Interior Design Archives - Page 47 of 62

I am a Mum. I have two fabulously cute boys who love mud pies, arts and crafts, Minecraft and water guns. One goes to school, the other to pre-school for two days and a child-minder for another two days. We have after school clubs and classes etc.

I am a full-time working self-employed copywriter and deputy editor. By full time I mean that I work 40-50 hours a week however I work these hours around the two mud-covered, giggling children.

I have a house. It is a beautiful house with a large lounge and dining room, a brilliant kitchen (with a Belfast sink no less), a large utility room (with magical washing baskets that refill as soon as you empty them), three big bedrooms, a bathroom to die for…. and it all needs cleaning and tidying regularly.

I also like to cook. In fact I love to cook and this means spending hours making everything from scratch, prepping foods, cooking and not forgetting the shopping!

I also insist on spending proper family time with the boys and my fabulous husband.

With only twenty four hours in the day you can see how I’ve become something of a juggling expert over the past few years. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore my life and how busy I am but sometimes, just sometimes I start to get that slightly frayed around the edges, a feeling so many parents and workers feel when they aren’t getting enough proper sleep.

In an ideal world I would pack my bags every six months, kiss the kids and the husband goodbye and book myself into a hotel for a couple of nights.

To sleep!

If you’ve ever stayed in a really nice hotel you’ll know that there is something quite special about hotel bed linen. It is clean and crisp and yet it feels special. Perhaps it is the fact that you haven’t had to wash and iron it yourself however I fancy that it has more to do with the quality and luxury of it.
Photo credit: http://www.mitrelinen.com/products/bedrooms/bed-linen/

Sad I know but when I used to travel for work sometimes, for training, meetings or when I used to run accreditation reviews on services (a lifetime ago before the children and before I started running my own business) I actually used to get excited about opening the door to my hotel room and finding a beautifully made up bed complete with hotel bed runners and cushions.

Photo credit: http://www.mitrelinen.com/products/soft-furnishings/runners-and-cushions/

As grabbing a bag and running off for some R&R isn’t an option (and besides, I’d miss Roy and the boys too much) I am working to create my own hotel room at home. I’m not talking about dodgy wallpaper and a minibar (although….!); I’m talking about a room that is calm and quiet and oozing with luxury. Roy and I work damn hard at work and at looking after the home and the kids so when it comes to bed time we deserve a special place where we can relax and enjoy a proper rejuvenating sleep.

Thankfully it is now possible to enjoy quality hotel bed grade linens at home too and so all I need to get hold of is a Do Not Disturb sign for the door and I’ll be all set!

My two boys love building things, pretending to be things, arts and crafts, dancing and (often) wrestling on the floor), jigsaws and puzzles and just about everything else that young boys find riveting. While I’m thrilled they enjoy such a wide range of activities my problem has always been storage, as you can see!

Gradually the playroom has been reclaimed by the grown-ups as a dining room once more and the majority of the toys and games have moved upstairs to their bedrooms. While this is blissful for us when downstairs, tip-toeing around toys and walking over Lego in the middle of the night is becoming quite an issue. Extensive research (and bitter experience) has taught me the following:

Storage furniture doesn’t need to be ugly

In an effort to store toys properly I have mixed buckets, nets, boxes (with and without lids) and much, much more. In reality this half-hearted mixture has simply resulted in a collection of miss-matched and rather ugly dumping areas for toys, teddies and more.

If you have a look at the Great Little Trading Co. toy storage page you’ll see that there are a number of ways in which toys, games and everything else may be stored safely and allow easy access while still looking fantastic.

Plastic boxes have their place

A boy’s bedroom or a playroom is not the right place for plastic boxes (well not in my house anymore!). Boxes will quickly be emptied all over the floor to be used as pirate ships, cars or turned over to become stepping stones. We nearly learned a lesson the hard way as Taylor did just this; climbed up on a box to jump on the next one and put his foot through it as the plastic cracked! Fortunately he was wearing slippers else he’d have cut himself.

Storage solutions need to be versatile

Taylor used to be into teddies, now he is into Duplo. Kieran used to be into cars and now has hundreds and thousands of itsy bitsy Lego pieces scattered all over his room. Children grow and their interests change, as do their storage needs. Buying lots of smaller storage cubes, boxes with lids and what not is quickly going to prove futile whereas a piece of furniture with open storage or larger pull out sections are much more versatile.

I am not the only parent who has wrung her hands in frustration over a lack of decent toy storage. I doubt I am the only one fed up of seeing toys all mixed up so that finding everything needed for a specific game or play session is difficult. I wish, going back that I had invested in good quality, long-lasting and versatile toy storage from the beginning rather than constantly moving, replacing and tidying miscellaneous gaudy plastic buckets, bags and cheap and nasty boxes.

So, my advice for today…. Research toy storage options properly and don’t be fooled into thinking that cheap and cheerful always wins the day, it doesn’t!

Showing all posts in Interior Design

Hotel Luxury Wherever You Are

Getting Toy Storage Right