Growing Spaces

Will a half-painted stairway wall beat dirty hand marks and scuffs for good?

Will a half-painted stairway wall beat dirty hand marks and scuffs for good?

Within a day of repainting our stairway wall white a while back, I could already see new grimy hand marks and scuffs. Instead of obsessing over them I just took a deep breath and put it down to normal house wear. It’s inevitably got dirtier and dirtier, until the other day I had to accept that I couldn’t ignore it any longer. Inspired by a recent shoot we put together at work, I rejected the idea of yet another white re-coat (actually a really full-on job as the stairway is so tall), and decided to take a different approach, which…

View Post

My top tips for open-plan family living

My top tips for open-plan family living

Time for some honesty. These pictures of my home aren’t the best I’ve ever taken, but I’m currently wallowing in a bit of blogger’s block, and I felt like I just needed to move forward and write a post in order to try to tackle the impasse. Work has been really busy recently, so I haven’t had much brain space for the blog, or time to potter at home, with the result that everything feels a bit neglected and unloved. Sometimes this is just the way life is, and I think I have to find a way to accept that…

View Post

Hallway storage idea: DIY kids kit bags

Hallway storage idea: DIY kids kit bags

A very old post of mine about our hallway storage solutions is still one of my most popular (go figure!). Of course our hallway doesn’t actually looks like that anymore (it was four years ago after all), but the coat hooks and old pew are still key elements in the space. One thing that was causing constant mess and irritation was all the hats, gloves, scarves that ended up strewn across the bench. Apparently a family of four can have rather a large collection of accessories, and when they’re all mixed up together it’s all but impossible to find what…

View Post

While I was walking..

While I was walking..

Charting the weeks through our walks journeys to school ..or cycling, as it happens. What a glorious week it’s been. The sun’s come out and it feels like Spring has properly arrived. This week the twins’ school was taking part in the The Big Pedal – the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge to inspire you to choose two wheels for your journey to school. Ez has just cracked the cycling thing (it was a confidence issue and it was like flicking a switch – now she doesn’t want to get off her bike) so we decided to join…

View Post

#TheEverydaySpruce Read your way to a happier home

#TheEverydaySpruce Read your way to a happier home

#TheEverydaySpruce – a collaborative project between lapinblu & growing spaces – | SIMPLIFY | CLARIFY | BEAUTIFY | Never one to resist a bandwagon, I ordered my copy of the best-selling The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo once I’d seen a couple of people mention it on Instagram. I bought Happier At Home by Gretchen Rubin a few months back (about when Sarah-Lou and I started The Everyday Spruce project), after reading her earlier book The Happiness Project a couple of years ago. And then The Year Of Living Danishly by Helen Russell has been recommended to me…

View Post