillian — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 14:13:42 +0000

If You’re Looking For Interior Inspiration, Here Are My Favourite Interior Design Books For Family Homes Hands up, I love interior design books and could happily read them all day long. If I didn’t have small people asking for snacks and stuff to do, of course. There are a lot of interior design books out there, but the best interior design books for me are ones for and about family homes, books that offer ideas for creating practical yet beautiful homes when you have kids. Or ones that just have really lovely photos to look at. Here are the best interior design books that are brilliant for families and for creative family homes. (Contains affiliate links). Why Are Interior Design Books for Family Homes Useful? Since we’ve been renovating our family home, interior design books have been a source of ideas and inspiration, and during lockdown they were pure interior escapism (I also love looking at house tours online…anyone else?). My favourite interior design books are ones which are great for families, with lots of great photos but also of ideas for creative family homes that really embrace having children in them and aren’t full of things children can’t touch and adults dread getting damaged. Here Are My Favourite Interior Design Books For Family Homes: Creative Family Homes by Ashlyn Gibson This is a brilliant book showcasing creative, colourful and bold family homes and how people live in them with children. There are lots of ideas for family life, and it’s just lovely (my kids love looking at this too). Buy it here. Creative Children’s Spaces by Ashlyn Gibson The follow-on book to Creative Family Homes, this book delves further into spaces specifically for children, from bedrooms to reading nooks and dens. There are more lovely photos and enviable homes with lots of creative ideas. Buy it here. The Little Book Of Living Small by Laura Fenton I love this book – If you’re living with limited square footage, as lots of us are, this book highlights how families happily live in small spaces (top tip – less stuff!). Although lots of these houses are in the US and I probably wouldn’t exactly call them small by UK standards, there are some beautiful houses and lots of tips and ideas. Buy it here. Design Bloggers At Home: Fresh Interiors Inspiration From Leading On-line Trend Setters by Ellie Tennant If you ignore the title, this book showcases some really lovely family houses. We actually had the idea for our side return extension from this book (which was a Christmas present for me that ended up costing an awful lot more). Buy it here. Design Mom: How To Live With Kids, A Room By Room Guide by Gabrielle Blair Blogger and influencer Design Mom aka Gabrielle Blair shares all her knowledge for creative family life and how to still have a stylish house when you have kids. There are lots of tips in here for creative family living and family life in general. Buy it here. Faded Glamour by Pearl Lowe While I wouldn’t exactly call most of these interiors family-friendly – although Pearl’s amazing house is home to her children – there are some gorgeous homes in here, with the kind of vintage glamour you’d happily find at the charity shop. And it’s lovely to look at. Buy it here. You can also buy her new version, Faded Glamour at the Seaside, which looks fab. Buy it here. Once You’ve Read About My Favourite Interior Design Books, Read These: This post contains affiliate links

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How To Make A Camera With Cardboard For Kids

Gillian — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 19:26:56 +0000

Here’s How To Make A Cardboard Box Camera For Your Kids Want To Make a Camera With Cardboard? Here’s How We Made Ours Looking for (yet more) easy children’s craft ideas? We’ve been raiding the recycling to make a children’s cardboard box camera. Like everyone, we’ve been stuck inside a lot recently, so I’m always looking for more things to do to keep everyone occupied (including, let’s be honest, me). We came up with the idea to make a cardboard box camera after my two kept ‘borrowing’ my proper camera, which is fine, but it was always returned with sticky fingers all over the lens. So the camera craft idea was born – we thought it would make something fun they could play with, that used items we already had in the house. Here’s how we made a camera with cardboard. (They are still allowed to use my proper camera, of course…when I’m watching). What You’ll Need For This Cardboard Crafting Activity A small-size cardboard box that’s approximately a easy to hold camera size, and that you can make a hole in (we used two halves of the box from my new phone) Something to make the lens – we used ketchup bottle lids, which you can flip up and down for a more fun camera lens / lens cap /viewfinder effect. You can find these types of lids on lots of different food products, and some kinds of babywipes too. A small bottle lid or cap Strong glue Something to make a hole in the box Washi tape or tape to decorate How To Make The Toy Cardboard Camera Make a hole in the box, for the viewfinder Glue the ‘lens’ to the front and the button to the top. Add tape or camera markings, if you like. That’s it! It’s a really simple activity that makes something really fun for them to play with, hopefully for ages. Plus, it uses up recycling and sticky fingers aren’t a problem – so everyone wins. Say cheese! Once you’ve read my post on making a cardboard box camera, make sure you also read: 101 indoor activities for children and the best lockdown birthday ideas for kids Make our easy banana bread How to make a felt ball garland Easy Christmas crafting for kids And look for more ideas on my Pinterest board of kid’s activities

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33 Of The Best Lockdown Birthday Ideas For Kids

Gillian — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 19:12:30 +0000

Looking For Lockdown Birthday Ideas For Kids? Here are 33 Lockdown Birthday Ideas Lockdown Birthday Ideas With Themes For Zoom parties, And Easy Birthday Ideas With No Zoom Involved So, your child is having a lockdown birthday and you’re looking for lockdown birthday ideas for kids to help make the day really special? How To Have A Kid’s Birthday During Lockdown We have a children’s lockdown birthday coming up soon (my Baby On Board is nine, how?!). Although I have lots of ideas, as her birthday got closer and closer I was starting to panic that none of them would be…special enough. For birthdays in ‘normal’ times we usually have a party, see family, go out for pizza or have a day out. And, obviously, all of those ideas are off the table this time. So how do you make a lockdown birthday special when all days are the same, at home, again? Making A Kid’s Birthday Special During Coronavirus Lockdown Our October-born child’s 6th birthday happened before the tiers were tightened, we weren’t in lockdown and the UK schools were still open. This time it’s a different experience all round. Naively, way back when, I’d thought we might be able to go somewhere fun if having a party was out of the question – but then now it’s apparent that no-one is going anywhere for a while. To Birthday Zoom Party Or Not To Birthday Zoom Party? We’ve attended some great online birthday parties, and have a weekly club that takes place over video calls. And as our relatives all live three hours away we regularly keep in touch over Facetime. However, I worry that too much Zoom makes everyone zone out, people quickly lose interest – including the adults! – and I don’t think they always work that well for quieter kids. So I’ve included ideas for both Zoom parties and ideas for non-video call birthdays. Here Are 33 Lockdown Birthday Ideas For Kids: Here’s a list of 33 lockdown birthday party ideas you can do at home, with two people minimum, or more if your child has siblings. They are probably most suited for school-aged children. Are they are all simple little ideas to hopefully make their day a lot more special. Lockdown Birthday Ideas For Kids – With No Zoom Or Video Calls Involved Have a day ‘off’ homeschooling and work and day-to-day activities, dedicated just to them. Let your child choose whatever they want to do for the day, whatever that may be – be it reading, colouring, a day of screens. Hide presents around the house and have a present treasure hunt. Stagger the present time, so they have them throughout the day (this 100% wouldn’t work with my impatient kids though! But it might with yours). Set up a special birthday den, with fairy lights, cushions, bunting, the works (here’s our Halloween den and blanket and bunting den). Let them eat dinner in the den. Let them sleep in the den. Let them pick the menu for the entire day You could have pancakes for breakfast, lunch or / and dinner. Or have a pizza party, where they can pick their own toppings (which will probably be cheese and maybe ham, let’s face it). Let them chose what to get from Deliveroo / Uber Eats. Mine have already decided… Have a normal children’s party, but for just for the 2,3,4,5+ of you – with all the regular activities, from pass-the-parcel to piñatas via musical chairs – less people mean much more chance of winning, right? Give them flowers (tulips and lovely cheap daffodils are in shops right now). Stock up on crafting kits and do them all in one afternoon. Alternatively, I have loads of ideas for low-effort lockdown craft activity ideas over on Pinterest. Make sure they get post or a delivery on the day (everyone loves post!) Set a baking challenge – someone I follow on Instagram let their child make a birthday croquembouche, which they’d always wanted to do. It looked like a lot of fun. Hire something big, like a hot tub or soft play equipment. If you have one, Fill your trampoline with balloons (I’m thinking soft play balls and a banner could also work well) Have a cinema party, with popcorn, where you all watch a film of your choosing. You can even print personalised cinema tickets here. Have a Just Dance party. If you don’t have a games console you can watch lots of the videos, and dance along, on YouTube. Arrange for people to walk by your house to say hello. Have a treasure hunt that takes you to friend’s houses for clues. Have a family fancy dress party, either with a fancy dress theme or fancy outfits. Challenge everyone to dress themselves so you can have a surprise ‘reveal’. Have a mini pamper party, with wash-out hair dye and nail varnish (especially if this isn’t allowed at school). Host a birthday kitchen disco, with a kid-friendly playlist, flashing lights and a guest appearance from All. The. Snacks. Have a sleepover, but obviously only with everyone from your house! Let everyone pile in your bed, or set up camp in the front room. Lockdown Birthday Ideas For Kids – Over Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Facetime Play bingo. Have a dance party, where you play music and everyone dances. Take part in an online escape room for kids, where you have to work out clues to escape (here are some ideas for ones you can play online). Set up a scavenger hunt, where you challenge children to find items around the house beginning with a specific letter, which can then spell out a word. Send out craft kits or activity packs for everyone to do together, virtually. Arrange for everyone to play online games together, at the same time – like Roblox, Animal Crossing or our current favourite Among Us. And Finally, Don’t Stress About Making The Birthday Special… As lots of people have pointed out […]

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Time To Tidy Up: Kid’s Storage Hacks With IKEA FLISAT And IKEA LUSTIGT

Gillian — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 11:52:59 +0000

We Try IKEA Kids Storage With The IKEA Lustigt And IKEA Flisat Book Display Hacks Ad – Are you desperately searching for kid’s room storage hacks? We’ve been tidying up the toys with IKEA (including the IKEA FLISAT dollhouse and the IKEA LUSTIGT shelves). This post is a paid partnership with IKEA and Mumsnet IKEA Kids Storage Hacks With IKEA FLISAT And IKEA LUSTIGT Firstly, how do children acquire so much STUFF? It starts off with a few tasteful newborn toys, and before you know it there’s a tidal wave of Babies, toys, books, and millions of little plastic things (where do they come from?). It’s easy to be overwhelmed by it all, so as well as regular charity-shop clear-outs for all the things they’re too old for or really don’t play with, we try and use storage wisely so we have space and harmony around the house. We are big fans of IKEA due to the affordability, quality and creativity of the products, and have lots around our house, from the childrens beds to our IKEA spice rack bookshelves and the IKEA SKADIS pinboard from our post on back-to-school hacks. This time we’ve been tidying up Flo’s room with our kid’s storage hacks using products from the IKEA FLISAT and IKEA LUSTIGT range. Time To Tidy Up: Kids Storage Hacks With IKEA: Flo has the smallest bedroom in the house – we live in a fairly typical Victorian terrace, and while this room would initially have been quite big, it’s been carved up to give space to a bathroom landing and also our loft extension stairs. As a result it’s thin and narrow. And full to the brim of all her things. So here are the storage hacks we’ve used alongside our IKEA products: 1) Make sure storage is playful as well as practical Yes, children have a lot of things, so good storage is essential – but it doesn’t have to be boring, and when it comes to children’s rooms that are on the small side it helps if it’s fun as well as useful. I think this makes children more likely to use it, both to play with and also to *whispers* tidy up by themselves. One of the main play areas in Flo’s room is her white toy unit which has a wide surface at child level, meaning it’s easy to become a magnet for mess. We wanted to tidy it up with better storage but still keep it fun, with scope for her to carry on playing, too. Step forward the IKEA FLISAT dollhouse (here, £25), a shelf shaped like a dollhouse or a dollhouse you can use as a shelf – clever, right? You can use it in a multitude of ways, from an actual dollhouse to a book shelf or a display unit. It can be used stand-alone or mounted on the wall (it’s heavy, so make sure it’s securely attached to the wall if you have young children). To fully furnish the house, IKEA also make a range of HUSET dollhouse furniture (here, £12) which includes mini versions of the normal furniture range. You might recognise the bookcase and the rug… 2) Chose multi-use storage for children’s roomsOne of the great things about the IKEA FLISAT dollhouse is that as well as being able to use it in a variety of ways, it also grows with your child – when they no longer want a dollhouse, you can use it to store books or display other items. What we also love is that it’s a blank canvas for personalising, and you can also change this as the children change – we added wrapping ‘wallpaper’, postcards, washi tape and IKEA stickers to decorate it, but if you look on my IKEA ideas Pinterest board there are loads of examples of creative things people have done, and I think it would look great painted, too. We also have the IKEA ANGELAGEN children’s storage boxes (here, £8 for the three) which sit neatly on the shelf of the unit. These which are both colourful and great for sweeping lots of stuff into, but at the moment are currently also being used as a Barbie house (the children pull these out and stack them up to make a block of flats). While on my hunt for storage items I also bought the IKEA RISATORP basket (here, £10), for the kitchen, can I add, but the children quickly nabbed it to store and carry around toys. 3) Store items by displaying them, not hiding them awayAh, the millions of pieces of little things children have! From Shopkins to LOL and Lego, plus all the playfood…I swear this stuff grows overnight? So I loved the idea of the IKEA LUSTIGT shelves (here, £5 each), as a kids storage hack, as they tidy up all these small toys but mean you can actually store them on display, so they’re tidy, pretty and also in easy reach for playing with. These shelves are only £5 and you can adjust the width of the arms as you see fit (each vertical piece of wood has multiple holes in). They also come with tiny plastic ladders that add to the fun. 4) My final kids storage hack? Investing in playful storage might make them more likely to tidy up… The dream! At school they play the ‘Tidy up Rhumba’ song when it’s tidy-up, so I’m going to put it on at home and hope for the best. After all, with storage this fun they’re going to want to, right Mr Robot? This post on kids storage hacks is a paid partnership with IKEA and Mumsnet Read our IKEA Malm drawers makeover.

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We Try Star Print Wallpaper For Kids From Great Little Trading Company

Gillian — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 14:22:19 +0000

Are You On The Hunt For Star Print Wallpaper? We’ve been busy with a mini children’s room make-over using star print wallpaper for kids from Great Little Trading Company, as well as the GLTC Greenaway book case (which were sent to me for this post). Here’s how we got on… Why Chose Wallpaper For Kid’s Rooms? But first, why wallpaper? Isn’t paint quicker and easier than wallpaper for kids rooms? Wallpaper might not be the first choice – it’s expensive, the potential for kids to draw on it is high – but you can add a colourful and creative design. It’s especially good for smaller rooms as it adds a lot of colour and pattern. And for us, this bedroom was originally ours, and when we moved in it had a giant, hideous wooden bedframe that we then found had been fixed to the wall to hide a massive hole in the plaster. As you do! This is another post for another time, but why are previous house owners always so weird?! At that point in our renovation, we weren’t due to have anything else plastered that would have made it a more cost-effective job than just having one wall done, so our builder skimmed over the hole and we tried to hide the imperfections with thick lining paper and wallpaper. We moved out of this room up into our loft conversion (which you can see in our post on loft conversion tips) and E moved in. We’d been meaning to change the old wallpaper to wallpaper for kids, but as with all things when you’re renovating on a budget and with small children around, it took a while to get round to…(sound familiar?). On The Wall – Why We Picked Star Print Wallpaper From GLTC Step forward the Grey Stardust star print wallpaper for kids from GLTC. E originally wanted unicorn wallpaper, and in the time it took me to find out that the only nice unicorn wallpapers she liked were really expensive (about £80 a roll, yikes), she’d changed her mind again. I didn’t want us to spend a lot of time and money on something she might change her mind about in the future. Luckily, we both really liked the range of Great Little Trading Company wallpaper, and it’s a more reasonable £24 a roll. We picked the Grey Stardust pattern as it’s simple but pretty, and we thought star print wallpaper would work as well as nursery wallpaper it would as wallpaper for an older child. Applying The Wallpaper – How Easy Is It To Use? Here’s the before shot of the qLL! Alex’s dad kindly stepped in and did the job for us (he’s wallpapered most of our house). He said it was easy to put up, and I think we used just over one roll. And here’s the after: We Also Used The Great Little Trading Company Greenaway Bookcase As well as adding the kids wallpaper from GLTC, I also liked the idea of having a bookcase on the wall to store E’s bedtime books and general bits and pieces. We ‘re always looking for different ways to store children’s books, from our IKEA spice rack bookshelves (which you can also see appearing on Apartment Therapy this month – dream!) to our fireplace to bookcase makover which used the GLTC Townhouse shelves. I’ve always really loved the GLTC Greenaway book shelves, and luckily they now come in a mini version which was a perfect size. As with all GLTC products it’s easy self-assembly, and we’ve fixed it to the wall. You can stack books 3-4 deep, so it’s useful book storage, and it’s also good for displaying treasures and all the small things that are always lying around. Because there are always millions of those, aren’t there? We also added the neon ‘love light’ and a couple of positive prints – these are attached using Command Hooks and washi tape, which won’t mark or ruin the wallpaper. Fingers crossed! How Much Does The Star Print Wallpaper Cost? It costs £24 a roll. For this partial wall we used just one roll. Where Can I Buy The Star Print Wallpaper From? You can buy it from the GLTC website direct. It’s also available from John Lewis. These products were sent to me for review by Great Little Trading Company as part of my role on the GLTC testing team – previous products we’ve reviewed include the Star Beans Coffee Shop. You can find the website here. More posts…our colourful doors and washi tape cloud shelves

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IKEA Pegboard Hacks For The School Run With The IKEA Skadis pegboard

Gillian — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 21:28:41 +0000

We Try Out IKEA Pegboard Hacks With The IKEA Skadis Pegboard This is a sponsored post about the IKEA pegboard, the IKEA Skadis pegboard helping with school run hacks in association with IKEA…We all know that leaving the house with children is a challenge, but what about when you add in the added pressure of the school run? Here to help you get mornings off to the possible best start, are my IKEA school run hacks and organisation tips using the IKEA pegboard, the IKEA Skadis pegboard. School Run Hacks With the IKEA Skadis pegboard How is everyone feeling about going back to school? I know it seems like there is still lots of summer left, but it also feels scarily like September is looming large. And this year, as Flo is starting school, it means I will have two children to get ready in the morning, meaning double the amount of hair clips, toothbrushes and school books to go missing two minutes before the bell is about to ring. As we don’t want to be doomed to do the dreaded parenting walk of shame to sign the late book – at least not every day – I wanted to tackle the mornings head-on with better organisation which will mean smoother school runs with less stress. And most importantly, more time to have that first cup of tea of the day. Here are two of my school run hacks, where I’ve used IKEA products – some new, some we’ve previously bought and love – to help your school run get off to a good start each morning. School run hack #1: The school run station using the IKEA Skadis pegboard There are certain small things you always need every school morning, like hairclips, hairbrushes and toothbrushes, all permission slips and money for various trips and events, the reading diary, and a pen for filling it in. It’s a good idea, when it comes to school mornings, to have all the small things you need in the same place so you and the children know exactly where they all are. This will save you from running around the house, desperately and frantically searching at the last minute. Seriously, though, where do all the hairbands go? I buy in bulk every year but there’s never one around when we need it. I wanted to create an organised school run station to keep all these small things together in one place. For the first of our IKEA school run hacks, to create our school run station we used the IKEA SKADIS, a wall-mounted pegboard system that comes in a variety of sizes with different accessories. You pick the size of the pegboard, and then add different accessories to suit whatever your needs are. These range from hooks to pots and bags. The accessories hook into the holes in the pegboard, meaning you can change and rearrange them to suit your different needs. IKEA Pegboard Hacks With The IKEA Pegboard We picked the 36 x 56 cm SKADIS pegboard in white (£8), along with the clips (£1.50), container (£2), 3 x container with lid pack (£7) and the letter holder (£1.50). The board is attached to the wall by Flo’s bed, and arranged to contain all the things we need in the morning, and within easy reach for her so she can find things herself and become more independent. In terms of accessories for the board, we picked a couple of different options we thought would work well, like the IKEA SKADIS clips which we’re using to hold permission slips and motivational quotes (for that little bit of extra get-up-and-go). The children’s toothbrushes seem to naturally gravitate towards their bedrooms. As a result, we’re now storing them in the SKADIS container, where there’s also lots of space for hairbrushes and also the all-important pen to fill in the reading book, write permission slips and reply to notes (and I can never find a pen when I need one, is it just me?). We’re also using the SKADIS letter holder to store pencil cases and the lidded pots are also useful for storing small essentials like hairbands, hairclips and colouring pens. The IKEA SKADIS is an incredibly useful way of organising items, and displaying them so they’re easily in view when you need them We love the way it can be modified and changed to fit your needs, and personalised as much as you like too, especially to fit in with children’s bedrooms. School run hack #2: Using IKEA t make a cosy reading nook One of the most magical things about your child starting school is learning to read. And as a parent, it makes your life a lot easier if they do like reading and are keen to do it. To help start Flo off on the right page with reading, we used IKEA products to create the second of our IKEA school run hacks, a cosy reading nook where she will be comfortable and happy to curl up, chill out and read her school books without any extra encouragement. We’ve had the IKEA MINNEN bed and mattress since Eliza was a toddler and it’s still going strong, one owner later (if you’re looking for an extendable toddler-to-child bed, did you know the MINNEN now comes in yellow?!) As her bed is already a cosy and comfortable favourite, it seemed like the natural place to create a reading nook. We added soft, fluffy IKEA cushion to make it as cosy as possible for her when reading. We also have the IKEA spice racks used as bookshelves on the wall, which are a great place to both store and display books. They are also a good place to store the school book and reading diary so you always know where they are when you need them. And, of course, pens! Let me know if you have any really useful school organisation tips. Best of luck with the school run, too. Here’s to no […]

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Five ways to add colour to your family home

Gillian — Thu, 02 May 2019 03:05:40 +0000

Here are five ways to add colour to your family home…this is a sponsored post in association with Crown Paint’s Breatheasy range How do you add colour to your family home? As someone who used to mainly wear black and wanted a minimalist, monochrome bedroom, I’m now a total colour convert. I love having colour around our house. It brightens everything up, and makes for a much happier home. To add even more colour, we’ve been working on a project with Crown Paint’s Breatheasy range of paints. We painted doors and Florence’s bedroom with paints from the Crown Breatheasy matt and silk emulsion range, which are now certified as asthma and allergy-friendly. This paint is a great option for family homes, as it has low VOC, is 99% solvent-free and as a result has no horrible fumes. If you want to brighten things up a bit, here are five ways to add colour to your family home with paint: Keep it neutral but add colourful highlights: You might want to go for bold blocks of colour throughout your house, but if you don’t, an option is to keep a neutral base then add colour in lots of other ways. For example, we have greige-y carpet or wooden floors throughout the house, and then white or grey walls, with colour added elsewhere, from art work through to painted doors. Paint sections, or patterns: You don’t have to paint entire walls – unless you want to – and there are ideas over on my Pinterest board for adding patterns, lines and sections to walls with paint. When it came to painting Florence’s room, in one half of the room by her bed there’s a strip that goes half-way round the wall. It’s one of those strange things that always seem to be in renovation houses – like our bathroom cupboard built on top of a cupboard, and the dreaded red fireplace – those random things that you have no idea why they are there or what they are for. I’d contemplated taking the strip off but was worried it would damage the plaster and we’d end up with a bumpy wall. Instead, we decided to work with it and paint under the section instead. It’s a smaller space but has made a huge difference. Go for bold: There is a big selection of colours in the Crown Paint’s Breatheasy range, with lots of neutrals, but we wanted bold, bright colours for the doors to match our painted doors on the same floor of the house. We picked Happy Daze (a bold yellow) and Duck Egg (blue) Let the children pick their own paint colours: This may sound ever-so-slightly terrifying. But trust me (and them). Last year we let E and F pick the colour of their new colourful doors, and they loved the responsibility and still talk about it now. So this time we also let F pick the colour for her room. She wanted purple, so we went with Lavender Cupcake from the Crown Breatheasy range. Pick family-friendly paint: One of the great things about the Breatheasy range is not having to worry about paint fumes, and it’s also ideal if your children have allergies or asthma. As the area where we were painting in Florence’s room was by her bed, using the Breatheasy paint meant she could sleep there again once it had dried so there was minimal disruption. The finished products: I really love the Crown Paint Breatheasy colours, and think they all worked perfectly. The paint is bold and bright, and it’s an added bonus that they are asthma and alergy-friendly. But most importantly, adding these colours make me smile when I see them. This post is sponsored content in association with Crown Paint and Mumsnet…more posts, our washi tape cloud shelves and how to make DIY wall stickers

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