style scout
With the arrival of her third child, our design magpie is making peace with the evolution of her home by finding joy in the little things
Recent weeks have been spent settling into our new life as a family of five (six, if we’re counting the dog!) following the arrival of our youngest in April. My house is currently very much that of a person with a newborn and all the associated paraphernalia. As I write this, I’m gazing guiltily at a big pile of washing and nappies, as well as Lego pieces scattered all over the floor courtesy of my two eldest. Three children amount to a lot of joy, and also a lot of mess.
Back when we were a child-free couple, my husband and I moved further out of the city so we could buy a house with a garden – an upgrade from the studio flat we’d been living in. With just the two of us at first, living in this house felt very grown-up. That atmosphere and the energy has changed for the better, but it’s often quite chaotic.
One of the reasons I chose to paint the main living rooms in a calming palette was so I could add some tranquillity to the walls, even if the opposite is happening within them. I accepted a long time ago that I don’t live in a hotel or a museum, but sometimes I’ll manage to find a tidy corner to take a picture for Instagram, all the while holding back a tidal wave of toys spilling out from behind me.
As I said in my last column, after the baby moves out of our room, all three children will be sharing the nursery that was originally designed for our first child. It’ll be fun for them, but will definitely change the feel of the space. When there was only one baby, it was a spacious room with strategically placed toys and prints. Now it’ll be a lot busier, and we’ll have to make some modifications – my two-year-old loves playing with trinkets, for example, so everything will have to be moved higher up.
In general, though, my priorities haven’t been tidying the house or keeping the washing basket empty. And that’s fine. I’m still trying to find those tiny things I can do that make everything feel more put together when life is anything but. These include stealing a couple of minutes for a cuppa in front of the telly and making the bed so that, even if the room is in disarray, I�
