All posts tagged: storage

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 Loft Landing – Final Reveal

Published by Karen Knox

There’s just one space left to reveal now from the loft extension. You guys will have seen the open plan landing/office below with the staircase leading onwards and upwards to our new second floor. Open Plan Office Space But what you may not have worked out just yet is how it all connects together. Designing individual rooms can be tough, but designing rooms and spaces that connect with one another, not just physically but aesthetically, that’s a real challenge. Especially transitional spaces like hallways and landings where walls and levels connect over several floors. How do you make these work? This is the view standing at the bottom of the staircase. Remember i’m in my office here too. The element of shared space which works so well here, the office enhancing the staircase and vice versa. Here is the floor plan of the second floor. I saw the landing as another room in itself. They’re often neglected spaces, quite narrow and can be dark. I didn’t want any of these things to be the case. …

The Pod

Published by Karen Knox

I last mentioned “The Pod” in the Peignoir and Worsted reveal post. You can see the flash of Farrow & Ball’s Inchyra Blue through the door at the top of the landing here: The Pod, named mainly due to its size, 1.5m x 1.9m is just about big enough to fit a single bed in. A single bed and one small book. It’s actually used as the home office. Not the most successful one, however: Before It had gotten so cramped the homeowner had set up office-camp on the kitchen table downstairs. Not great when you’re working from home. Seeing your computer all the time means you’re switched on 24/7. I know a few of you out there can relate to that. It’s not good for a healthy work/life balance. Things that needed sorting were: The desk was too deep and interfered with the door architrave. There’s not nearly enough storage but the amount of “stuff” (which needed downsizing). Electrical trunking ran across the top of the desk meaning cables were trailing all over the place. It felt cold …

The mighty fine nine

Published by Karen Knox

In my previous post, all about how to make the most of your space, clever ways with storage popped up a fair bit. We all need storage. In every room. Not just under the stairs, in the garage and up the loft ladders. The living room needs it too. Which brings me quite nicely onto a little product research i’ve been doing for a client. Brief: Find me a cool industrial chest of drawers that will fit in my living room. Somewhere I can chuck all my day to day crap and keep my 5 year old’s pens and Play-Doh in. Ok then. I shall. Obviously, I started scavenging for something vintage, salvaged, quirky and unique. However, these pieces are getting increasingly more expensive, and harder to find in decent condition. When you do spot something it often needs couriering, so you don’t get to give it a once over until you’ve already bought and paid for it. I don’t mind taking a risk for me in these situations, it’s all part of the fun. …

Making the most of your space

Published by Karen Knox

Last month I wrote an article for Wayfair all about how to make the most of your space. It’s something I get asked about a lot during design consultations. “Can you help us find a place for **insert random but completely necessary item here**.” It seems we’d all like more space. I know I would. So I thought it might be pretty useful to share some of my solutions here with you. Go up Use the height of the room wherever possible. Lots of smaller units and bookcases lined up side by side take up so much floor space. And more and more stuff gets plonked on top until you’re living with the “Leaning Tower of Niknaks.” Keep your floor-plan as open and free as possible. Have cupboards or open shelves built into your alcoves, not just in your living room but in your kitchen/diner too. Shelves fitted above doorways can house endless boxes of books or CD’s without taking up any living space at all. Above the bulk-head in the “box room” …

Jumbo & Friends

Published by Karen Knox

Today i’d like to introduce to you a brand new design company based right here in the U to the K. Jumbo & Friends have landed, excitedly bringing their fresh perspective on children’s furniture with them. And I love it (and kind of want it all). It all began in 2013, when the creative founder, Esther fell pregnant and began the search for a cot for her son’s bedroom. Let’s just say she wasn’t really feeling what the current market had to offer. “that’s why I decided to create something different that would make children’s furniture more exciting, beautiful and engaging so that it becomes part of their world and ours, and makes it better!” Esther and her son A lady after my own heart. If it doesn’t exist, make it so! Launching the website just last week, these guys are already firing on all cylinders. After an energetic phone interview with Esther and this ten second video teaser of what was to come, I knew Jumbo & Friends had to make it onto the blog. Beautifully …

Some Hella Sexy Shelves

Published by Karen Knox

Happy New Year! What better way to celebrate the start of 2016 than eyeing up some rather sexual shelves? I know. I’m a mind reader. You were just thinking about how fed up you were with all that festive nonsense and just wanted to ogle some bloody good shelves. Let me help…. If you remember where we were in the Sherwood Forest project, we were eagerly awaiting the creation and fitting of some rather special storage. Cue, Bare Joinery, an amazingly creative duo of highly skilled joiners, crafters, makers, movers and shakers. Lucky for me, they’re based in Leeds. About five miles away from my project. But they work all over the country and are always mega busy. The shelving design. In my mind. After Bare Joinery’s initial visit, where I waved my hands around a bit and pointed a lot, Evan and Chris managed to decipher my shelving design ramblings and created exactly what I had envisioned. Genius. I didn’t want any more furniture taking up floor space but the room needed to house …

In Real Life…

Published by Karen Knox

When designing a room, inspiration can be found everywhere, but especially online. I’m always spotting, bookmarking, Pinteresting things that would be bob on for clients (and sometimes for me). It’s not always possible to see everything in person before buying, so online shopping is the only way to get your mitts on the goodies. And whilst virtual shopping is THE best thing since sliced bread, it can also be a right pain if things are not as they appeared when arriving. Most items for The Blue Room were bought by my own fair hand, in person. So I could see what I was getting straight off the bat. But there were a couple of online purchases where I clicked “Buy” and kept my fingers crossed. Let’s see how I got on… Swoon Editions Sydney Stool – £59 The Sydney stool from Swoon Editions is gorgeous. Industrial, yet chic and delicate. The metal work is much brighter than the online photo made it appear, which in this instance will actually work to this room’s advantage. The warm …

Mini Kitchen for Minis

Published by Karen Knox

After we had our kitchen done, we discovered quite quickly just how much our son LOVED our kitchen too. Well, emptying the entire contents of the cupboards out onto the floors. It was a fun game. He would empty a cupboard in two seconds flat and I would spend the next five minutes huffing and carefully replacing everything. Rinse and repeat… until mum got fed up and decided to get creative. Our little kitchen loving, cupboard emptying cherub was getting a kitchen of his own. I’ve always believed role play activities are what children are best at don’t you think? Kitchen Ingredients: Ikea – Duktig Kitchen – Just the base section Ikea Ribba Shelf A roll of chalkboard vinyl (I always spell vinyl wrong – just had to write that out three times). Uni Chalk Marker pens – the ones they use to write on restaurant boards Wooden A4 Drawer Chest – Argos 3 little white screw in hooks Give your ingredients a good mix, pop it in the oven for about an hour at 180 …

Ikea Bank Holiday

Published by Karen Knox

Just in time for the bank holiday trip to Ikea… a little roundup of my favourite pieces from Ikea for SS 2015. Sometimes you just miss the best bits because you’re frantically chasing the wrong child around the store, or wanting to just get to the cafe for your meatballs and cranberry sauce. So here are my faves: ARKELSTORP Desk, black – £135 Black and pine. Winning! KNAGGLIG Storage Box, pine – from £5 Stackable storage. Can’t have too much. Get some. NIPPRIG 2015 Room divider, black – £39 I’ve always wanted a room divide… just need to get a larger house with a big enough room to divide first. Am on it. Ikea are being sneaky sneaky and not showing the table and bench seating on their UK site just yet. Or the matching coffee and side table you can see in the background shot. But they MUST be arriving soon. I like a nice splayed leg I do! UPDATE – It’s the LISABO and it’s £120. Wowzers. Nice price for an ash veneer dining table eh? DALSHULT …