Meet the latest addition to the Lapin & Me baby bunny lamp family, Posy Pink! Her blue and white siblings are still my favourites, but she makes a sweeeet addition, don’t you think?
You can buy these sweetpeas at online shop Lapin & Me – a true treasure trove for vintage inspired, quirky home decor and gifts for grown-up and children’s rooms alike. Enjoy your browse!
(images: lapin & me)
Whilst visiting trade shows Top Drawer & Home last week, I discovered some lovely new child-friendly products and was reacquainted with others. I’ll try and cover some of these finds over the next few weeks or so. The first I wanted to highlight was a Danish company called Manostiles, whose children’s bedding and patterned storage boxes I particularly liked. Owner Mette Lindeberg was ever so helpful in helping me to get a good picture of the stand with a quick restyle, but the product shots on her website are waaay better, so let’s stick with those.
Manostiles’ children’s bedding is not quite the same size as standard UK junior duvet sizes, so you’ll need to check whether it will fit. I still wanted to show you these images as I love the use of colour in a mostly white room. Perhaps Mette can be persuaded to produce UK sizes too? Remember that duvets are not recommended by health professionals for babies under 12 months as there is a risk of overheating. Take a look at the John Lewis website for guidance on buying children’s bedding from a safety point of view.
To keep a baby room clutter free, Manostiles’ patterned storage boxes would keep your changing supplies nicely organised – use them without their lid on the changing table for example. They’d also make great coordinated storage for small toys, hairbands, pins, jewellery and other trinkets.
(images: manostiles)
Last Sunday I visited Kleine Fabriek, Holland’s biggest childrenswear tradeshow which also showcases a selection of home & gift collections. Below I’ve put together a few highlights. Strong colour still seems to rule (Dutch) kids rooms, though here and there I noticed a return of neutrals and naturals. For those of you who’d like to find out more about the autumn/winter 2012 fashion at Kleine Fabriek, head over to Junior Magazine afterwards for a brilliant report.
First up was Anne-Claire Petit with a stand bursting at the seams with crocheted goodies. Aside from many of my favourite products, such as the trophy heads, poufs, mushroom stools, giant fruits and vegetables, this crocheted bear rug made me smile.
At Rice there was the usual happiness with lots of bright colours. I love the new cup holder and floral melamine tableware. One day I would love to design a day nursery from head to toe and use Rice tableware as part of the total concept.
At Bakker Made With Love these Poetic floral fabric lanterns are now available in new shapes. Sooo pretty!
Wu & Wu stood out with a beautiful colourful stand – not difficult with their colourful Asian vintage inspired design. I loved their new fox and deer cushions.
Chispum wallstickers made me smile:
And finally this light blue Kili cot and junior bed from Sebra was filled with the new ‘Sebra goes graphic’ range of bedding in lots of ton sur ton patterns to mix and match, a metal lamp and the ubiquitous owls. Love.
Do you have any favourites? Let me know what you think will be big this year in children’s design.
(images: room to bloom, bakker made with love, chispum, sebra)
I’m visiting Kleine Fabriek in Amsterdam on Sunday, so will be travelling to Holland again. Kleine Fabriek is an international bi-annual trade show for children’s fashion, shoes, accessories and home & gift collections. It’s my first visit and I’m really looking forward to it. Watch this space for a full report ; )
Whilst I’m away I wanted to share this cute little find I came accross the other day. It’s a duvet cover called ‘Bob’ from Dutch label Snurk (meaning ‘Snore’). Bob is the dog of the photographer who created the image for the duvet cover. Apparently Bob loves sleeping on his owner’s bed, but of course, Bob wasn’t sleepy at all on the day of the shoot. He finally succumbed to a nap under the warm lights of the studio – et voila.
Wouldn’t you have loved to have a dog sleeping on your bed like this when you were little? You still can. Bob is available from the Snurk online shop in a range of UK sizes.
(images: snurk)
Whilst over in Holland for Christmas, my eye was caught by the beautiful December stamps people were using to send their Christmas and New Year cards. They have a definite Scandinavian feel and are all so sweet, but my favourite has to be the little deer with decorated antlers!
A little bit of research brought to light that they were designed by one of my favourite Dutch magazines, Flow, in partnership with the German artist Elisandra Sevenstar. Elisandra sells her prints through her Etsy shop, where I found many colourful prints of the type of retro pottery I love, as well as a customisable “kiddie shelf” print. You can have different book titles printed on the book spines (your childhood favourites or your child’s name for example) and change the letters on the wooden blocks as well. Sweet!
If your child has a play kitchen you could hang some of these pottery prints nearby.
(images: elisandra sevenstar, post.nl)
This year ended on a bit of a high for me. I published my new Room to Bloom website and started this blog. Then I was quoted in one of my favourite UK interiors magazines, Living Etc! I couldn’t be more thrilled when I was asked to contribute to the Children’s Rooms Project Planning feature for the January 2012 issue. Written by Claudia Baillie, the feature is full of useful tips and ideas for decorating children’s rooms, from babies and toddlers to tweens and teens. It’s on the news stands now, so get a copy now if you need some inspiration to decorate your child’s bedroom or playroom in the new year.
How was 2011 for you? Are you looking forward to 2012? If you are having a bout of the end of year blues, have a read of Holly Becker’s uplifting End of Year Ritual over at Decor8 where she explains how you can turn around your mood.
I’m off to the celebrations now… Happy New Year!
(images: room to bloom; living etc)
I’ve always known POPJE.COM for their cute birth announcement cards, but I just came across these pretty Christmas and New Year cards in their online shop. Okay – it’s too late for Christmas cards now, but if you, like me, have realised you’ve missed someone out from your Christmas card list, there’s still time to send them a New Year’s card instead!
POPJE.COM was founded by Dutch designer Marenthe Otten following the birth of her daughter Lila Poppy. When she tried but couldn’t find her ideal birth announcement card, Marenthe decided to design and create her own collection. Lucky for us in the UK, POPJE.COM has an English website which makes ordering easy!
I’ll be traveling to Holland tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with my family there. Hopefully I’ll bring back some more Dutch inspiration for you. Happy Christmas everyone! x
(images: POPJE.COM)
Eloise Hall is a paper artist based in London who creates beautiful collages of butterflies, dragonflies, birds and fish. She contacted me a while ago to introduce her work. Now that I have started my blog I can finally share a bit more of it with you. Eloise combines hand cut shapes from origami paper and ink drawing. She cleverly brings together colour, pattern and movement to create calm feeling tableaux. They would look stunning in a simple, light nursery.
A piece of art that you really love can be a great starting point for the design of your baby’s room. Pick out one or two colours from the piece and use them elsewhere in the room to pull the room together.
A Christmas gift idea for a mum-to-be?
(images: eloise hall)
I came across this beautiful Little Angel Stool from Brazilian designers Furf Design Studio the other day. This would have been without doubt my favourite chair when I was a little girl. I can just imagine myself drawing and colouring at our coffee table with my best friend, or watching some tele with my sisters – three angels in a row (haha!).
I’d love these chairs to be available here in the UK – perhaps in a range of soft chalky colours or natural wood. What do you think?
(image: furf design studio)
I am so excited that Room to Bloom now has its own website and that it’s finally up and running! It’s been a long time in the making and I’ve driven everyone around me quite crazy. Thank you Alastair, my love, for sticking with me, thank you Loes for your gorgeous design, thank you Mickey for making it all work perfectly… We can all exhale now.
To accompany the new website I have also started this blog. Here is where I hope to be sharing some of inspiration behind my work, and the wonderful things I come across whilst sourcing for kid’s rooms. If you have some time once in a while, do pop back to see what’s new. It would be lovely to see you again!
Ursula x
