*sip* Ah that's better!
So much to catch up on, so little time. I keep thinking about all these cool things I am going to write about and how I will become the next really interesting person on blogger. Alas Minky keeps me too busy and I am trying to juggle home, sewing and all that. So for now my interesting-ness will have to stay in my own head and be drip fed to you all one post at a (far in between) time.
One thing that I have been thinking about lately though is kid's rooms. Funny that, since I spend most of my day and night in one. I read an article somewhere, maybe Home Beautiful or the SMH or somewhere about a new kid's store opening up in Sydney around Dank Street. Without going into too much detail it basically put forward the idea that people who have mega-trendy homes need mega-trendy rooms for their little ones so they can keep their bedroom doors open without being embarrassed. Why should you let a children's messy, Dora splattered room spoil the overall aesthetic of your shiny, Eames filled inner city terrace? I had to laugh at the photo of this shop. Honestly it had about 3 things on the shelves, none of which the average toddler would find even moderately interesting. I'd be terrified of letting a 3 year old loose in there in case he/she left muddy footprints on the shiny white polished concrete floors! Most 6 year old girls would rather stare at their own reflection, play with their hair and wonder what to dress Barbie in when she got home than admire the fine lines of the retro-inspired foot stools (something apparently kid's reeeealy need in their bedroom).
So it got me thinking about how our own design ideas filter though to our babies rooms. From the initial stages of planning a 'nursery' right up to teenage rooms (the latter I will not *thank GOD* have to experience for a long while yet).
Having a strong passion for design, colour and interiors didn't sway me to make Minky's room 'fit' with the style of the rest of the house. She is a baby, babies need baby rooms. She didn't need a $3000 cot, Swedish bed linen or wall art that would be more at home in the Tate Modern. She needed a cuddly cot, white just to keep it simple, soft fluffy toys and a comfy chair for me to sit in. I kept it neutral with splashes of bright red and green as we didn't know if bub was a he or a she. And the rest I made myself.
Sure, I had off cuts from Cloth fabric which I turned into cushion covers but I always kept it child friendly. Bright. Soft. Not hard and stark. My baby needed a warm coocoon not a reminder that Mum and Dad were at the forefront of cutting edge 'staarl' and just itching to be featured in the next Vogue Living.
Kiddies need a bedroom that is inviting. So what if they want to splash Barbie from one end to another? Have Bratz dolls curtains and a Dora doona cover? Let them be kids. They don't understand the difference between Bebe Jou and the Wiggles. They just care that little Jack next door gets a Ben 10 sheet set and they are stuck with plain white bamboo-organic-dye-free-fun-free sheets that won't scream bad taste when their bedroom door is left open.
My antidote to all this silliness was to hand make a heap of stuff and recycle things from the shed (shock horror!). I've mentioned the birdy mobile before, and also my cushions. My dear friend crocheted a blankie and I made my first bunting. Minky got thousands of teddy bears when she was born, so they adorn every corner and shelf. There is an old set of drawers that I put in there. They were the first thing I bought when I moved out of home 12 years ago, and now they are hers. I didn't even get time to paint them. Her big designer pieces are a $18 lamp from Ikea and a wardrobe of French clothing her Grandma bought from ozsale.com.au. Other than that my aim was to have a place she would feel safe and happy.
The end result was something that I am proud of because I put MY heart and soul into it for MY daughter. And if it is a mess, well then I guess it does match the rest of the house, and I will keep that door wide open to show the world that I have a baby, and her comfort and enjoyment of her surrounds means more to me than anything else. See how it has evolved below...
So if you really want to integrate your children’s room with the rest of the house, stop and think for a moment. Will it really give them an advanced sense of style at age 3 or just make them feel sad they don't have a fun bedroom they can relate too? Bring on Dora I say.
Minky's first cot photo - I was so proud of this.
And after a few months of settling in, it's much pinker.
No comments:
Post a Comment