I’m shocked when I visit children’s decor stores around town, it’s the same old stuff! Blue for boys, pink for girls, cute hearts and sailing boats… really?

I think design should be shared and cultured from a young age. Sure, I impose my love of beautiful things on Nathan and I cringe a little when he bangs his lovely Donna Wilson Wolfie knitted toy against the wall, but he and I can enjoy its design together.

The rooms below exemplify examples of cultured design aesthetic. Children’s rooms need not be drab! Invigorate and stimulate through colour, texture AND form!

Images courtesy of Revolver

I love how the Bertoia diamond chair in the first image gets the typical styling of the lambs wool throw that we’ve seen a hundred times before on Eames Rockers.

Speaking of the Eameses, how adorable is the Eames Elephant in the second image? Not to mention the Normann Copenhagen Bau Pendant and also LOVING those Acapulco chairs!

Image courtesy of Dwell

I always come back to this room for inspiration. It’s Varpu’s room, styled and designed by her insanely talented Mom, Finnish stylist Susanne Vento.

I love the Eames Hang-it-All and the various illustrated postcards. It keeps reminding me that I have a collection of cards from Darling Clementine and Ingela Arrhenius that I need to hang in Nathan’s room!

Image courtesy of Zilverblauw

Lastly welcome to Wolf’s Attic. I love his Mom’s blog, the talented Anki of Zilverblauw. This attic room is great, love the wallpaper and Sammy Rose Good Morning Carl print from the lovely Dos Family duo. And that multi-coloured string pocket? Swoon!

So as I shared in this post, last week I had the pleasure of hosting stylist Helena Sheridan and Photographer Mareli Esterhuizen as part of their ‘In Your Space’ project.

These are a just a few of the amazing shots they took of my home.

Helena paid me a wonderful comment in her own post sharing:

My job as stylist was almost redundant as everything in his house seems to be perfectly curated and styled already. In a house where every item has a story and Matt can give interesting background on every piece we had lots of fun exploring the details and even getting in those much loved wide shots!

I don’t think it’s fair for me to take the credit, Helena moved things about into new and wonderful places and let’s not forget the wonderful Neil Stemmet, Lucas Adams, Lauren Fowler the The Wild Creative, all of whom had a part in curating the cado shelves.

I can’t thank both Mareli and Helena enough, it was great to open my home to them and to have them reciprocate through a mutual love of design & decor.

For more beautiful pics visit their gallery here: ‘In Your Space’

If your pins look anything like mine you’ll start to notice themes: a word, a title an image etc.

I tend to ‘pin now, savour later’ and find that even within these larger themes are sub themes, in today’s case, deer and antlers.

These pics represent ‘collections’ I enjoy, all of which have Bambi’s relatives in them.

Image courtesy of Creative Walls

Image courtesy of Rue Magazine and Real Simple

Image courtesy of A Noble Savage