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It might seem like I’m jumping ahead of myself just a wee bit when I talk about redecorating and art work around the house, especially in the downstairs where walls haven’t even been moved yet, but here I am, chatting away about it anyway!
With the extension and the building of the annexe comes the opportunity to really create a space that we will love and that will have a totally “us” stamp on it. I’ve been busing myself with Pinterest boards, from kitchen designs to glorious utilities and hallway designs. I’ve been mood boarding paint and, finally, when Desenio got in touch to ask us if we would be interested in collaborating to promote their artworks and posters, I started to think about how we would decorate beyond the old paint and polish. What plants will we have? Can I create a flower wall? Will the beautiful artwork that we have collected from trips around the world look best in the hallway, kitchen or living room? It’s all part and parcel or renovating, but it’s incredibly hard when you don’t know what your house will look like!
One thing we do know is that Toby will be getting his own room, finally after always sharing with Reuben. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve spoken about the boys sharing a room, how Toby hates to sleep alone and has always slept better when bed sharing or being curled up with someone, but I think that Reuben would really benefit from having his own space. As they get older, more squabbles break out because Reuben wants to play ALONE in his bedroom and Toby wants to go and sit in there and watch his iPad. It causes so many rows, especially when his lordship decides he wants to chatter to Roo, mid very important Lego battles. The trauma.
Anyway, having their own spaces sounds like the best idea and if there are any trials we will just have to cross them as they arrive.
After thinking about it, I decided that I wanted to collaborate with Desenio on their kid’s room prints and posters, I did order a few other pieces but predominantly Toby and I sat and looked at prints together, choosing the ones that were right for him.
Desenio has a HUGE range of prints, from typography to modern art, their posters are fab and cover every taste, so it wasn’t hard to find something that Tobes would love.
One of my fave things about Desenio is their wall gallery planner. I have a hard time visualising how to hang artwork, it’s not the easiest to imagine what different size prints will look like together, so the wall gallery planner was ideal.
You choose a gallery shape that you like, then simply click on the empty frame and it brings up all the prints Desenio offers in that size. You can play around as much as you like, from huge wall galleries that would cover a giant space to smaller spaces like a kitchen wall or a bathroom.
For Toby’s room, we know that we want to have some shelves in their for him to display his dinosaurs and fossils (he has a few replica Dino skeletons that he’s built that simply *have* to be on display!) so we didn’t want anything too big, and we settled for four prints in two sizes, featuring his favourite things.
We chose the following:
– Dinosaurs poster 50×70 £21.95 – dinosaurs are life to Toby. As soon as he saw this, he chose it. It’s the first print he chose and set the tone for the rest of the prints with its colour!
– Highland cow close up 50×70 £21.95 – One of Toby’s teddies is “Honey” the highland cow. He loves teddies (probably more than Dinosaurs to be honest) so it’s adorable that he’s found this print to represent her.
– Pug puppy poster 30×40 £11.95 – Anyone who follows me on social media will know that Toby is obsessed with pugs and corgis. He wants a pet corgi and loves looking at pugs (he’d totally have both if he thought he could – he can’t.)
– Grow up, blue poster 30×40 £9.95 – I’m not sure why he loved this one so. It ties in perfectly with the green of the dinosaur poster but I was really surprised he chose this as he’s not even a reader yet! When I read it out to him he loved it and thought it was incredibly funny so that’s that!
The frames we chose also came from Desenio, I really love the selection that they offer too. We chose copper frames for each of the prints.
When it comes to decor, Tobes is actually quite a switched on little dude and wants to be involved whereas Reuben is much more likely to offer me a shrug and grunt. The fact that he has sat with me and can now visualise bits and bobs of his room coming together has been really exciting for him.
If you want to try the service out for yourself, you can use the code “TOBYANDROO” you can get 25% off all prints* until midnight (GMT) on 16th May. *Excludes frames, handpicked, collaborations and personalised prints.
Happy Shopping!
H 😊
