‘We’re two mums bring-ing up our baby boy in

Clara’s mum’s loft. We’re not your average family in your average home, but if my nan can raise two

sons in a tiny caravan, we can make it work in our

little loft’ Kirsty

U K‘ I t ’ s a m a z i n g h o w m u c h yo u r h o m e a f f e c t s h o w c l o s e

y o u f e e l a s a f a m i l y ’ C l a r a

Kirsty and Clara live in the loft conversion of Clara’s mother’s house. They have to make their small space work hard: it’s simultaneously a bedroom, living room, office and nursery for their one-year-old son Isaac. Isaac is growing fast, so the space has to adapt easily. live interior designer Pernilla Warnhammar visited the family and together they made small changes to help them enjoy time together in their home even more.

Clara (far right): We love a minimal style with lots of storage and no clutter. It suits this space. And, with a young child, it’s important for safety reasons – Isaac is discovering the world through his mouth, everything goes in there! Our son is our life so we fill our home with things that make him happy. When we moved out of our studio flat and in with my mum, we had to give away a lot of our furniture. We were left with a mishmash of white and pine. Now Isaac needs a new cot so we’re working on getting rid of the old pine one and buying white products. I

love matching furniture! I would like to bring more colour to the loft. I have an image of a beautiful bright wall sticker… Kirsty: Becoming parents affected our relationship. Before you have a baby it’s just about the other person. When that changes it can be tough. Starting our blog (www.mytwomums.com) has helped. Not many people know about same-sex families – we wanted to show them our life is not that different. And to be honest about how hard it can be to raise kids. No one talks about it! People say: ‘Parenting’s great! I just baked a cake this morning…’ and you’re there at home saying: ‘Are you serious? I didn’t even change my underwear last week!’ Living here has brought us closer together. You don’t need an abundance of space to raise a child. But we are looking forward to working with Pernilla to find a few ideas that will make better use of our space.

PhO

tOg

rAPh

Y A

DR

IAN

BR

ISC

OE StY

LIN

g P

ER

NIL

LA W

AR

NH

AM

MA

R W

Ord

S M

IRA

ND

A T

HO

MP

SO

N

l i v e f r o m I K E A FA M I LY00

‘Making a home work isn’t about the amount of space you have, but what you do with it. I grew up with eight brothers and sisters and learned early on to squeeze the most out of my small corner of home! I wanted to show Kirsty and Clara how easy it can be to make a room work better just by rearranging the furniture, then adding a few new pieces. these simple ideas can be used to cre-ate space in any home…’1. Invest in multi-functional pieces ‘Isaac’s cot doubles as storage for his clothes with its built-in drawers. his bench has space in the seat to store toys.’ 2. Put storage inside stor-age ‘Boxes in cupboards and on shelves make it easier to neatly store a mix of things together.’3. Use ‘dead’ space… ‘Under beds, over doors and the side of bookcases can be used for shelv-ing, boxes and hooks.’ 4. … And use your walls ‘Keep floors and tables clear by wall-mounting rails and cupboards.’

Great ideas for small spaces from live stylist Pernilla Warnhammar

4

One room, many uses‘In a small, open space, zoning helps,’ says Pernilla. ‘Be guided by what each area is used for. We wanted Isaac’s sleep area to feel safe so we added a canopy. try simple ideas: curtains for privacy, mixed lighting, rugs that define different zones.’

Introduce colour without paint‘Adding colour was important to Kirsty and Clara but we didn’t want to paint as Kirsty has asthma. People forget textiles are a quick, easy, affordable way to make a space colourful.’

Fit your storage to your space‘Kirsty and Clara had one BILLY. I slotted another slim model in the narrow wall space by the door. And I wall-mounted kitchen units, with a child safety lock added, to create wardrobe space along the lowest part of the wall.’

Room to be together‘We smartened Kirsty’s work-space by adding a task light, tidying the cables and adding an armchair (they used to have one chair and one beanbag). Now Kirsty can blog while Clara watches tV and Isaac sleeps.’

turn the page to see what to buy

r e t h i n k i n g o u r s m a l l s p a c er e t h i n k i n g o u r s m a l l s p a c e

l i v e f r o m I K E A FA M I LY 00r e a d m o r e a b o u t k i r s t y a n d c l a r a w w w. m y t w o m u m s . c o m00

r e t h i n k i n g o u r s m a l l s p a c e

It’s better than we could have imagined‘It’s amazing to see what you can fit into a small space – every-thing we need fits in here now. Working with Pernilla was great – she helped us build on our ideas to make this space even better. We had thought of buying some cupboards but we never considered adding storage inside. All this good, basic storage has made our room feel more spa-cious. Everything has somewhere to go now. And it’s storage we can grow into, it’s not stuffed full. Maybe Isaac will learn to help us with tidying up, too!’

‘To us home means family.

Rethinking ours has made us

closer’

Here’s what we did…

… SO EVErYthINg hAS A PLACE tO gO

● FAKTUM wall cabinet 60x70 härlig

white [998-439-21] €xx Kitchen

cabinets fit well in smaller spaces. Fix

them to the wall and add child-safety

locks

● SKUBB shoe box 22x34x16cm

turquoise [502-434-78] €xx/4pcs

Organise inside your storage

● STUVA cot with drawers 60x120cm

white/green [090-037-92] €xx this

cot grows with your child and has

built-in storage

● IKEA PS 2012 coffee table

70x42cm dark turquoise [902-084-49]

€xx Only use this as a tV bench if you

have a small, lightweight tV. Its shelf

provides extra storage space

● BILLY bookcase 40x28x202cm

white [400-857-14] €xx the BILLY

system has bookcases of different

dimensions to fit in awkward spaces

… tO CrEAtE zONES

● GULÖRT rug low pile 133x195cm

multicolour [802-501-89] €xx A soft

rug makes floor play comfortable

● STOCKHOLM rug low pile

170x240cm green [802-394-13] €xx

… tO MAKE EVErYONE FEEL At hOME

● IKEA PS 2012 LEd wall lamp white

[402-077-77] €xx this space-saving

light folds away when not in use and

provides good task lighting

● PATRULL corner bumper white

[901-150-92] €xx/8pk FAMILY

mamber price €xx With these, it’s safe

for Isaac to enjoy the whole room

● MELLBY armchair dansbo yellow-

green [998-943-93] €xx A cosy chair,

with washable covers, to relax in

gO IN StOrEthink big! 100s of smart, surpris-ing and stylish small-space ideas

l i v e f r o m I K E A FA M I LY00