Looking After Mama

Zac’s Nursery

Yay! Zac’s nursery is finally finished and I’m so excited to share it with you. The room itself is a typical box room, just under 2 x 2m aside from the doorway. We have a built in wardrobe in there already which is brilliant for storage, but it’s a really small space!

As part of our partnership with Mamas and Papas Parent Approved Panel (you can read a bit more here), we were VERY kindly gifted nursery furniture and some interior accessories too. You can have a read of my review and see a video of the room here.

When I’m decorating a room, I start by saving photos of things I like to an album on my phone. I find this really helps me see if things will go together and get a better idea of the colour palette. Here’s the one I saved for Zac’s room.As soon as I spotted the Circus Print sheets from Mamas and Papas, I was sold and ended up basing the whole room around them. I saw these wall sticker letters and fell in love, ordering the word ‘circus’. They come in lots of different colours, but I wasn’t sure how they’d look in real life. I went for white and painted the warm red stripe to put them on. These were so easy to apply and make such a big impact!

I’m so pleased with how everything turned out and it’s such a cosy little space now. I’d love to know what you think!

Sources listed below (some affiliate links).

Emma x

Mia Classic Cot Bed Package

Mia Dresser & Changer

Circus Print Cot Sheets

Yellow Stripe Cloud Cushion

Geo Print Rug

Luxury Changing Mat

Circus Print Sleeping Bags

Lion Head Wall Art

Mint Letter Board

Shower Me With Love Print

Cloud Shelves and Hook Set

Elephant Doorstop

Circus Letter Wall Stickers

Fur Rug

Free Standing Plush Giraffe

Monkey Soft Toy

Living Room Update – The Black Wall

So, I bit the bullet and painted our living room and included a black feature wall. I’d been busting to paint in there for ages; the last time it was painted I was on maternity leave with Daisy and honestly, I didn’t do a very good job! This time around, I took my time, did as many coats as were actually needed (rather than thinking “that’ll do!”) and I’m so happy with it.I freshened up the rest of the room with bright white, but couldn’t decide on a darker colour for the fireplace wall. I toyed with a dark bottle green, deep navy and every shade of grey I saw. In the end, I spotted a pot of ‘Black’ by Johnstones and took the plunge, telling myself I could always paint over it later.Well, now that it’s finished I can safely say this the best I’ve ever liked this room. The black is dramatic and makes the white look even brighter than normal. It’s the perfect backdrop for any colour accessories and the room is so much cosier!I did wonder if the monochrome would be a little harsh or minimal, but with the wooden floor and warm coloured settee and rug, it works great. I added some new cushion covers for autumn (always changing them up for the seasons!) and layered the rug with a new vintage style one, along with a few new accessories. I have a terrible habit of painting and changing my mind pretty quickly, but I never thought I’d like it as much as I do and can’t see us changing it for a long, long time. I’m already thinking of how gorgeous the Christmas tree will look against the black! Everything really seems to pop against it.If you’re thinking about painting a colour a bit more dramatic than you normally would, just go for it! I’m so glad I went for the black and it’ll be sticking around for a while.

Emma x

Daisy’s Bedroom Reveal

facetune_18-06-2018-10-47-16I posted a while back about our plans to update Daisy’s bedroom before the baby arrives (you can read a bit about it here). Well, we FINALLY got it finished recently and I couldn’t love it more! It had always been a bit dark and moody, in spite of all the pink, glitter and girliness, so I wanted to make it a lot lighter.facetune_18-06-2018-11-07-57We started by painting the whole room white (just your basic trade pot of white paint, nothing fancy!). Straight away, the room was bigger and brighter. We updated Daisy to a new big girl bed from the mothership that is Ikea (I would highly recommend these day beds if you have the space). It’s a single bed as standard with two stacked mattresses, but pulls out to a double. It’s already proved handy for any guests and for weekend sleepovers, with a movie and snacks. It also has three huge drawers for storage; I changed the drawer pulls to some jute knot ones I found in TKMaxx.facetune_18-06-2018-11-06-02I found these super cute printables on Etsy and sprayed some metal shelves gold to pop a little against the white walls. I used some cushion covers I already had to make the bed cosy and more of a settee during the day. Plain white bedding means I can swap out the cushions and throws anytime to change things up a bit.facetune_18-06-2018-10-53-40I found this amazing peacock chair on Gumtree for £20 and updated the £25 Ikea Rast chest of drawers with a splash of yellow paint and some gorgeous drawer pulls from Homebargains. I also painted the inside of the door in the same yellow.facetune_18-06-2018-10-50-21We moved Daisy’s play kitchen to her room to give her a bit more space in the playroom and it’s worked great. She plays with it far more now, as it’s separate from her other toys. It may also have something to do with the new bits and pieces I got for it, including tea towels, utensils and a little dish brush.facetune_18-06-2018-11-02-34It’s such a sunny space now and feels like summer even on the rainiest days. Daisy loves spending time in there, playing, reading and watching the sheep and horses on the mountain out of her window. I’m still considering a feature wall of some sort, but for now I’m so, so pleased with it.facetune_18-06-2018-10-43-40facetune_18-06-2018-10-45-30facetune_18-06-2018-10-58-28facetune_18-06-2018-10-54-07facetune_18-06-2018-11-05-09

Emma  x

Daisy’s Room Plans

We had a plan to decorate Daisy’s bedroom for her before the baby comes along – as a bit of a present to her and hopefully an incentive to keep her in there a bit more at night! It hasn’t ever been decorated specifically for her, it was painted gray as a spare room and when we moved her into it (as it was bigger than her old room) we just kept the gray walls.img_8275.jpgThe room doesn’t get a lot of light, so I definitely want to make it lighter and warmer in there. Whilst looking at bedding the other day, I made the mistake of asking Daisy what colour she wanted in her ‘new big girl room’, to which she replied… “Purple!” Hmm… This however quickly changed to “Yellow!” and now I’m pretty sure she’s following my decor habits in that I get bored quickly, and want to change things up on a regular basis. So, I’m going to stick to what I normally do, keeping the basics quite neutral and then add some colour with accessories, which we can change out anytime.

We’re going to be getting a new bed eventually and I knew a while back I wanted one of the IKEA day beds that extend to a double if needed. This one is on the shopping list, the floor is a lovely wood effect vinyl and we have a fluffy cream/white rug in there too, which will probably stay, as well as the giant tissue paper flower I bagged from an M&S window display!Her IKEA kitchen is in her room now to make more room in the playroom (you can see the updates for that here) and the only other furniture will possibly be a chest of drawers. There’s a little nook area for a wardrobe that doesn’t work too well as it’s a bit too deep, so I’ll be kitting that out with rails and shelves to make the most of the space.

I’ve already got some gorgeous curtains that are sort of a watercolour print in purples, pinks and peach, and the dreamy storage stool below from my January Favourites. I’m still undecided on wallpaper/wall decals/paint effects etc, but really fancy some sort of feature wall. I’d like some quirky wall prints too and LOVE these ones on Etsy, which are downloadable too, so you just print them yourself.img_2527-1.jpgLet me know your go to shops for children’s decor or any feature wall ideas you used for your little ones. Pregnancy has me undecided about everything, so I need all the help guys!

Emma x

Is it Good Enough?

So this past weekend, our living room was featured in a Welsh newspaper for the ‘Favourite Room’ article. A few weeks back, my sister in law tagged me in a Facebook status from a journalist, who was looking for ‘nice houses’. I didn’t want to leave her hanging, so messaged her and the first thing I said was ‘I don’t know if my house is good enough…’.

Granted, there are lots of things I would change about our house, but why I felt the need to immediately put it down is beyond me. As it happened, Katie liked the room and as long as I was happy to feature it, we were good to go. In the lead up to a photographer coming round, I had daily episodes of just staring around the room, trying to think of quick fixes for it. With no time to decorate (something I was adamant it needed), I left the room as it was and hoped for the best.If was featured in Saturday’s paper and I was so pleased with it. The room looked lovely and the ‘interview’ came across not as bad I was thinking it did – I can waffle on another level! More importantly, it made me appreciate what a nice home we have. Yes there are scuffs and marks on the walls, the door frames have been battered with toys and there is a questionable stain on the rug that just won’t come out, but when we sit down in there as a family, it’s exactly what it says on the tin; a living room.We play games, watch tv, read bedtime stories, have pizza parties, dance parties, sing-as-loud-as-you-can parties. It’s where we watched Daisy take her first steps, where she and I have slept when she’s unwell and where we’ve belly laughed at all her funny little ways. It doesn’t matter how big your house is, how expensive it was or what you have in it; as long as it’s filled with love, it will always be good enough.

Emma  x