While hard flooring is popular in children’s bedrooms (again protecting against allergies), do provide a soft floor area where children can play comfortably and crawl around with their lego / cars / dolls.

A rug beside the bed too provides warmth in the winter when they are jumping out of bed as well as providing plenty of character.

Some of my favourite rugs for children are by Designers Guild. Soft, 100% wool, gorgeous designs and quality, they’re not cheap at £195/€235 but will last for many years.

If you are in Ireland and would like us to order one of the Designers Guild rugs for you, do get in contact with us.

One of our readers, Beatrice Whelan, spotted this set of Doll’s House shelves on our blog some time ago, after we had spotted it on the House to Home website.

Is it a doll’s house? Is it shelves? It’s both as well as being absolutely fabulous. I have been gently reminding Brian to make one for Kate and he protests that she has plenty of shelves. However, I feel, that like shoes, a girl can never have enough shelves.

Beatrice sent me pictures of the set of shelves her brother made for her little girl and now that I have seen these, the gentle reminders Brian has been getting will be becoming a more savage nag! Isn’t this just gorgeous?

Before Paint!

Painted and wallpaper with offcuts from Designer’s Guild’s latest collection for children, doesn’t this look fabulous and it will last this beautiful little girl for many many years.  I think Beatrice did a terrific job.

I’ve decided to focus on a different room each month so for a week each month, there will be a blog post focusing on one room in the house. I’m going to start with children’s bedrooms as they’re one of my favourites – I can really indulge in nostalgia and fun while playing around with ideas.

One of the key themes with children’s bedrooms has to be storage.  Apart from storage for clothing, children will require storage for toys and books.  The better the storage is, the easier it will be for the child to tidy up! – well, that’s the parental intention!

Ikea supply a wide variety of shelving options which are all budget friendly. You can never have enough shelves. However, ensure that wide shelves are split along with dividers as it will make it easier for children to replace books if they aren’t all about to fall on them.  Ensure that the shelves aren’t too tightly packed so the child will see spaces to put their possessions.

Make a bookcase more interesting and personal by making one out of the child’s initials. (Source: Tove Lisa)

I also love this idea for shelves – perfect for making books more accessible and having them on display, even one shelf will be perfect as the favourite books (why do young children always prefer one book that you have to read millions of times) can be displayed there.

Isn’t this fabulous? It makes a great feature wall as well as creating a perfect spot for having time out with a book. (Elizabeth Sullivan)

Beds with storage underneath are a great idea for smaller bedrooms – whether you opt for a bed with drawer storage or a bed that can be raised so that there is space to play or study underneath.

This set of bunk beds is great – apart from the under bed drawer storage, I love the quite sophisticated stairs to the top bunk and with the side drawers, every inch of space can be used for storage. (Source: Bunk Beds A2Z)

And here’s a more feminine version of a set of bunk beds with storage. (source: Fit in House)

And this is one of the most gorgeous examples I’ve seen of beds with a play area underneath – Imagine having your own VW campervan equivalent in your bedroom! (Source: The Lettered Cottage via pinterest)

If you are hoping to limit your child’s scribbling on walls to their bedroom and indeed, encourage their creativity, I’m liking this idea for a complete wall that is devoted to being scribbled on, painted with blackboard paint.

Spotted here via pinterest

For kids with asthma, the dust from the chalk may not be a good idea but there are plenty of wallpapers available now that can be coloured in. There’s the funky ‘Colour in’ wallpaper by Jon  Burgerman.

Mini Moderns also produce a number of their design in ‘Snow’ colourways which can be coloured in or left plain.

The C60 cassettes wallpaper is more retro and the third is the Tick Tock featuring all types of clocks to be coloured in.

Perfect for budding artists to hone their skills!

I spent the day at a women’s agricultural conference yesterday and you’ll be able to read all about it over on my IrishFarmerette blog if you’d like to but as I was uploading these beautiful new wallpapers at it (yes, I was multi-tasking – tweeting, blogging and uploading while listening to the speakers) it struck me how perfect the theme is considering I was listening to farming talks all day.

Katie Bourne’s new wallpapers are the latest addition to our wallpaper designers here at Garrendenny Lane and I’m loving both of her designs – a little whimsical, hand drawn, of beautiful quality and perfect for children’s bedroom and nurseries or perhaps the downstairs loo, a farm office and a farmhouse kitchen.

Cluck a Doodle wallpaper features a farmer and his wife tending the chickens, driving the tractor and doing other farming jobs surrounded by various farm animals.  It has a olde worlde hand drawn charm. Katie lives on a dairy farm in Staffordshire in the UK and perhaps it is because I am living on a dairy farm is why I am so drawn to it although I think non-farming mums and dads will love it too.

Both wallpapers are available in four colourways.

Merry Go Circus wallpaper will really feed the imagination of children, it features delightful zebras, giraffes and elephants amongst others. A really charming wallpaper design.

All these beautifully charming wallpapers by Katie Bourne can be purchased online from our online shop.