shared spaces

Making combined rooms work takes work!

Just like in our everyday life, multitasking is becoming the norm of our homes - there never seems to be enough space for all our... stuff... so we have to double up. Guest room and study, home office in the living room, garage slash rumpus room, craft room and laundry... My own home has a combined guest room/living area/Steve's study; cabin and junk room; and as you all well know, combined master bedroom/nursery. It's sometimes hard to figure out how to make these rooms look decent when they're home to sometimes two entirely different things. And I don't even really have a solution for you - just some inspiration from two clever women I know who've combined their rooms. One tip I do have: keep the decor scheme relatively simple so as not to clutter an already busy room.

Natalie's nursery and office
First up, congrats to Nat, real living's deputy editor and author of Daily Imprint blog, and her hubby Daniel on the birth of their son Charles on Monday! Here is a sneak peak of his stylish nursery - Nat has a real knack for combining modern and vintage pieces. I wish I could do that!

Little Charles' corner of the room

Amy's bedroom, living room and office
Amy is real living's intern and we featured her rather large room at her family home on our website this month. Living at home, she managed to cram sleeping, working and relaxing zones into the one room through clever furniture placement and a simple, soothing colour palette. You can also see more pics on Deb's blog.

Amy's "bedroom" is separated from her office and living area with an open shelving unit that acts as a room divider. The openess of it allows the light to flow through.

My bedroom and nursery
Just in case you haven't seen it enough (!), Ohdeedoh featured my room as a nursery tour the day I went into labour! You can read the feature about how I did it and see a few more pics here.

So weird seeing your own home on someone else's website!!