Lovingly created by Erin in London, UK, Too Many Pjs is a gem of a small business with an array of modern handcrafted patchwork products in their Etsy shop.
Erin’s background is textile design and she’s worked freelance for the likes of Roland Mouret, Joseph and Alexander McQueen so she knows a thing or two!
After the birth of her first child, Erin made a playmat using some of the fabrics she had designed and Too Many PJs was born after so many of her friends started asking for their own version.
Erin believes wholeheartedly in making sure her products are of the finest quality whilst marrying a contemporary design concept, and textures and colours that will appeal to the whole family.
The mix of print, texture and colour is perfect for stimulating and delighting babies, so the patchwork playmates are a fantastic alternative to the garish ones from the high street.
Erin also handprints canvas and creates minimalist styled cushions and play blocks which are created in her studio. The play blocks are created with lowercase letters and have sides of textured material which are ideal for little ones and the cushions are sold in patchwork style or as a clean minimal design shown above.
Too Many PJs can be found at www.toomanypjs.com which links to their Etsy shop where you can view and purchase the range.
When we got a message from the lovely people at sebandcharliedesign we were instant fans. They are doing something mega great which is launching their ‘ Let’s play sleeping lions’ print, and £10 from every sale goes to either the NSPCC or WWF depending on your preference and its limited edition, just 50 available so it’s not going to be about for long.
The Scandi styling of the print is instantly compatible with our kids room, is completely gender neutral and features plenty of colour to keep the children happy. It’s beautifully printed onto a high quality thick linen card and is standard 50x70cm poster size- we just used a white IKEA frame, but you can also order the print pre-framed to make things easy.
Print by Seb + Charlie, Wall hanging by Penny Clare Makes, Star light by Gingerrock Designs, Elephant from Mini Eden UK, Rug by OY OY at Monkey Mcoy, Yellow blanket by Mama Designs, Bedding from Beau Loves, room accessories from a selection at Molly Meg, Retrokids.com, and Scout and Co. Kids, Toadstool light ‘Bubble’ by Tulipop World.
We are doing our first drop of superhero goodies into our new webshop later today. Our bestselling postcards, storm clouds, monochrome drops and Superhero garlands will finally be in stock (probably not for long!)
I’ve bribed my smallest boy to help me show our monochrome collection off- luckily he was decked in one of his Beau Loves outfits which was ideal! (We can’t wait for the new collection).
The Superhero garland was one of my very first products, two years ago. Back then it was really tricky to find monochrome kids room accessories so I decided to make my own.. which turned into this business.
Making a kids space that brings joy to children and adults alike can be tricky, but by keeping walls and flooring clean and neutral you can add pops of colour and fun accessories.
Our Ferm living tent is well loved and a few years old now, but the kids still enjoy playing in it. We’ve adorned ours with our monochrome droplet garland, and added a Mini Willa poster and Superhero garland to break up our grey walls.
We’ve added pops of bright yellow which works so well with grey and monochrome with a Mama Designs blanket and a yellow lightning bolt light from Ivy Cabin.
‘ Oh please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookshelf on wall.’ – Roald Dahl.
Ok, so we have to compromise, and we do have a TV, but books are a massive part of the boy’s childhood.
I’ve always been passionate about finding beautiful books, with elements of design which marry with entertaining and spell binding content.
I was brought up with some beautiful books which I still treasure, and I wanted my children to also learn the joy of reading, listening, and allowing their imagination to take them to magical places.
Fortunately we stumbled across Smallprint books through Instagram. I’m a fierce advocate of ‘Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself’ – George Bernard Shaw. As we believe fiercely in marrying great design with delighting children, Smallprint Books has exactly the same ethos.
The website is easy to navigate, and we found the age appropriate sections particularly helpful.
Each of the titles on our bookshelves can be found at smallprint books.Books are easy to chose based on clear pictures and descriptions and one of our first (and most treasured books by Felix) was Pierre and the Maze Detective by Hiro Kamigaki + IC4Design. The book features 15 full spread intricate illustrations of intricate, magical mazes. It keeps Felix fascinated for ages and he loves discovering things when he sits and reads it with his dad.
We love it so much that we’ve also bought it as a gift for one of our friends. Smallprint (very convieniently) offer a gift wrap service which made it easy as we were on holiday when I needed a present fix!
Recently, we ordered a couple of new books and were sent Mamoko which is a different concept for a kids book- which has gone down an absolute storm.
Mamoko is a book without words, where the reader (generally my five year old) becomes the story teller. At the beginning of the book, there is a description of all the characters which can be spotted and followed on each page, each doing funny or nutty things.
Felix absolutely loves choosing a character to follow and making up his own version of what they are up to. As a parent I love hearing his stories and seeing how absorbed he is when he’s looking at the beautiful and bright illustrations.
It’s a hit with my husband too and they both enjoy looking at it together and choosing their favourite character to follow (there’s a whole page full so always someone or something new to follow or find).
It’s even popular with my two year old who loves flicking through the thick pages and looking at all the illustrations!
All of the books you see on our white shelves in the boy’s room are available from Smallprint online and there’s a 10% discount when you sign up for their newsletter.
Visit smallprint-online.com to take a look and discover some magical books your children (and you) won’t want to put down.
Our new cloud garland in Liberty Poppy and daisy print hung on grey ribbon with gold blanket stitch
Liberty prints are heavily influencing the world of children’s clothing and interiors, so
I wanted to bring you my round up of all the Liberty print finds in kids design. Classic Liberty print is reaching all facets of children’s interiors and clothing and I can see no sign of this trend abating. Mixing Liberty print with other natural materials such as linen and pure wool is ideal for creating a classic, timeless children’s comfort space.
Liberty Emma and Georgina print eiderdown. From The Tipi £47. 65×95 cm and backed with cotton percale
I have found beautiful bedding from Coco and Wolf and also a high street buy from La Redoute. Both look best teamed with different textures and layers, rather than ‘matchy matchy’. Coco and Wolf with Little B have some beautiful swan cushions and pillowcases so if you just wanted to update existing bedding with a few touches of print, then this would work really well. Also notable from Coco and Wolf with little B are the changing mat covers In a choice of fabrics.
Swan cushion from the Little B range by Coco and Wolf.Liberty Print bedset from La Redoute
Other innovative ways to bring a touch of print to your nursery or children’s interior are the lovely name wire signs from Little Cloud. These pretty name signs would look adorable hung above a bed head or on a shelf. I’m going to treat the baby to one nearer the time. Also from Little Cloud are the lovely moon wall hangings, they would look perfect in a child’s room with one of our Liberty collection garlands, it’s perfect to mix and match prints as long as the base colours are soft and neutral.
Little Cloud also have a great range of cushions, hair clips and crowns by the amazing Fable Heart and delivery is free within the U.K.
Pretty Moon wall hanging by Little Cloudlovely Liberty name signs from Little CloudVelveteen Babies Betsy Cloud garland. The raffia bag is from The Tipi and all moccasins throughout are by Wolfie and Willow.
I’ve also fallen in love with many small businesses producing the most lovely Liberty print baby clothing.
My most recent find is Olivier Baby who have a sweet selection of rompers, bloomers, dresses and tops in a choice of prints and linens with accessories such as ribbed tights and knitted bonnets to complement the range. They have a flash sale on some of the range so take a peek!
with a huge range of beautifully made children’s clothing encapsulating the very best of the Liberty print range.
We love the little bloomers and tie top summer suits, perfect for older babies with plenty of leg rolls!
Coco and Wolf bloomersBetsy romper £42 Coco and Wolf
Bonnets are also crucial to Bebe styling too. I’ve already bought a smal stash from Briar Handmade (from Mama Owl in the U.K) and they come in a wide range of colours, prints and sizes to suit all little heads.
Briar Handmade Bonnets
Also noteworthy are the sweet bonnets and appliqué baby vests and T-shirts from Magnificent Stanley. This UK small business is run by Becky who handcrafts each item from her studio in Lewes, East Sussex.
bonnets and tees from Magnificent Stanley
Finally, for a seriously budget friendly take on Liberty print, head to Uniqlo where they have a limited edition Liberty X Uniqlo collection. Girls dresses are from £9.90 and double baby vest sets just £7.90. There are styles for both sexes and also a women’s collection.
Liberty X Uniqlo baby vests
Below you’ll find a few more preview pictures of our new Velveteen Babies does Liberty collection. The garland styles will also be available in the other prints, and will launch in my Etsy shop on the 30th July. There will be limited quantities of each design and print so keep an eye out for our launch announcement.
Velveteen Babies does Liberty Poppy and Daisy bunny garland . Bunnies have gold thread french knot eyes and are blanket stitched round inanyique gold thread.Velveteen Babies does Liberty Betsy Star garlandVelveteen Babies does Liberty Poppy and Daisy cloud garlandVelveteen Babies does Liberty Betsy cloud garlandVelveteen Babies does Liberty Betsy drops garland.
I wanted to make night feeds as easy as possible with our baby number three when she arrives, because I won’t have the luxury of lazy pajama mornings this time, the school run simply won’t run itself come September sadly.
With this in mind, I decided to forgoe the usual Moses basket purchase and treat myself to a beautiful Snüzpod. I’d read up on reviews and weighed it up against the Chicco Next to Me which is marginally cheaper, but in my opinion the Snüz came up top. I also wanted something that I could fit my other indulgence in, a ‘Sleepyhead‘ which I ordered from John Lewis.
Our Snüzpod and our baby girl colour scheme.
I’ve personally chosen muted pastels with grey and cream highlights for our own arrival.
To fit our grey and blush theme, I have added cushions from The Velvet Egg and Fine Little Day. These compliment my blanket stash from Mama Designs (grey) and the beautiful swan playmat/quilt by Cam Cam Copenhagen which I purchased from The Tipi. It’s backed with softest fine corduroy and is so lovely.
Also from The Tipi is this beautiful woven basket bag, which I will use to store nappies and wipes in our bedroom. I’ve added a little donkey rattle from Roxy Marj (they come as a pack of two, one blush, one black) and I’ll eventually tie them onto the Snüzpod.
Essential Muslins come in the prettiest muted nudes and pinks again from Cam Cam Copenhagen from Mama Owl (they also do lovely greys and mints).
Our sweet wooden pram and dollies are by Pinch Toys which we usually have displayed on our String shelves at home.
I eventually plan to introduce touches of Liberty print and I’m secretly working on some new garlands using pops of Liberty print for Velveteen Babies.
The garland in the pictures will be going to it’s new home this week, it was a custom order for someone else.
Whilst my theme is quite feminine, I also wanted to style our Snüzpod in some different ways so that you can get some styling ideas and inspiration, if you are expecting and don’t know the sex then the following ideas are completely gender neutral.
To bring something bright and beautiful, this theme relies on white and grey as a base colour for a nursery. It’s crucial to tone down bright colour pops so it doesn’t become too intense or messy.
Our rainbow garland becomes a crucial backdrop to tie in grey clouds and a bright splash of colour.
We’ve used bright bedding from Mama Designs and a mono cloud cushion from Farg Form at This Modern Life.
Our star light is from Gingerrock Designs on Etsy and rainbow suitcase from retrokids.com.
Add a fun nightlight such as this one by Heico from decobaby.co.uk and our fun little Velveteen Babies stormcloud is lovely to hang from a doorknob or a hook on the wall.
Finally, for the purists and lovers of monochrome, I’ve put together a genderless scheme that is easy to achieve.
You could add pops of colour or a highlight colour (mint would work well) to this scheme.
We love the big swaddle Muslins from Modern Burlap at This Modern Life, and have used ours as a sheet (though they have just introduced fitted sheets to their range).
Life with kids, it’s busy, and frantic and there’s nothing worse than tackling toy mountain at the end of a busy day. Quite frankly, tackling a pile of Duplo is an uphill struggle.
This week our prayers were answered with an arrival from Playpouch UK.
These fabulous cotton playbags blend style with practicality. Easy enough for my two year old to undo and open, and refill and close, tidy up time suddenly became much more bearable.
Playpouch is visually friendly enough to have displayed around the house and is roomy enough to store a serious amount of toy clutter. We chose the scandi style monochrome crosses and there are plenty of other options too to suit every home.
Playpouch has been brought to the UK from Australia by a forward thinking family who understand the trauma of keeping control of clutter, and making storage look stylish. The mantra is ‘Maximum Play, minimum mess’. This site pretty perfectly with our life as a busy family.
Playpouch is made from strong cotton canvas and is sturdy enough to hold heavier toys too, though it’s also ideal as an innovative way of storing the dreaded Lego collection. Our kids love the zipped pouch at the front for treasures, or Lego instruction books.
Find your own Playpouch here and as a special indroduction, get yourself free postage by using special voucher code : VELVETEEN
Storing toys has never looked so good, and tidy time has never been so speedy!
Always a massive theme in summer, icecreams are prevalent in kids interior style in many different guises. I’ve put together this post all about sourcing the very best Icecream play things and interior accessories to swoon over, both kiddo and adult friendly.
we made our own icecream parlour
One rainy Sunday, I created a make believe Icecream parlour for my boys. We just used our simple metal Normann Copenhagen trolley (I found ours via Bodie + Fou shop) and strung it up with our cotton ball lights in pastel colours.
A while back we had visited a pop up cafe where there were some fun wooden icecreams, so I tracked them down. Ours are by Melissa and Doug and proved very popular with the boys. We just googled it and found them for around £20 online.
Our Icecream toy set
I’ve also come across some equally gorgeous Icecream toys that are sure to spark your small people’s imaginations, from foldable paper icecream kits from Moon Picnic at £15 which would be a fun rainy day activity but perhaps for older children who are a bit more careful! These, once made up would be fun to string up in a bundle on some fishing wire in a corner, or add a couple to a stylish shelf display. Moon Picnic paper Icecreams Also coveted is the most beautiful wooden set by Nobodinoz at Molly-Meg which at £60 is more of an investment but it is stylish and extremely design led.
Nobodinoz Icecream set
Icecreams are also prevalent in the world of kidsinterior and are fun to mix and match a couple of pieces to add some flair to a kids bedroom, especially when combined with white walls or floor and some pops of colour and texture. The key is not to go overboard, just add a combination of a few Icecream themed products and then dot in other pastel toys and accessories.
Velveteen Babies Icecream garlandA Little Lovely Company Nightlight
We love these fun battery operated night lights by A Little Lovely Company from just £11.50 at retrokids.com
Felix and Barnaby’s Icecream CornerIcecreamy bedding from Bluezoo at Debenhams
We found this pastel Icecream bedding via Debenhams and prices start from a bargainous £22 for a single set. As there’s so much going on with this pattern, I’d suggest you keep walls and flooring light and simple and perhaps add a plain knit/quilted throw in a more luxe material strewn over the bed to tone it down.
This cheeky chappy is by Colette Bream
I adore this cushion by Colette Bream, it’s firmly on my own personal wish list as its so sweet and not too sickly. Colette has a beautiful Etsy shop full of characters, and selected styles including this one are also available through Scandimini in the UK.
Wanting to update existing bedding or add some pastel flair to your pushchair (and have a conversation starter as people admire your pram blanket) ? Then these knitted blankets by Woouf at This Modern Life at £49 are extremely covetable and come in some varied colour ways.
woouf blankets at This Modern Life
The perfect prints for any pastel Icecream inspired room are from Wonder and Rah. They blend Icecream sweetness with a dash of Scandi styled monochrome and look great in frames or in wood picture holders (as seen in the background of our Icecream parlour pictures).
wonderful capture of our icecream garland and print by Wonder and Rah by LaLaLoves Decor.
Finally, I couldn’t resist adding in this cute print by Milk Moustache Apparel and these sweet baby shoes by Kirsty Doyle. Vests start at £13 and come in this pink colourway or in mint and the little shoes start at £22.
Milk Moustache Apparel baby vestBaby Shoes by Kirsty Doyle
A top tip for an Icecream themed room or a sweet nursery is to use your baby shoes as a shelf ornament. Not only would these shoes look very lovely on, they would also be perfect sat together on a wooden shelf with other wood and pastel accessories and one of our garlands strung nearby. The shelf capture below makes perfect use of our Icecream garland and beautiful prints from Wonder and Rah.
How we love quality baby products with style at Velveteen Babies.
These Petit Mai Mocs are our latest baby indulgence and we are in love. Clever mama Anne Tu Quoc creates these beautiful pieces, inspired by her son Lenox.
Each pair are crafted from vegetable tanned soft leather, which is chrome and allergen free. We love the bright pink soles on our Bon Bon style Mocs which are adorned with cute pom poms and the matching soother clip.
I’ve long been a big fan of the beautiful Up! Warsaw products and was so excited to discover a UK stockist recently. Stocked at emiandnell.co.uk its even easier to treat your small people spaces to something so magically crafted.
Up! Warsaw is a small family business that creates ecological, non toxic products for kids rooms. They work only with materials that are appropriate for kids, everything is handmade and they only use non toxic water based colours when painting the detail.
We received the most lovely delivery comprising of a mini TV box in wood finish £32 and the mini circus box in white £32. It was impossible to choose as there are so many lovely colours, mints, whites and wood finishes for a more pared down look, or bright reds and yellows for a rainbow theme.
We love how they display so beautifully with our garlands, and how stylish yet fun the whole collection is, which sits perfectly with our own design aesthetic.
There are no limits to imagination
We styled our Up! Warsaw goodies with some of our Sonny Angel collection (mainly from retrokids.com ) and our Schleich baby animals for a circus theme.
My children were enchanted from opening the box, and my son Felix was so keen to play with them. The quality is just incredible, as a craftsperson myself I was truly impressed by the care and attention to detail. They would make a really beautiful gift for any child.
Circus Circus!
We loved teaming the circus tent with our handmade mini arrow marquee light from Gingerrock designs. I created the little posters resizing images and printing them out which I then blutacked onto the back.
We also loved teaming our Up! Warsaw pieces with these rainbow cases we sourced from retrokids.com which are just perfect as both fun room accessories and also as a plaything.
The beauty of the products is that they are enough to be a style feature on their own, or you can let your kids imagination take hold and use them as both plaything and as a room accessory. They bridge the gap between stylish living and also fun for kids so perfectly.
For the minimalist
For a monochrome scheme we used our mini TV with some ninja peg dolls from Made by Layla and a globe from Cissywears which shows the versatility, it doesn’t always have to be about loud bright styling when thinking about decorations for a kids room.
Find Up! Warsaw products from £32 at www.emiandnell.co.uk and buy your own magic imaginarium.
