Freddie’s Bedroom – Fire Engine Bed

Hello there, and happy Thursday! Today I am going to do a little tour of Freddie’s vehicle-themed toddler bedroom, complete with fire engine bed! I was in two minds whether or not to post, as it does seem rather indulgent, you know, showing off one’s house, BUT  a.) I wanted a nice post for us to look back on as a family, and a little  ‘scrapbook’ of our house renovation and ‘doing up’ as we love it and worked very hard on it, and b.) I LOVE looking at interiors blogs/websites/Pintrest pins for inspiration, so thought others who also love interiors might like to look at this, who knows?!

Anyway, Freddie’s bedroom was the first one we completed after moving here two years ago, after the bulk of the ‘dirty’ building work elsewhere in the house was complete. It was in a grim state (think- lilac and rose pink hell, all tatty woodchip paper, rotting carpet and peeling borders), and we had to completely gut it and start again.

Whilst we don’t expect this room to last him forever, we wanted something that would at least take him from toddler through to finishing infant school, and I hope we’ve got the right balance here. We wanted a fun, bright room that reflects his personality and his interests (cars! trains! vehicles!), that is practical to play in, and with decent storage for his toys, games and books so they are easy to group and find. Oh, and also importantly, it had to be done on a relative budget.

I have linked where possible to where we bought items of note.

Please do come and have a look around!

This personalised door name plate was by ‘Giddy Kipper’ from Not On The High Street. They do some beautiful door signs with a huge range of designs on offer. We chose this one as it actually went with the ‘woodland’ theme in Freddie’s nursery at our old flat, so came with us to the new house. It doesn’t ‘go’ as such, but I do love it. We’ll probably ‘upgrade’ to a newer, more age appropriate one soon, but there’s no rush.

Freddie’s fire engine bed (above) is his pride and joy! I was so excited to get this for him when he turned two, although I totally underestimated how much time it would take to put together! I started off trying to assemble it whilst Adam was at work, despite him telling me not (yes, yes, you can say ‘I told you so’!), and with a baby and a toddler in tow. BIG mistake. I had to ring my fab Mother-in-law, and get her to come and watch the little ones, so I could spend another 3 hours (plus several broken nails and a LOT of swearing), finally getting the bloody thing in place.

It has a proper steering wheel in the cab (currently covered by stuffed animals), and Freddie and Sasha love pretending to be fire fighters on a daily basis! What’s good about this bed, is that it is a full sized single, so we only have to hopefully buy one mattress for the time being, rather than a separate toddler mattress first. The bed was purchased from Amazon, but i’ve just looked and they don’t appear to stock it at the moment. Which is shame, as I had it on my wish list, and using the Camel Camel price tracking website, waited until it had dropped over half price, from £300 to £130. There is no way i’d have paid full price for it! I’ve had a look, and you can buy it from THIS shop at the moment, but still worth keeping an eye on Amazon if you like it but want it cheaper, to see if they will stock it again.

Above, along the window-facing wall in Freddie’s room is some trusty ‘Trofast’ toy storage, from Ikea. I just don’t think you can go wrong with Swedish design, especially as far as children are concerned! This storage system comes in different colours, but we opted for  muted white drawers, as there is a lot else ‘going on’ in the room. As you can see, it houses F and S’ Happyland Town buildings on the top. The drawers contain miscellaneous plastic figures and finger puppets, wooden train track trains, farm animals, small cars and vehicles, Happyland people and accessories, ‘odd bits’/toys, plastic Thomas the Tank trains, wooden building blocks and dinosaurs. To the right of the Trofast is his wicker washing basket.

The wallpaper in the bedroom was a big hit with our little chap, but was quite a big decision style-wise! I was worried it would be a bit too much and very ‘busy’, so we kept it to just 3 of the walls. It actually looks ok, especially as all of our rooms have picture rails, and therefore a space of white between the wallpaper and ceiling. This was one of my bargain buys, and I found it HERE on Ebay. I feel that whilst it might not be for everyone, it really ‘makes’ this particular room. Will be a pain to get rid of though, once Freddie decides he’s outgrown it!

On the only plain wall above Freddie’s bed are some lovely fabric letters, spelling out his name. These were also from ‘Not on The High Street’. 

Above is Freddie’s ‘reading corner’ and book shelves. The shelves are from the Ikea ‘Billy’ range. The chair is nice to have, as he always likes to sit on our lap to read a bedtime story.

The Thomas the Tank Engine patchwork quilt was a Christmas present to Freddie from my Mum, and was made by a lady in Newcastle via her Etsy store. She did some amazing quilts, but I can no longer find her on there. There are lots of other lovely patchwork quilts on Etsy though, I could go mad! He loves this, and it has become a bit of a comfort blanket, and always comes out when we have a ‘sofa day’, or if he is sick.

Freddie, and now Sasha too, loves this ‘Rody’ bouncing horse. Again, this was a present from my Mum, but you can buy them from many online stores if you Google ‘Rody horse’, and I believe they do them in many different colours.

The main storage unit in the room is this big Ikea ‘Expedit’. Like the ‘Trofast’, we opted for muted colours (black) for the storage cubes. This has been a much-needed recent buy, as post-Christmas we were drowning in toys, despite having a good clear out! The cubes house LOTS of wooden train track, buildings and accessories, puzzles and games and sticklebricks, plus some books, a wooden Ark, and his Mega Scribbler. I love this storage as it really does hold a LOT of stuff.

On top of the unit is a retro Fisher Price farm (a charity shop find, again from my Mum!), an abacus, a Happyland pirate ship, and a cool Lava Lamp that we Freddie loves and uses as a night light. We purchased it for us him on a trip to The Science Museum, and he watches it blob up and down when he’s drifting off the sleep. I had the same one as a teenager, so it brings back happy memories!

On the walls near the window, are two framed football shirts from Daddy’s England debut in 2008! In truth, as much as I am proud of my fiance, they weren’t going to be going up anywhere else in the house anytime soon (sorry, but football shirts in frames scream ‘batchelor pad’), so Freddie’s room was a compromise. Only time will tell if Freddie is inspired or not to follow in his father’s footsteps, but these are fine here for the time being, and F loves talking about them!

Where flooring is concerned, we decided to rip up the rotting pink carpet, and sand and paint the floorboards white to brighten up the room. Now, as much as I love the look of floorboards, I don’t always think they’re practical in small people’s bedrooms, mainly for the scrabbling around on the floor factor, so we made sure there were some decent sized rugs taking up a lot of the central space. the car mat and green rug were both cheery bargains, again, from Ikea.

And finally…this hanging decoration is by Housley & Co, also from ‘Not on The High Street’. A precious memento from when Freddie was a baby, and something i’ll always hang on to, even when he doesn’t want it in his room anymore!

So there you have it…. Freddie’s bedroom!

What do you think? Do you love the fire engine bed? I hope you like it- he certainly does!

Becky x

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Becky

Meet the award-nominated UK lifestyle blogger behind Spirited Puddle Jumper – a mum of three living in South East London! Becky shares the real ups and downs of family life, parenting tips, and lifestyle inspiration, proving that being a mum doesn’t mean you stop being fun or having other interests! Follow along for honest insights into UK family life and opinions on a whole range of topics, from travel and food, to beauty reviews, home and DIY, business and health and wellness.