All posts filed under: Children

Growing up with Meble Vox & Wayfair

Published by Karen Knox

Remember Charlie’s room? This time last year, I had this beast built. The wall of storage. Best. Thing. Ever. (read all about that here) Then we upgraded his cot bed to these single stacking beds, perfect for sleepovers (read about those here) Then it was time to find a new wardrobe and chest of drawers… and it’s taken me a year. ONE YEAR to find something that floated my boat. This was the wishlist: White and/or blonde wood Something that didn’t look like kids’ furniture, but would equally be at home in a kids’ room Decent quality, something that would last him until the day he moves out (so, about another 23 years). A wardrobe with full hanging rail. For some reason, a lot of kids’ wardrobes have a half rail and shelves down the side. What’s that about?? Around £600ish for the two I’d done the whole Ikea shlep… endless internet dredging… and what I found was kid’s furniture that was affordable but looked a bit ’90’s naff’, childish or had a half length …

Making Spaces HQ Mini Home Updates

Published by Karen Knox

I’ve not shared any home updates for ages over on the blog and there have been a goings on at chez Making Spaces. So when the sun decided to join us for the first time in January the other day (for 47 minutes), I had to get my camera out and snap away like a lunatic. As most of you guys know, our house is small, normal, average. A 3 bed semi with no high ceilings, no gorgeous period features or lovely large windows. There are still lots of things i’d love to change and update (some of which will be happening later this year) but for now this is where we are with everything…. Let’s start in the entrance hall. At the end of the hallway now resides a chalkboard wall which is used for messing about, drawing floorplans and Charlie’s notes for his current thesis on the world economy. FINALLY we’ve updated the switches and sockets on the ground floor with more goodies from Dowsing & Reynolds. Our ground floor now matches our …

My first trip to Ikea for 2018

Published by Karen Knox

It was a dark and dreary Sunday. I was up at 6am (stupid body clock) and I had a mission to complete: Operation ‘Charlie’s Big Boy Bed’ If you remember, we updated his room last autumn with some super sneaky bespoke joinery which not only solved the toy storage problem but also allowed us to fit a full sized single bed into his bedroom without re-wiring light switches or knocking out a chimney breast. S-weet! As we wanted to give Charlie the option of having little people over for sleepovers (when he’s capable of sleeping past 6am – does that happen?) we wanted to go for a bed that served that very purpose. Something white, without a footboard, something that didn’t have an ornate headboard, something that provided function of sleep and allowed the plywood storage wall to be the main feature of the room. Cue the Egzigu bed from La Redoute Two of these simple white bed-frames stacked on top of each other would solve everything and soon enough, courtesy of La Redoute they …

Charlie’s bedroom – Part 2 – The Plywood Wall

Published by Karen Knox

Charlie’s room has ended up being a much larger project that originally planned (sorry Pete). The whole design process has been bubbling away in the background for a few months now and am so excited to finally share Part 2. (Part 1 here). This kid’s bedroom is all about the plywood!! There are still plenty of pieces left to go in (carpets and single bed) but it’s the joinery that’s really transformed this room. So let’s get on with the pics shall we? Before After Before | During After I absolutely love it. It’s so mental to see an idea in your head executed so accurately. The guys from Leeds and London based Bare Joinery are mega. Give them a follow, because i’ve been bullying them to set up a proper Instagram account for months and i’m going to look like a right numpty if it’s tumbleweed. The design is a perfect marriage of function and form. I’ve finally reclaimed the living room (and several other parts of the house) and have managed to get all …

Charlie’s Bedroom Re-design – Part 1

Published by Karen Knox

What a week! The Interior Design Collective launch completely blew my mind. It seems quite a few of you think it’s a rather good idea. Which is brilliant. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karen Knox – Making Spaces (@makingspacesnet) Thank you so much again to everyone who sent their best wishes. It was an amazing day. So back to normality again. Whatever that means. I’m cracking on with the next project at home, which is Charlie’s room. Remember me introducing that one a few weeks ago? If not, you can pop over here for a brief catch up. The plan was to build a unit across the whole of the back wall so Charlie’s new single bed could sit right alongside. There wasn’t really anywhere else in the room it could go due to the door swing and the window/radiator situation. After toying with several different ideas about what material to use to build said unit, I had to rule out Valchromat on cost alone. This left us with MDF or …

How to live with kids (and all their stuff)

Published by Karen Knox

Something I get asked a lot in consultations at family homes is how to deal with kid’s stuff. They see pics of my house online and are keen to know how I keep our house tidy with a four year old. Firstly, it’s not always tidy. Believe me. Charlie is a master den builder. Often taking over the living room with our clothes airer, all the blankets, cushions, pillows, access to any of the seating and view of the TV. The “Lego carpet” is also another one of his preferred activities. Where he takes his two boxes of Lego and pours the contents across the rug so it’s impossible to even enter the room without piercing your foot on a studded brick or small piece of Lego Star Wars based weaponry. We don’t have a designated playroom for a couple of reasons. The first being, we don’t have that extra room available. Unless we had an extension, that is. Secondly, kids don’t really use them, well I don’t think they do. And more often than …

The Magnetic Wall – Pt 1

Published by Karen Knox

Huzzah! A new project has landed and it’s gona be a good ‘un. I’m re-designing a playroom. Always fun. AND getting to try out some Thistle Magnetic Plaster, by British Gypsum’s “Rooms Made For You” range. Double fun. Pic – Rooms Made For You Heard of Magnetic Plaster before? No? Well let me fill you in. “Thistle Magnetic Plaster is a gypsum finish plaster for use on a wide range of backgrounds. It provides a smooth, inert, high quality surface which attracts magnets to internal walls and ceilings, and a durable base for the application of decorative finishes.” It’s got so many uses; for display, work, playing and learning. A Magnetic Wall instantly gives any space a whole new lease of life. Here’s the plan for the playroom. The Playroom It’s actually attached to my recently completed Sherwood Forest project. And you know how adventurous that was. Triple fun. The playroom, which leads on from this newly re-designed living room wasn’t meant to be done for a little while. Understandably, the homeowners wanted a break from house-y stuff …

The 50/50 Room.

Published by Karen Knox

Want to see the quickest and easiest way to update and redecorate a space? It’s bloody perfect for a bank holiday weekend spruce. Come on, have a look! My son’s bedroom needed a bit of touching up. I stupidly painted this room all white when we moved in 3 years ago. Matt, non wipeable white. Nice move. I really couldn’t be bothered to paint the whole room again. To be honest, most of it was still clean and tidy as furniture had kept his grubby hands and toys away from most of the walls. But the entry wall on the right and sections around his bed were a little worse for wear. So here’s what I did. Tester of Crown Easyclean – City Blues, in a scrubbable matt finish. Masked up with Frog Tape the section I was going to paint. Use a spirit level, but also go by eye as some bits of wall that were bang straight looked off against the floor and ceiling. Just make sure the entire line looks straight in …

Goodbye Ugly Wall

Published by Karen Knox

So recently I wrote a post about our recent garden sprucing, which included new furniture, splashes of colour and a home made planter. But I failed to draw attention to this ere eyesore above. The mingin’ concrete wall boundary wall. Luckily our neighbours agree it’s bloody horrible so they were happy for me to attempt to make it look a little better from our side of the garden. The driveway and patio are also completely knackered, but we are planning an extension down the entire side of the house in the next few years, so no point in paying to get the wall, patio and driveway re-done. So that’s why it looks so rubbish. All in all. This bit of the garden sucks. I was stuck with how best to improve this area as I wasn’t allowed to eat up any driveway space. It’s already tight to get the car down the drive, so there was literally no floor space to use. So I played around with some ideas: Ivy – Nowhere to plant it and takes …

Up the Wall

Published by Karen Knox

Ikea has saved us again. We needed some storage for Charlie’s bedroom, but I didn’t want a “unit” as such with sides and doors. And I wanted to keep as much floor space as possible. That meant we needed to go up and what better way to keep the space open and clear than a ladder shelving unit. I spotted the Ikea HJÄLMAREN unit a few weeks ago. It’s priced at £69.99 under Bathroom Storage which I think is a little odd seeing as it can be used in any room. Would make a great bedside table, bookcase, kitchen storage, endless really. My other half was reluctant to go for these as he was concerned about tiddles climbing up them (he’s obsessed with our loft ladders, my decorating ladders… ladders in general) or them being pulled over. But, fear not! These have a bracket which fixes them to the wall at the top. And the shelves are positioned in such a way that you can’t climb. Well so far so good anyway. I picked up a …