FUTURE PROOFING YOUR TODDLERS BEDROOM FURNITURE

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We’ve been in our house almost one year now. We decorated Otis’ bedroom before we moved in, and I designed it around the furniture which we already had, however these odd bits of furniture already feel out grown and aren’t working for my now three and a half year olds needs.

After all, we still had a baby changing table with some small drawers below and the smallest miss-matched cupboard that even a now three year olds clothes couldn’t fit in.

Let’s face it, babies don’t need wardrobes. They need drawers for all their jersey baby grows and a place to easily access nappies whilst changing your small person. But three year olds don’t wear nappies, let alone sit still for long enough to be changed, and now our three year old has started at a school nursery, which means he needs to wear a uniform which you guessed it; means he needs a wardrobe.

So we made the decision, it was time to get Otis a new wardrobe and a matching set of grown up drawers.

BEFORE

Only problem, where to start on my search for the perfect child friendly furniture which will stand him the test of time and, (hopefully) take Otis into his teenage/ adult years - now theres a scary thought.

I came across Furniture Village online, and coincidentally discovered that I had a branch close by so I could pop in and view the furniture in real life.

This is where I discovered that Furniture Village sell Ercol furniture. Yes ERCOL! That famous Mid Century brand which has been going for over 100 years, and is normally too expensive and out of my league. It’s still the same beautifully crafted pieces in solid oak with oak veneers and this was where I first laid eyes on the Ercol Rimini collection.

The Rimini collection is a serenely understated, superbly elegant contemporary bedroom collection from Ercol. Each piece is crafted from solid oak with light oak veneers. The cabinets have roomy drawers with distinctive sculpted cut-out handles and soft curved corners. So, no having to worry about your child catching themselves on a sharp corner, or you for that matter.

Now that I had narrowed it down to the Rimini Collection, I just had to choose which pieces I wanted as the Rimini collection is pretty vast. I’ve included a few of my favourite pieces below.

THE ERCOL RIMINI COLLECTION

AT FURNITURE VILLAGE

Ercol Rimini 4 Drawer Low Wide Chest

Ercol Rimini 2 Door Wardrobe

Ercol Rimini 6 Drawer Tall Wide Chest

Ercol Rimini 6 Drawer Tall Chest

Ercol Rimini 3 Drawer Bedside Cabinet

Ercol Rimini Compact Bedside Cabinet

I decided on the Ercol Rimini 2 Door Wardrobe and 4 Drawer Low Wide Chest to match as they fitted into the space in Otis’ room perfectly, and I loved the idea of being able to display some of his toys on top of the, and is its low, he can reach them.

Getting new furniture also gave me the motivation to tidy up his drawers and donate clothes which no longer fitted, whilst organising his crisp new uniform, which takes pride of place in the wardrobe.

Ercol Rimini 2 Door Wardrobe and the Rimini 4 Drawer Low Wide Chest from Furniture Village

The Ercol Rimini 4 Drawer Low Wide Chest from Furniture Village

Ercol Rimini 2 Door Wardrobe from Furniture Village

The Ercol Rimini 4 Drawer Low Wide Chest from Furniture Village

I’m delighted with Otis’ new bedroom furniture. The fact that these pieces match, make his room feel so much more tidier. The quality of both the wardrobe and chest of drawers really is outstanding. You can feel the quality every time we open the wardrobe door or drawer.

These pieces have future proofed us, and so long as Otis doesn’t cover them in any stickers (stickers will be banned upstairs), they should last him until his adult years. They’re also a timeless classic design, so should easily go with any room design should we re decorate in here for Otis.

I’d love to know what you think of his new bedroom furniture?

CREATING A TODDLER FUN GARDEN WITH WICKEY

We are well and truly locked down for the foreseeable future over here in the UK in Lockdown 0.3. So, having to keep an extremely energetic, full of beans 2.5 year old stimulated and making sure he gets exercise, spending plenty of time outdoors in the fresh air is a challenge. But a challenge is there to be met and knocked out of the park right?

Thanks to our friends over at Wickey, that challenge is no longer as challenging and life in lockdown with an energetic toddler is making us feel like we’re smashing this lockdown parenting lark- and its all thanks to a treasure island / pirate ship inspired adventure climbing frame, also known as the Wickey MultiFlyer with Wooden roof.

The Wickey MultifFyer climbing frame with wooden roof in our garden.

We as a family have decided to keep a wide berth from the local playgrounds and play areas as much as possible and I know in some parts of the UK, recreation play areas have been closed to the public. We are fortunate that our house came with a fair sized garden and outside space enabling us to have a designated, safe area for Otis to play. It took some imagination and picture building to get there but we have come up with a flat space of lawn that accommodates a play area for him to play and run about in. This is in stark contrast to the day we completed on the house. The garden area was more like a deep dark woodland area. The garden had been left to its own devices for a long period of time and was not a usable space at all. We loved the appeal of the woodland and the environment it created was beautiful. It was a picture perfect woodland landscape from the back of the house and it was home to the local wildlife. We fully intend to restore that woodland feel to the garden in the future, both my husband and I are committed to planting trees and foliage to encourage further wildlife back to the garden. At the moment it is all about practicality and necessity and the priority is for Otis to have somewhere he can play outside so he gets plenty of contact with nature, plenty of fresh air in his lungs and most importantly for me and the husband - that he runs, climbs, swings and slides about to his hearts content, gets tired and is happy and safe.

The Wickey MultifFyer climbing frame with wooden roof in our garden.

The Wickey MultiFlyer climbing frame with wooden roof

Weeeeee…. Otis on the Wickey MultifFyer climbing frame with wooden roof in our garden.

The play frame itself is aesthetically pleasing to the eye as kids play equipment goes. It’s made of pressure treated natural wood and Wickey provide a 10 – year guarantee on all of their wooden products and 2 – year guarantee on all of the fun accessories they create and come up with.

The Wickey MultifFyer comes with a red steering wheel (life in the fast lane), a little yellow telescope (so Otis can spot all the birds, squirrels and foxes that visit the garden), a climbing wall (inspiring Otis to be an outdoorsy type), a 220cm slide with a water connection (hello Summer fun), two swings - which will be super fun when we’re allowed to invite his friends over - or better yet, if we have another child for Otis to play with. It’s all about future proofing, right?

Climb it! "Otis climbing up the Wickey MultifFyer climbing frame with wooden roof in our garden.

It also also has a gorgeous wooden roof which is perfect for sheltering under if the weather turns, plus it gives Otis the feeling of being in a den and has even eaten his lunch up there, whilst he’s playing. What’s even better is Wickey offers a whole range of other cool accessories which you can mix and match and add to the climbing frame including different swing seats from baby to double swing seats, rope ladders, a bell, a mail box, or even a nest swing. You can mix and match as many accessories you want which will also enable the MultiFlyer climbing frame to grow with Otis as he gets older or adapt if our family gets bigger.

Bird Spotting: Otis using the telescope which comes with the Wickey MultifFyer climbing frame with wooden roof in our garden.

Otis’ favourite activity when we visit our local play area is the swing. Typically we spend the majority of our time either queuing up for the swing (we are still coming to grips with the nature of being patient), or sweet talking Otis to stand down from the swing and let another child have ago, usually resulting in him negotiating ‘another 5 minutes mummy.’ So the combo we plumped for from the Wickey Multiflyer range was ‘swing heavy’ - a double swing, tower, ladder, climbing wall, slide, steering wheel and telescope set up. He loves it. Even better my husband, who will be the first to admit isn’t a lover of building anything, not even a lego set – managed to assemble the climbing frame together with my help. It took us about 6 hours all in all with hubby leading the build- and we did not row once …. lol. The end result is Otis is happy, which means we are happy which means the family is happy and that is something certainly now more than ever we really appreciate and truly value. Thank you Wickey for helping us through lockdown parenting with a toddler at home.

Turn that wheel baby! Otis playing on the Wickey MultifFyer climbing frame with wooden roof in our garden.

Wickey kindly gifted us the MultiFlyer climbing frame with Wooden roof with no obligation to post. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own. I wouldn’t write about anything that I wouldn’t recommend. I can whole heartily say that this climbing frame has been a game changer for us and is helping us through lockdown and will continue to be a help with hours of safe and enjoyable entertainment. Do check out their other Swing and slide sets.