This post is sponsored by Kia’s All New Soul
I want to send a huge thank you to Kia Australia, as I am so very very grateful that they have given me an opportunity to visit the homes of 3 readers who have each won the ‘Win The Organised Housewife for a day’ competition. Sometimes our homes and clutter become so overwhelming that it’s a struggle to find the time in our busy days to go through it and tidy it up. This is where I have been able to step into these rooms and help work through the clutter and create a plan on how to keep these rooms organised. I drove up from the Gold Coast to Brisbane, Queensland in the Kia Soul to visit Winner #2 Leigh to make over her bedroom.
Mum’s Bedroom Makeover
Leigh is a mother to 3 children, 2 who are foster children. Leigh has been a foster mum for many years now and has had so many kids in her care that she has lost count. Leigh’s days are filled with school runs and looking after a 6-month-old bub. She is constantly busy caring for her kids and rarely finds time for herself. In the evenings after the kids have gone to bed, she wants to relax. She could do this in the lounge room, but there are kids toys around or the reminder of washing that needs folding. Instead, she likes to retreat to her bedroom; her space, to relax and watch TV, which is completely understandable. We mum’s always put ourselves last, and I am so pleased that we can make this a reality for this very deserving mum!
Unfortunately Leigh’s bedroom had become the dumping zone for all items around the home that didn’t have a place of their own. She loves to sew and craft and read magazines, but these items would just be left on the bedroom floor. Leigh’s foster daughter also likes to keep a supply of her ‘special’ items next to Leigh’s bed as she occasionally sleeps with Leigh on some nights: Miss 7 likes to keep these items close. We needed to come up with a plan to make this space clutter free so that Leigh could relax more.
We needed to improve the storage ideas in this room, sort through the clutter and make it a beautiful room to wake up to each morning.
The action plan:
- Buy some fresh new linens for the bed
- Sort through the clutter around the walls
- Tidy the wardrobe
- Move the current TV cabinet back into the wardrobe
- Tidy up Miss 7s special items
See how we transformed this bedroom in the video below
New Linens
The basis of the decorating of this room started with the bed. Leigh had decided to get rid of the big dark bed, selling it on Gumtree. She purchased a gorgeous new white bed to lighten the room and because of this, I wanted to treat her to some beautiful new linens.
Leigh and I spent some time together shopping and trying to find the ‘perfect’ quilt cover and we found it. Kas Ingrid had some gorgeous bright colours, which was exactly what Leigh wanted for her room. The new bed was a Queen but we got a King size quilt so that it would go lower down on each side of the bed. This will hide any storage containers that Leigh may put under the bed in the future.
The fun bright yellow Stockholm bedside tables are from Ikea
Sort through the clutter
What I could see first and foremost was a lot of clothes around the side of the room. Leigh had recently lost weight (awesome work!!) and didn’t know what to do with the clothes she no longer fitted into. I suggested to sell or donate them as we all live in hope that after losing weight we will no longer need them!
A few of the clothes were also dirty, which made me realise that Leigh needed a clothes hamper in her room.
Leigh enjoys reading home and food magazines, so I created a home binder for her so that she can tear out the pages that inspire her for her next decorating project, and can place the pages into the binder for future reference. This is a great project to complete while watching TV in the evenings.
Miss 7’s special things
A very important step in tidying this room was to sort through Miss 7’s special things, she really likes to have them close to her when she sleeps with Leigh at night (which we are working on using the I will stay in bed reward chart).
As Leigh wanted to sell her dark furniture, this was a great opportunity to buy her some light coloured furniture. I wanted something that Miss 7 could hide away her things, but easily access them. This Hemnes Console Table can easily hide all the dress up clothes and dolls in the canvas boxes. Leigh can also use a box to put all other clothes that she finds too big, to eventually donate them.
The bright orange boxes coupled with the yellow side table really adds colour to the room.
Wardrobe
Leigh’s wardrobes were full with clothes, and looking in I could see that the wooden coat hangers were taking up a lot of room.
We replaced the wooden hangers with some felt slimline hangers which gave her more room in the closet, and some of the clothes that were around the room were able to go into the wardrobe now.
A few of the drawers in the wardrobe were broken, so I found some runners from Bunnings to fix this up for Leigh.
We used the space at the top of the shelves to store away all the craft items, so that Leigh can now easily grab them down when she is feeling crafty. Leigh already had the black box which hides all her Christmas presents, so it was very clever of her to put presents into the solid black box so that he kids can’t see through it!
We placed the chest of drawers that the TV used to be on back into the wardrobe to tidy up the bedroom. We also placed the blanket that was on the bed into the suitcase which then fit perfectly into the wardrobe.
I placed all the lotions and beauty items into the storage baskets to make it easier to wipe up any spills that may happen, and used the space at the bottom of the cupboard to store shoes.
The beautifully fresh and bright new room
I am so very pleased with how this bedroom has transformed. We managed to remove all the clutter from the sides of the bedroom by creating better storage solutions with the new furniture around the room and in the wardrobe. Leigh wanted a bright and colourful new room, and a place that she could relax in. This is such a fresh new sanctuary for her!
We added a few little frames to put photos of her foster kids in, and candles because we all love a little candlelight in the evenings.
Some beautifully comfortable cushions to lounge on while watching TV.
Can’t go past a cute little milk bottle filled with some perfectly purple tulips
This room has turned out amazing and Leigh was beyond grateful for her new little space. Thank you again to Kia for allowing me to make a difference for this very deserving mum.
Stockists
Quilt cover – Kas Ingrid – Myer
Yellow Bedside Tables – Stockholm – Ikea
Home Binder – The Organised Housewife
Pink Box – Tjena – Ikea
Coat hangers – Flocked Hangers – Howards Storage World
Clear Storage Boxes – Samla – Ikea
Shoe tubs – Flex Tub – Howards Storage World
Frames – Borders Frames – Bed Bath N Table
Candle – Dagligen – Ikea
Storage baskets – Cadi – Howards Storage World
Clothes Hamper – Tubtrug – Howards Storage World
Milk Bottle, tulips and sequin cushion from 2garnish.com.au at Logan Mega Centre
Orange Cushion – Gurli – Ikea
