Flutterbymama

Lucas’s new bedroom!

At last he is in his new room. It took some doing, and some very long days and nights but he is actually sleeping well in there. It still needs the curtains sorting, as there is only one up, but I am going to source some nice material, maybe 70′s retro or cowboy print? Also needs a new rug and Ste to design a print for above the fire.

This room, being at the front of the house, is one of the brightest during the day but it’s dark when Lucas needs to go to bed. The fact that there is more space is an added bonus. His old room is now where I keep my sewing machine and the sofa bed. I just hate not using the spaces we have to their fullest potential. The room we now call the dressing room was pretty much a dumping room. the room we now call Lucas’s bedroom was a spare room and also had some of our clothes in there and that is where I got ready most days and dried my hair. Now each room seems defined. Lucas’s room at the front of the house is also a space he/we can play in and it shows, on his new shelving unit, some of his more interesting toys. His books are also on there and he can reach and choose his own bedtime books. It just works on so many levels. He’ll have room for sleepovers and furniture changes and still feel like he has lots of space.

His old bedroom, right at the back of the house, is now a great space for me to work and start some of those sewing projects I’ve always wanted to do. The sofa bed also acts a great place to sit and read books with Lucas as a family with no distractions. This room still needs decorating but it’ll do for now and it makes me smile whenever we sit in there.

Kaboom lampshade-looks so much better in this room.

Flensted mobile-whales. Would like another for our room but a more adult one. They have some amazing wind catchers. See here.

Cot bed is the Fable from Mamas & Papas. Took some time to get this in 2007 but it has since been discontinued?! WHY?

Ikea shelving unit.

Illustration of a whale bought by friends for Lucas. Thanks Chris & Julia x

Ahhh the fire…freshley sand blasted and spray painted…yum.

Shelving detail. Ikea Boholmen wash bowl used as storage for toys. (We also use one in the bathroom to store bath toys). Original vintage Fisher Price till bought from ebay. Motorbike & side car from Habitat in sale, soft robot toy from Paperchase, wooden car with red wheels, made in germany bought at 2nd hand shop for £1.50 & vintage F-P camera from ebay.

His coat hook was such a good find. I can’t remember the make but will check and update later. It has moveable pegs. It’s just fab. Loved it so much we bought it as a Christmas present for our friends little boy who is a month older than Lucas.

Dragon rocker, that he uses a bit more now, but mum bought it when he was 6 months old! The tam tam stool Ste bought from a 2nd hand shop in Blackburn for about £5. It’s original and not the version from Habitat. Just look at the light that comes through the window into this room. It’s a delight to be in here.

This little fella, the red horse baby rattle, was ent by my Uni friend Eva all the way from Sweden. He just loved it as a bub. I’ll post photos of him playing with it later here.

Fireplace

A very good friend of ours took away two bedroom fires and sand blasted them for us on his in-laws farm. They needed a little hand sanding to get the tricky bits that just wouldn’t shift out of the cracks. They came back a lovely silvery grey colour that I would have loved to keep but fear of rust prompted us to spray them a matt black. It actually came up really nice and we’ve finally got it back up in Lucas’s room. (Ours will have to wait until I start stripping the walls.) I can’t believe the detail that, when painted for the last 30+ years was practically hidden, until sand blasting. I was jumping and clapping like a seal when I saw it in place. Yes the simple things really do make me happy. See for yourself how nice it looks in Lucas’s bedroom here.

Chester Zoo

What a madly hectic few days. It was our 5th wedding anniversary yesterday! (Ste:- Love you more than words can say.) We decided on a family day at the zoo. What a beautiful day…picnic on the grass by the colourful flowers and just time together, the 3 of us, enjoying, playing and laughing.

There was an element of animal noises too created by the 3 of us and the animals…have you ever heard a lion roar in person?…goose bumps all round.

For the 3 days prior to yesterday was a haze of sanding, priming, filling and painting floorboards. Lucas will have a new bedroom in a few days and had to make the most of Ste’s day off. Lucas at chilminders and also, over the weekend, Lucas stayed at nana’s. It’s really quite hard trying to decorate when looking after a demanding 2 year old boy…but I love him for it! He really is looking forward to having his new room as we keep taking him in there and playing with him and dancing to 6 music on digital radio…’more dance daddy, more dancing mummy’, very cute.

These are just a small number of images taken on our family day. Bedroom revamp images to come very soon.

Begin the beginning

Hopefully, once I’m on a roll with this blogging lark, it will become apparent exactly what we have accomplished since moving in to our new home. It was previously owned by a couple in their early sixties, who have two grown up sons that have now moved away. It was very well presented just not well preserved. We bought the house just as the ‘credit crunch’ hit and we were lucky to sell ours at such a good price so we were able to put an offer in on this. Anyway we have now been here just over one and a half years and we are loving every minute.

We have started the small bedroom. We have dedicated the smallest of 4 bedrooms into use as a dressing room. As I’ve mentioned before we really like the white look so we stripped all the wallpaper from the walls and ceiling and had the room completely re-plastered. I just love fresh white paint over plaster walls…divine. After much deliberating over what to do with the floor we decided to go ahead and paint it white. Well it’s come up really well…much better than I could have ever imagined and so easy and fairly cheap to do. You can see the, in progress, results below.

A day with my boy

I woke up this morning and the sun was gloriously flashing through the blinds. I decided that I was going to just have a fun day with my little boy, as from tomorrow we will be sorting out his new bedroom. We decided a picnic on the park would be required. Here are just some of the photographs that I took early on.

Curvy Legs

I forgot to show the legs, which are really nice.

Thrift record cabinet

We’ve managed to collect a few fabulous second hand bits over the years. This is the most recent. Not sure where it’s going to go or what purpose it will serve but I just couldn’t leave the warehouse without it.  apparently all the rage in the states and was going to put on a shipment over there as their isn’t much call for this over here in the  UK anymore… WHAT?! I think not…this little gem is coming home with me. How can we in the UK not want this anymore? I picked it up for £50 with an old 70′s wire magazine rack thrown in. The legs are just superbly formed and the wood colour is just magnificent.

New blogger Alert!

Ok, so I’ve been online a lot recently and getting rather addicted to ‘other people’s’ blogs. Surely my life is not so dull that I have to just read about other people’s. Well let’s find out…

My intention is to bore anyone, who is willing to ‘listen’, about our home, our life and our love of all things design. All feedback, comments and questions are gratefully received. If I can add a little light to anyones life then that’s an added bonus. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride…