Today I have an amazing competition to share with you… Photowall have teamed up with Room to Bloom to give away a made to measure wall mural worth up to £500 in a design of your choice! You can choose from one of their amazing mural and wallpaper designs or you can upload your own design. It’s a great way to create a feature wall in a nursery, kid’s room or playroom.
Wall murals are made to fit the exact dimensions of your wall. The design of your choice is made up of 45 cm wide numbered panels which are hung edge to edge to make up the complete image. Photowall offer two types of wall murals: the standard range, which is applied with paste onto the wall, and the self-adhesive range.
What you can win
The prize you can win today is for a design up to 4 metres long in the standard range for domestic use. You could choose a wall filling image that you love or choose a design that covers just part of the wall. I’ve selected some images with designs that I think work great in kids’ rooms, but you could choose anything from Photowall’s extensive library or design your own!
To enter the competition, here’s what to do:
1. Leave a comment below to tell me what type of mural you would go for to decorate your child’s space – I want to hear your ideas. There’s no “right” answer, the winner will be picked at random from all the entries. For inspiration visit Photowall’s website or have a look at the kids’ rooms I’ve selected which all feature photo wallpaper.
2. Go to Room to Bloom’s Facebook page and share the competition on your own Facebook page.
3. There is no number 3, leave a comment, share on Facebook, that’s it.
This Photowall competition is open to UK residents only. It closes 6 January 2013 at midnight. I will contact the winner by email and you have until the end of January to claim your prize. Best of luck everybody!
Design your own photo wallpaper
To get your creative juices flowing, here are a couple of ideas for design-your-own photo wallpaper that I spotted in Dutch magazines Ariadne at Home Kinderen and VT Wonen a while ago. Scale up a high-res image (scan or photograph) of a favourite piece of fabric and have this printed on wallpaper to create a feature wall. A vintage embroidery sampler was the source of the first image and you can see the fabric used for the wall in the second image on the chair in the foreground.
I hope you feel inspired to come up with a unique design of your own. There will only be one winner, but if you enter promotional code ‘roomroom0022‘ at the Photowall checkout before 13 January, you’ll receive a 10% discount.
(images: 1. spruce wallpaper by fine little day via my second hand life (available from photowall), 2. owl wallpaper by mini empire (available from photowall), 3. nature murals: natalie krag, kiet’s room via esther veereschild – find similar at photowall, 4. snail trail by team hawaii at photowall, 5. ariadne at home kinderen, 6. vt wonen)
This super sweet bedroom belongs to Lise who is four years old. She lives with her parents Bas and Wendy and her little sister Mette on a houseboat in Zaandam, the Netherlands. The boat used to be a commercial barge and was converted by Bas & Wendy into a light and spacious living space. You can take a peek aboard their amazing home here.
Lise’s mum is a spatial designer, and her dad is the founder and owner of Waterloft.nl, a company that is involved in projects near or on the water. Their best advice for creating an amazing space for your child: keep children’s scale in mind when designing the room. Create small nooks that make your child feel comfortable and secure – cabin beds or beds built into walls are a great example of this.
Now it’s time to find out more about Lise! Tell us Lise…
♥ What is your favourite food? Pasta and pizza.
♥ What is your favourite colour? Blue, white and pink.
♥ What is your favourite animal? A polar bear and a normal bear.
♥ Your favourite book? My fairytale book.
♥ Dresses and skirts or trousers? Trousers.
♥ What would you take to a desert island? My bed and my polar bear.
♥ Which part of the world you like to visit one day? China.
♥ What do you want to be when you grow up? A Pilot.
♥ What do you like playing with most in your room? My pirate boat.
♥ What is your favourite duvet cover? The one with Little Red Riding Hood.
♥ What are your favourite pyjamas? The ones with the polar bear.
♥ Is there anything else you want to tell us about your room? I also like foxes and wolves but I don’t have any of those in my room.
Thank you Lise, it was really nice to meet you!
(images: featured in 101 woonideeën, photography via InsideHomePage by Louis Lemaire, styling by Gieke van Lon)
Quickly go buy some white hama beads for the weekend to make these sweet Christmas decorations with the kids. I found these snowflakes and how to make them over on the Heodeza blog written by Aude, a very creative Swiss girl living in the Netherlands. Happy Christmas Aude!
(image: heodeza)
fig. 1 JAPANESE NAVY SPOT DUVET SET (caramel baby & child), fig. 2 CARAMEL FLORAL DUVET SET (caramel baby & child), fig. 3 GRAN WALLPAPER (fine little day), fig. 4 KISS KISS WALLPAPER (marimekko), fig. 5 DOTTY WALLPAPER (ferm living), fig. 6 ROSE SUITCASE PEIXE ORANGE (lalé), fig. 7 VINTAGE BROWN FLORAL WALLPAPER pomme de jour), fig. 8 PAISLEY CRESCENT(mini moderns), fig. 9 VINTAGE WALLPAPER NO. 897 (5qm.de), fig. 10 RED CHECK WALLPAPER (room seven), fig. 11 WOODSTOCK WALLPAPER (rachel powell), fig. 12 DOTS FITTED SHEET (pip studio)
I’m all for nurseries being a place that you love to spend time in. As long the room is practical, easy to use and enables your little one to enjoy lots of restorative sleep, how you decorate it is really about what makes you happy.
These beautiful works of art called Flower Constructions by Dutch artist Anne ten Donkelaar do it for me. I think they’d make a stunning focal point and I would love to create a nursery around them. White walls, white painted floorboards, and a hint of delicate watered down colour. A simple cot, a pretty wardrobe, some drawers and a blond bentwood rocker.
Flower constructions are 3D collages made from pressed flowers and cut out flower pictures. Each element is meticulously placed on pins which creates the depth and a delicate play of shadows. You can see more of Anne’s creations on here.
(images: anne ten donkelaar)
I received a lovely message over the weekend from Lisa Green of Little Pea Green. She named Room to Bloom in her list of favourite baby, interiors and lifestyle blogs, all of which are well worth checking out if you haven’t come across them yet (Handmade Charlotte, Le Zoe Musings, Modern Mum Must-Have, Smudgetikka). It’s so nice to hear people find inspiration on this blog, so thank you Lisa for brightening my Sunday : )
I hope the concluding part of my Eight Steps to Designing Your Dream Nursery will give some of you ideas and inspiration for your baby’s room. It’s ready now on Lisa Barnwell’s blog, with tips on seating, storage and the finishing touches. Let me know if in the future you’d like me to cover any aspects of nursery design in more detail, and I’ll do my best.
Happy Monday!
x Ursula
This extraordinary bedroom belongs to Willa who is nearly nine years old. She lives with her parents Freddie and Ben and three cats, one of whom has three legs (the cat not the parents). They share a 16th century timber framed barn in the Essex countryside, which Ben converted into a family home, studio and workshops. The conversion of the barn was filmed for Grand Designs which you can watch here and here to see more of their spectacular house.
Willa’s parents are both creatives. Freddie is an artist (she knits blood-soaked gloves and murderer’s houses) and senior tutor in Textiles at the Royal College of Art in London. Ben is an artist, sculptor, project manager, blacksmith, builder, forester, farmer, janitor and Grand Designer. These are their tips for designing your child’s bedroom:
1. Remember that your child won’t stay young forever. Design and decorate the space so that it can grow and change as your child does.
2. Use things that your child has made, their toys and collections. It is their room after all.
3. Always buy your child a good, adult sized mattress and bed as you will end up sleeping in it a lot!
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Now let’s find out a bit more about Willa! Tell us Willa…
♥ What is your favourite food? Spaghetti Bolognese
♥ What is your favourite colour? Mint green
♥ What is your favourite animal? Chihuahua
♥ Your favourite book? I’m reading Dork Diaries.
♥ Dresses and skirts or trousers? Skirt and leggings.
♥ What would you take to a desert island? My bed, my daddy made it for me.
♥ Which part of the world you like to visit one day? New York
♥ What do you want to be when you grow up? I don’t know yet.
♥ What is your favourite thing in your room? My book shelf full of books and toys books.
♥ What do you like doing in your room? Playing with my dolls and dolls houses.
♥ Is there anything else you want to tell us about your room? My Daddy built our house, my whole bedroom and my bed. I have a round bathroom, my daddy built that too.
Thank you Willa, it was great to meet you!
(images: James Brittain)
I love these felt ball garlands to decorate a nursery or kid’s room. Learn how to make your own in colours to suit your child’s room with this fab tutorial from the ladies of Sisters Guild.
(image: line + liv)
Happy Monday everyone – where did last week go?! Mine was filled with work on a shared room for two girls, a little girl’s nursery and bits an bobs on two other projects. I’m looking forward to more of that this week – what are your plans?
I’m kicking off the week with some nice nursery images to inspire you and part two of my Eight Steps to Designing Your Dream Nursery over on Lisa Barnwell’s blog. Come and say hello if you have a minute : )
x Ursula
(images: The Socialite Family, VT Wonen, Line + Liv, Kjerstis Lykke)
1. leather squirrel coat hook 2. hedgehog lamp 3. mushroom wall lamp 4. twig coat hook 5. children’s suitcase 6. leather rabbit coat hook
(image: room to bloom)
