A Superhero Bedroom!

Before we moved into The Heathers, we knew we could have quite a lot to do decorating-wise. I think wherever you move to, no matter how 'perfect' the house is, there will always be that urge to put your own stamp on it - to make it your own. We knew right from the start there wasn't a single room we wouldn't want to change. That's not to say the house wasn't already lovely to start with (it absolutely was) but things just weren't done to our taste. Because we didn't have the budget to do everything straight after moving in, we decided to prioritise those rooms we wanted to change the most first. Plus, to me it doesn't really make sense to decorate a whole load of rooms at the same time - they'll all need doing again at exactly the same point anyway and, as much as I enjoy decorating, I don't quite fancy spending an entire year doing it, as it has seemed since we moved in!

The children's bedrooms and playroom were the priority for us, as these rooms would house most of the huge number of toys we'd managed to accumulate over the last five years. What annoyed me most about our old house was the lack of storage space and the fact that the children's stuff literally took over every room. So we figured if we found a home for all the children's belongings first then we'd easily be able to crack organising the living spaces and make them free from clutter. That was the plan anyway.

We have started the process of decorating both children's rooms and have done the large majority of the decorating. So now we're just down to the nitty-gritty as to the furniture and accessories we want to buy. Tommy is superhero-mad at the moment so we have opted for a Marvel-themed bedroom.  Although we're going along with a theme, we'd also like to incorporate some of his other interests too  - like his passion for Lego and his cars.

Spider-Man is probably Tommy's favourite Superhero character, so with that in mind we've chosen a Spider-Man mural wallpaper for one of his walls (middle right). This one is by Walltastic purchased through Amazon. It was reasonably-priced, surprisingly easy to paste onto the wall and definitely gives his bedroom the wow factor!

To match this, we've bought a stripy rug from Dunelm (top left), a Spider-Man duvet set from Home Bargains, which was something ridiculous like £10 and I've also got my eye on a small circular rug (top middle) to go near Tommy's bed. We also intend to decorate the remaining walls of Tommy's room with a few Spider-Man wall stickers (bottom middle).

We have a ridiculous amount of Lego in our house already and I can only see it increasing, so high on my list was some kind of storage system for his Lego - those pesky little pieces just wind up everywhere, don't they?! So we've ordered some Lego brick storage boxes which are so handy, come in different sizes and slot together like real Lego pieces. I've begun organising Tommy's Lego and putting individual sets into plastic zip-loc bags and hopefully this will avoid the seemingly-inevitable 'mixed up box of Lego where you cannot for the life in you find the tiny little piece you need to complete a model.' Every. Time. That's the theory, anyway.

I never used to be a fan of IKEA (the nearest one is about 100 miles away from where we live) so  I've never really considered it as an option as a place to even browse for furniture and (at the risk of sounding snobbish) I always dismissed it as cheap, poorly-made tat. However, we've bought quite a few pieces from IKEA recently and I've been so impressed with everything, both in terms of its quality and price. We found these white storage boxes (bottom right), which are part of the STUVA children's range and they are brilliant for storing the children's bulkier toys. The draw pulls out from underneath on wheels which is a great additional bonus.

As for the remaining furniture we need for Tommy's room, I think this will have to evolve more over time as opposed to us thinking getting everything at this stage. In the very near future Tommy will probably be needing a desk or table to do his schoolwork on. I love this desk and pinboard from GLTC (middle), which will be big enough to see Tommy through at least a few years but isn't bulky enough to take up too much space in his room.

I would like some sort of dressing up corner in Tommy's bedroom, as he loves nothing more than to don his Superhero costumes. I found a lady who makes personalised signs (you can find her here) and something like this Superhero sign would be just perfect. We will also need to consider how we are going to display Tommy's Lego models and car collection. There will also be a dedicated space for some sort of bookshelf/book display too.

I can't wait to see all of my ideas come to fruition - I'll keep you posted and show you the finished room once it's finally completed. Best get cracking!