Sneak peak: Frog’s bedroom update

We’re currently in the process of updating Frog’s bedroom and I thought it might be fun to show you some photos of how it’s turning out so far. When we moved into this house just over eighteen months ago Frog was still very little. But she’s grown up so much in that time, becoming a big sister and starting school, that we felt it was time to make her room reflect that.

On the first day of his school holidays the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine had a huge clear-out of Frog’s room while she was still at school (his school broke up a few days before hers) and we got rid of a lot of toys she no longer plays with. It’s amazing how much stuff she’s accumulated over the past year or so. Decluttering was the first step to transforming the room into an entirely different space.

This is what it looked like this time last year:

This corner of the room was always meant to be temporary. The old IKEA shelf was a hand-me-down from my parents and we’d always planned to create a proper reading corner but never quite got round to it.

Here’s what this part of the room looks like now:

The key difference is storage. Whereas before, Frog’s toys were stuffed into corners of the room, her toy chest and blanket box, now she has them carefully put away in proper storage baskets on custom built alcove shelves made by her dad. It’s all so much tidier and means she can easily keep track of the toys she has without always playing with the same ones.

We used the fantastic website Care2Save to buy these fabric storage baskets from John Lewis. Using Care2Save meant that we were able to donate money to my chosen charity of choice, World Vision, through something that I had planned to purchase anyway. It works because many companies will give a commission to websites who refer people to their products. With Care2Save, instead of that money going to a private company, 100% of the commission goes to charities. You simply sign up, choose a charity and then start shopping. It’s incredibly simple and there are a huge variety of companies signed up to the scheme – including two of my favourites, John Lewis and Smallable.

Frog was adament that she wanted to stick with the bright colours and is keen to have more of an obvious rainbow theme in the room. So although we got rid of the big paper roseatte left over from her rainbow birthday party last year (thanks Alison!) we kept the bright bunting strung along the top of the wall and added some bright hooks from Vertbaudet. I plan to hang some cool things from them, but it remains to be seen exactly what this will be.

We’ve kept the furniture – both pieces I upcycled last year using Annie Sloan chalk paint and new handles. Frog also has the same bed (my own from when I was little!) although we plan to make a custom built rainbow headboard for it. Watch this space.

We also plan to buy some fun, brightly coloured wall letter decals in the Mamas & Papas Patternology range to add a pop of colour to Frog’s new reading corner. This area has been created by moving the bed so it comes out into the centre of the room and then putting up a couple of IKEA spice racks left over from our reading nook on the landing.

There’s still a definite retro vibe to the room, which is in keeping with the rest of our home. We have a love of old furniture with a story and mid-century shapes, along with bright pops of colour and clashing prints. Frog has my old bedspread on her bed, a beautiful patchwork duvet cover that my own mum made for me when I was little. And she has a cushion made out of fabric that we used to have a sofa in back in the 1980s. Plus, some of mine and my sister’s paintings (painted by my late grandmother) hang on the wall above her fireplace. It’s a room of many memories.

Long term I’d like to invest in a new desk for her writing corner, as the one she currently has is getting a bit small. I have my eye on either a vintage school desk sourced from eBay or the Mini Stroller desk from MADE.

So it’s a work in progress. Still bits to do but nothing happens overnight I guess. Time and money permitting, her room will be completely finished soon. In the meantime, it’s still a lovely place for a five year old to hang out.

What do you think? Do you like the changes we’ve made so far?

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Thanks to Care2Save for inspiring us to make these changes and for working with me on this post.