Project Three: Bathroom Makeover

Well I can hardly call it a bathroom it is actually a 'shower room' at the moment. This is my least favourite room in the house and is exactly how it was when we moved in back in September. Being pregnant, I love the luxury of a nice bubble bath and so far this pregnancy I haven't been able to have any! So you can imagine how much I have been itching to do this room. Now the kids rooms are done I can finally start this although apart from wanting a bath fitted I'm pretty undecided on what to actually do with it.

Here is the room now:

As you can see it's very plain and I hate having all the toiletries on show so I desperately need some nice storage and some decor ideas. On the plus side, I do have a bath. Unfortunately it is currently in the garden while I find a plumber! The room isn't a huge space and I've never done a bathroom before so would love some tips on storage solutions or how I can make it look more homely if anyone has any?

Project Two: Zach's Bedroom Almost Complete

After starting Zach's room in December it's been a very slow progress. In the last update I had finished the wallpaper and was struggling to cover the dark grey walls with white paint.

Well now we have finally managed to finish the painting and are happy with the finish. I've bought some new drawers for his room from IKEA to store all his clothes in and have added some of the accessories we had stored away for the makeover. I've even added the canvases I made myself for his room which were really simple and cheap to make. I still feel it needs a bit more but I guess it will be a case of adding things as and when I spot them like I have done in Gracie's bedroom. Of course I will share with you any of the accessories I find!

My main worry for this room was the lack of light that got in with the window being in an awkward place but I'm glad to say that the colours have definitely made a difference and have really brightened the room perfectly. 

I have even solved the problem of cluttered toys by adding storage boxes into the wardrobe so he can just have a box out at a time, I will do another post shortly on space saving in children's bedrooms as I have a lot of ideas to help those of you struggling with space in smaller rooms. 

Girly accessories haul for a fairy themed bedroom

This week I've splashed out a little and bought a few new items for Gracie's bedroom. I couldn't resist when I saw them. I love Gracie's bedroom and I'm always thinking of new ways to make it more special. Now the weather is getting nicer I can soon start on a few of my planned up cycling projects. Until then here is my latest haul;

I love this beautiful stool from The Pink Fairy Cake it cost me £18.50 and my plan for this is to add a nice mirror low down on one of the walls in the bedroom so Gracie can pull up her stool and use it as a dressing area to play with her hair and pretend to apply her make up! We've bought many other items from The Pink Fairy Cake before, there is not much Karine can't make and I love watching her latest creations pop up in my news feed!

Next I spotted these DRONA storage boxes in IKEA. I bought a pale pink version a few years ago as there were no other colour choices but they look really shabby and are covered in marks from moving from house to house. These are exactly the same boxes but I bought two dark pink and two flower print boxes. The plain ones were £2.50 each and the flower print were £3.50 each. It's amazing how much you can fit in these boxes. I've always used them in the IKEA Expedit unit for toy storage, they look great and keep toys well hidden. Of course the old ones won't be wasted they will be perfect for storage in the top of the wardrobe!

What do you think? The stool is my personal fave!

A Spring Quick Fix: Lightening the Living Room

This past week I seem to have been inspired by the sunshine and have been trying to brighten the tones in my home. I'm a believer that by even adding a few small furnishings you can completely change the look of a room. Well my latest quick fix has been putting away my dark cushions and adding some new light coloured cushions to create a fresh new look. 

This time I fancied a change and instead of having all matching cushions I opted for a few different styles. I bought two square knitted style cushions from B&Q, two square LOVE motif cushions and two cute rectangle cushions with 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' printed on them. Both the latter items were bought from Tesco Direct. As I used vouchers I had for B&Q I only actually spent around £28 and I feel like the room has had a huge makeover. 

What I love is the colours will go with anything so when I get around to decorating the Living room later on this year I won't need to splash out on new cushions.

 The other thing I love this time of year is having fresh flowers around the house. What are your Spring time quick fixes?

Project Two: Zach's Bedroom Update

Well I haven't got as far as I had hoped by now! Painting white over a dark grey wall is not a quick and easy job! After two coats of paint around most of the room it still could do with another one or two. I have managed to paper the room though which was the bit I was worried about most. I had my Grandma come to 'help' as I had never tried before and she is the family expert but in the end I did the majority of it myself! I was very proud of myself for getting it done and am happy to now know I can do papering myself. 

It is definitely looking a lot brighter already! Over the next few weeks as soon as I can get a few hours child free I'll be painting another coat of paint and will see how it looks then. I currently have most of his furniture and toys spread across mine and Gracie's bedrooms and will be glad to get back to normality.

Hopefully I'll have a finished picture soon to show you all.

Have a Happy New Year all! Here's to 2014!

Project Two: Zach's Train Bedroom

I chose the Train theme before Zach was even born. I had been looking at exciting ways to decorate a boys nursery and it was one theme that I really fell in love with! I started to decorate his room at our old house whilst pregnant and had a few disasters when it came to colours I was so upset (pregnancy hormones) that my lovely Nan paid a decorator to fix it up for me and just days before he was born his room was finally painted. The room was Dark Blue and I ordered a personalised train sticker in red to go over the cot. I found some lovely Train toddler bedding in Next and bought it there and then incase it was discontinued before I needed it and also bought the matching rug and some lovely bookends to go with it. I wanted some pictures to go on the walls but couldn't find any nice ones anywhere so decided to make my own, this was so easy and I was so pleased with them. You can see his old room pictured below; 

Well anyway since we had to move out of the house and now have our lovely new house, I decided I wanted the same theme in his new room. Only I have a slight problem, The placement of the window in his new room means there is not much light in the room at all. This means it probably isn't a good idea to go with dark colours in his bedroom. So I have had to come up with a way to still incorporate the theme but with lighter colours to brighten up the room. At the minute it has grey walls and a dark New York themed wallpaper and although not to my taste, the room is in a much better condition than all the others in the house so there won't be many big changes thankfully. Here are some pictures of it the day we moved in;

I have gone for a wallpaper on the feature wall which has a white background and red and blue stripes. I will then paint the other walls plain white. This is where my plans have got so far and instead of planning each and every detail this time, I'm going to see how it goes and once I've painted and papered I will then think about finishing touches. I must be mad attempting to do a room makeover so close to Christmas but I am determined to get it done to tick another project off my list!

Project One: Almost Complete!

I've been wanting to share with you our progress so far and can't wait until it's finished as there are a few jobs that will have to wait until after Christmas now. I need to put in a panel under her window to paint or paper and add blinds/curtains. I also have plans to paint her wardrobe door next summer. I guess we can never be truly finished with a project can we?

Anyway so far it is all painted and most of the furnishings and accessories are in (of course until I find more!) I added the bed canopy which was £7.50 from IKEA to make the bed a bit more exciting. The bed itself was a bargain a few months back, just £10 from a charity shop so we just had to buy a mattress. The bedding I reviewed on my other blog a few months back from BabyFace UK (You can read the review here). I bought the Toadstool Cushion from Asda for just £6. I also bought the hanging to tidy for £3 from IKEA again along with the pretty paper ceiling decorations which were £10 each. I have found them much cheaper online since! The Expedit shelving unit is another old buy. We've been using it to store toys since Gracie was a baby, they hold so much and look great too with a large range of coloured boxes. The shelving unit in white is just £20 and the boxes are £2.50 each. The Wigwam is another review item this time from Garden Games Ltd and it costs just £48.95, the review will be available shortly. Oh and the cute fairy lights were a bargain from B&M reduced to £2.99! (Please ignore the window area! It is in the process of being done).

I have a few plans for some fun crafts to make some nice accessories for her bedroom which we will be making sometime in the new year, including some handmade fairies to hang from the ceilings and a knitted patchwork blanket which I have already started knitting squares for! Also the Bench pictured (in front of window) is going to be upcycled, it is currently being used as a dressin up box and just needs prettying up!

So the room is very almost finished! What do you think?