A table that is just right.

I was beginning to feel like a bit like Goldilocks.  No kitchen table was quite right. The first table I  liked the look of was too long. The second, too wobbly. I gave up for a while then decided to search just by size (an awkward 100 x 70 cm). The wonders of the Internet led me to Easy Furniture. I know, naff name. However, who knew that Austrians made such nice tables? Made with solid pine (which I'm sure will make a comeback!), they also do matching stools that tuck under.

So, a happy ending. We can now all eat round the kitchen table and still have room to open the cupboard doors. Joy.

Eat, sleep, build, repeat.

Did you know that you had over 100,000 sensory exteroceptors in the sole of each foot? That explains why I hate stepping on bits of Lego. Lego pieces get everywhere in our house from down the back of the settee, to in my shoes. I even found a piece in the fridge the other day. 
 

The usual scenario in our house is that the kids get given a set, it gets built, then re-purposed, then finally smashed up. The set is never made again. 

We used to store Lego pieces in a massive drawstring bag but then they wouldn't all fit. I scoured the tinternet for a storage solution and finally settled on this drawer unit.

I did have a vision that the eldest would sort out the pieces into different drawers. That hasn't yet happened but at least we now have somewhere to pop those Storm Trooper helmets in...

Project: bathe in glory

What we have

Our bathroom is a bit of a disaster area. Whoever did the tiling tried their best but the sellotape doesn't inspire confidence.

There's two windows as presumably the bath and toilet were separate at some point. The larger of the two looks into the garage. Handy, if you want to wave to someone whilst having a shower. 

There's also quite a large shower. Great if you want a quick shower. Less great if you're a small person who doesn't like water on your head.

What we want

It's our only bathroom so we need to choose products that will last. I want it to feel spacious, clean and uncluttered.

• A bath with shower over 
• Storage - a sink with drawers underneath
• Heated towel rail 
• Exposed water pipes boxing in 
• The large window blocked up

We've yet to decide on colours but I'm told large tiles are in and we're considering some wet wall panels around the bath. 

Budding Picassos' art gallery

Image: Penguin Books

When he got to Paris he painted many pictures. He liked blue so he decided to paint pictures all blue. "You can't paint all blue pictures", they said. "No! no! no! Picasso!". But Picasso said "Yes!".

Picasso's Trousers by Nicholas Allan is one of our kids' favourite books. They find it really funny. I like it because it encourages them to believe in themselves and look at the world a bit differently.





There's only so much space on the fridge (what with the magnetic letters, holiday magnets and random photos), for all the kids' artwork so we needed another display area.

The IKEA Dignitet Curtain Wire can be mounted on a wall and set to any length. The little curtain clips can then be used to hold any number of art pieces.

It's quite tricky to get enough tension in the wire and you need to ensure that it's level or you'll find that everything starts slipping down. Once up, it can hold quite a bit of weight and is the perfect mini gallery.

Shoe rack to car rack hack

Hot Wheels are the first choice of toy car in this house. They come in so many designs and survive being buried in the garden, sunk in the paddling pool and launched down the kids' Blutrack.

I started to look for some way of both storing them and displaying them. If you Google 'toy car storage', Pinterest throws up hundreds of ideas, both homemade and bought, for organizing them. I settled on the cheapest and easiest:

1. Buy a two-tier wooden slatted shoe rack. The slats need to be far enough apart and deep enough to store the cars. I used this one from Amazon.
2. Glue the two tiers to each other so that they make a wide enough 'road' for the cars. I used wood glue and weighed it down with tins of beans whilst it dried.
3. Add some picture hooks to the top for hanging.
4. Voila!

Where can I hang that?

Wardrobes: IKEA Pax 

Bespoke fitted wardrobes are pricey. The next best option is to design and build your own. With different colours, depths, heights, and an endless array of internal storage items, IKEA Pax wardrobes are the bees knees.

The best feature is that if your bedroom space is a bit tight, you can combine both hanging and folding space. By using drawers inside the wardrobe you don't have to find space in your room for a separate chest of drawers.You can also store small items such as jewellery and cuff links in pull-out trays with soft inserts.

The Pax online planner is time consuming but excellent. In 3D or 2D mode, it allows you to design your perfect wardrobe inside and out. You can spend hours dragging and dropping different combinations of shelves, rails and cupboards into the frame that best fits your space. Once happy, you can then with one click add all the necessary product items (of which there will be many) to your shopping basket.


If you still can't find a wardrobe to fit your space or you want to re-purpose the space a wardrobe provides, check out IKEA Hackers which has lots of ideas.

Our wardrobe

We each wanted our own wardrobes so we used the planner and kitted out two spaces of 100cm each.
We used Lansa handles, Vinterbro textured doors, Komplement drawers, shelves and organisers. We put soft Skubb storage cases on the top.

Top tips

• Make sure you have enough height clearance to assemble them. They come in two different heights (201cm and 236cm). There needs to be 10cm clearance between the top of the wardrobe and your ceiling.
• Think about whether hinged or sliding doors would be better. Sliding is probably better if you don't have much room. 
• Try combining different sizes of frames. For example if you want a 100cm wardrobe you can have 2 x 50cm frames or 1 x 100cm. 
• Trying to fill a corner? Not a problem. You can buy a corner unit.  
• Internal and external lights are available.
• Try and fit in a Komplement Valet Hanger on the side - it's really useful for hanging up clothes.
• Remember and fix them to the wall for peace of mind.

Uh oh moment

You can't put drawer next to a hinge as there's not enough space. We used one of the soft storage boxes instead.
I'd really like a full length mirror on the inside but as far as I know, IKEA don't sell on.

Did you know?

With over 12,000 products sold across over 300 stores around the world, IKEA products are all assigned names from a database of Swedish words.

• Bathroom products - Swedish lakes
• Bedroom textiles - flowers and plants
• Beds and wardrobes - place names
• Rugs - Danish place names
• Children's products - animals and adjectives
   

If you're interested in finding out more, check out the unofficial IKEA dictionary.

Project: the boudoir

Dusty Pink. Who knew it was such a popular colour? A wondrous shade of eighties glam that has yet to make a comeback.

I understand that built in wardrobes offer storage but the rails are too low to hang anything longer than a shirt. Lying in bed feels somewhat claustrophobic.

Made out of some kind of melamine, the gold handles and beading on the doors add another level of fussiness.

Uh oh moment

The built in wardrobes are drilled into the ceiling.  There are some strange electric flickering lights that need taking out.