Entries Tagged as 'Storage'

adjustable wall shelves

As your kids move beyond the baby stage, life starts zooming by even quicker than before.  I mean it feels like one minute they’re learning their ABC’s and the next they’re reading to you!  That phrase – ‘they grow up too quick’ – that only parents understand, has never meant more to me than now.  Knowing this, I’ve realised when decorating your kids room, you have to keep in mind that they grow so quickly.  Keeping this reality at the back of your mind will save you money, angst and the headache of re-decorating every year or two.  A while ago I shared some ideas on how to design a room your kids won’t outgrow and today I wanted to share this great shelving system that has so, so many possibilities.  As far as changeable, practical and adjustable wall shelves go, I don’t think I’ve seen better.

Continue Reading "One shelf, one hundred possibilities"

toy storage ideas living room

If your home is anything like mine, tidying up is always a battle.  Anya is very good at getting everything out when she wants to play.  If she’s playing dress up, she doesn’t get one outfit out but her entire dress up box contents get strewn all over the living room.  Then she moves on to the next thing without putting away the dress up stuff of course.  By the end of the day, every sofa, every table top and every bit of floor in my living room is covered with stuff.  When it comes to putting all this stuff away, she’s suddenly too tired or too hungry or too something!  

Continue Reading "Cool graphic storage bags"

clever toy storage living roomAt the end of each day do you despair at the sight of your living room?  Is it full of toys, craft materials, dressing up clothes, bits of lego and everything else that comes hand and hand with kids?   If your home is like mine, then the answer is probably a big, fat yes (please tell me I’m not the only one).  Kids love to play near their parents and this is true even for older kids.  Even if they have the coolest playroom in the world, they will bring their belongings and play right where you are.  And if you’re anywhere near the living room, then chances are each day your living room turns in to a bomb site!

Continue Reading "Play & Go: Clever toy storage"

creating an art space for kids

Do you have an organised art space for your kids?  When my 7 year old wants to get creative, which is nearly every day, I have to fetch art supplies from all over the place.  I have some lying in boxes, some in her room, some in the living room – it goes on. I sometimes end up putting her off creating because I am busy getting dinner ready and don’t have the time to get the supplies together. And in all honesty, sometimes I just can’t face tidying and putting everything away in 5 different places.  I’ve often thought how much easier it would be if her art supplies were all in one place and easy for her to access and put away herself.

Continue Reading "Inspiring art spaces for kids (+ a giveaway)"

decor ideas for small kids roomsDoing up a kids room, especially one that is small can feel like a bit of a challenge.  Kids have a lot of things – toys, books, games, dress-up gear – the list goes on and on!  Trying to find space for all this stuff plus all the necessary furniture can be tricky in small spaces.  So today I wanted to share some great space saving tips and ideas for small kids bedrooms.  Having a small bedroom doesn’t have to mean untidiness or compromise.  Instead there are lots of fun and stylish ways to maximise the space even in the smallest of rooms.  Here are 6 clever and creative ideas for small kids bedrooms:

Continue Reading "6 creative decor ideas for small kids bedrooms"

a clever clothes storage idea

My friend and fellow blogger Cristina from across the pond shared a very clever clothes storage idea.  I thought the idea was so great that I had to share it here.  It’s such a simple idea but then simple ideas are always the best!  The idea – store your clothes horizontally instead of stacking them vertically (on top of each other).

Just the other week I did this with Anya’s sweaters and it’s not only helped us find things quicker but there is no after-mess to tidy up.  When her sweaters were vertically stacked on top of each other I had to get the whole pile out and by the time I pulled out the one I wanted, the whole pile collapsed – you know how it is. And when Anya tried to get one out, well that meant chaos!  Now that I’ve rolled them all up and lined them up – I pull out the one I want and the rest stay undisturbed. It’s also so much easier to see what you want.  And the best part is that even when Anya pulls them out herself, there is no mess. With the lighter clothes like t-shirts, I don’t roll but fold and do the same – again so easy to see what’s what and pull out what you need.

Next, I’m going to be re-organising my wardrobe this way.  What do you think of this clever clothes storage idea? Great, right?  Got any other great tips to be more organised with your or your kids wardrobes?

Shelves are such a practical way of storing stuff and you can’t ever have enough of them.  You really don’t need to spend a packet on them either – there are plenty of very cheap and basic shelves out there.  But just because they’re basic doesn’t mean they have to be boring.  With a little imagination even the most basic of shelves can become features in any room but I especially love getting creative with shelves in a kids room. So here are five cool shelf ideas for a kids room that you can re-create using shelves bought from ikea. Each of these shelf spaces is unique and can be customised to your needs and tastes:

modern wall shelf ideas for kids room

This is such a cool shelf space for a kids room.  It makes a simple but striking feature wall while still providing good storage.  You can create similar using the ikea forhoja kitchen storage units.  All you need is a few of these storage boxes and a large piece of ply.  I like the natural wood look but you could also customise as much as you want using paint, wall stickers or wallpaper.

ikea hack bookcase

Backless shelves on a wallpapered wall look so stylish.  You can easily get this look with ikea’s ever popular billy bookcase by simply leaving out the back – I did this in my last home and it worked really well.  Add some colourful toys and artwork around the shelves and you’ve got a completely unique looking bookcase or shelf.

customize ikea furniture

In this shared boys room, those box shelves in various sizes and shades of green look great on the wall. Instead of being boring boxes, they’ve been turned in to a feature because of the unusual layout, the colours and also using a mix of open and closed shelves.  You can get the same look using ikea’s valje wall cabinets.  Paint them in any colour, combine a mix of square and rectangular and a mix of open and closed. They’ll end up looking custom made. 

creative organizing ideas for kids rooms

How pretty are these shelves?  I love the touch of pastel blue that has really made them look special.  Using ikea’s bekvan spice rack, you can create a similar look.  You don’t have to stick to the idea above, you could paint the whole shelf or you could go for two colours – whatever works for your kids room.   And for more storage, create a floor to ceiling wall of these gorgeous shelves. 

creative kids toy storage ideas

All shelves don’t have to be made of straight lines like this picture above shows us.  What a creative way of storing soft toys.  It adds so much charm to the room.  You can do similar with these ikea sinnerlig baskets. I’ve got one of these baskets which I love so I’m planning to get more and do this in Anya’s new room.  It’s a great way of making a feature of her soft toys while having a place to store them too.   And of course it saves floor space too especially useful in a small room. 

Image credits: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 

blue baby nursery decor ideas

With my current house renovation project I seem to be spending half my life on interiors sites, pinterest and browsing through interiors magazines.  I’m definitely not complaining!  Recently I’ve noticed a bit of a trend for using deep, dark blues in interiors like indigo and petrol blue.  These deep blues are not colours you find everywhere so they are still quite unusual and really stand out.  While they look great in dining rooms and living rooms, I think these blues would look equally fabulous in a nursery or kids room – for boy or girl.  So I felt inspired to put together a mood board for a kids room using various shades of deep blue with touches of lighter blue.

One of my first ports of call for finding cute things for kids rooms in the UK is Petit Home one of my sponsors.  It’s run by a French lady who has a real mix of styles in her shop so there is something for every taste.  From quirky pieces like that rabbit light to more understated things like the bed linen she has.  I picked a few of my favourite pieces and mixed them up with with some others to create this blue kids room moodboard.  Here’s where you’ll find everything:

1.  storage baskets | 2. elephant mobile | 3. moon poster | 4. stars garland  | 5. cat print cushion | 6. star cushion | 7.  bow print bedlinen | 8. baby rabbit night light | 9. play tent

best toy storage solutions kids room

How do you keep your kids room tidy?  Whenever I tidy up Anya’s room, it’s a complete mess a few hours later.  It really makes me lose the will to tidy.  I’ll admit that before we moved house I had reached the stage where I just closed her room door so I couldn’t see the mess and i would leave it like that for days and sometimes even weeks.  Now that we’re renovating our new home and Anya will have an all new room, I want to make sure that it remains tidy and not like the mess in the picture below (I can’t believe I’m sharing this pic but this shows how bad things got!)

untidy kids rooms and ideas on toy storage

Apart from looking at the mess which troubles me, a messy room means that we often spend hours looking for stuff – especially things like little toys, game counters and lego pieces.  With our fresh start I want to ensure that her room is neat most of the time and I also want to make sure that she is the one who tidies it.  The best way to do this is to have a specific place for everything and so I’ve been seeking out fun but useful toy storage solutions.  Anya’s new room is quite small so I also want toy storage ideas that work for small spaces.  I’m not a fan of plastic boxes or anything modular and also I thinks toys should be tidy but visible because they add fun and colour to a room so I’ve had to dig a bit deeper to find some quirky and fun storage ideas.  Here are 5 that I’m loving:

soft toy storage solutions

This is such a fun way to store those soft toys.  Wire baskets cost pennies so you can have as many as you need and they also make really quirky wall decorations.  I love these circular ones but you could get bigger rectangular ones which will store even more soft toys.  So much more practical then lining up the toys on the bed which is what Anya used to do and then each night they were thrown all over the room!

toy storage ideas for small spaces

You know all those teeny tiny toys that always get under your foot and seem to make their way in to every single room in the house?  Yes, those annoying little toys can be housed in a shelf like this.  A shelf with lots of little shelves and you can even wallpaper the backs to make it pretty like they’ve done here

toy storage ideas kids room

Nothing beats toy storage sacks and storage baskets.  You can get such cute ones which look great in a kids room and the best part is that they allow you to tidy up in a hurry.  Also they are great for all those toys that you can’t find any other home for.  I will definitely be getting at least a couple of these for Anya’s room and I’ll be getting them from here.

toy storage solutions for small rooms

Coat hooks aren’t just for coats – you can hang so much stuff on them.  In a small room, instead of having a dressing up box that takes up floor space, coat hooks are a great alternative.  They can hold a lot of stuff and the stuff is all very easy to get to.  And I love the idea of having the cute dressing up stuff on display.

creative toy storage ideas

Using an outgrown or unwanted piece of furniture like an old cot is another fun idea for storage in a kids room.  Even a moses basket that is no longer in use would make a great storage solution.  You can use it to keep so many things like soft toys, games or books.  And it looks so much cooler than boring chests of draws or plastic storage boxes.  Even if you don’t have one you could find a vintage crib in a junk shop which will look even better than a modern piece.

With all these fun and creative toy storage ideas, I am really hoping the days of mess will be behind us.  I’m especially loving the coat hook idea and the wire baskets for Anya’s room.  They save space leaving more floor space to play and they add colour and character to the room.  Do you have any ideas for keeping your kids room tidy?  Do let me know in the comments.

entrance hall storage idea

I came across this fun entrance hall storage idea a while ago and have been meaning to share ever since.  This is such a colourful and fun way to get your kids organised.  Everyone has stuff they need to pick up on the way out or dump on the way in so instead of messily piling everything up on a bench or table you can make these really easy storage spaces simply separated by blocks of colour. Of course you don’t have to stop at the kids but each person in your home could have their own space.

entrance hall storage idea

In this entrance hall created by small fry, I love the bold colours they’ve used and the painted stools that match the walls.  But if stools don’t provide enough storage for you then you could do the same with shelves or small storage cabinets.  And you can of course choose colours according to each persons favourite.  It looks so striking and will encourage the kids and even you to be neat!  This simple idea can also work in a shared kids room or any room where each person needs their own little space.  You’ll find all the how to’s over at small fry.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Theme by Blogmilk   Coded by Brandi Bernoskie