If you receive our newsletter, you'll know already that we've been busy re-decorating recently. Not our kids' rooms this time, but our living room. And in case you haven't seen it, we thought we'd share a few pics.

You may be wondering what relevance this has to Bobby Rabbit… Well, the downstairs of our house has an open plan layout so that the kitchen, dining area and living room all merge into one. By day, the living room is a play room, reading room, relaxing (napping - if we are lucky!) on the sofa room and TV room all rolled into one. In other words, a family living space that belongs as much to our two little ones as it does to us. Come 7pm however, away go the toys and it becomes a place for my husband and I to relax and unwind together, more often than not with a glass of something nice and chilled. So, when re-creating our family living room, one of the most important considerations was to allow enough space for play during the day and enough space for us to relax in - away from the toys - in the evening.

The room itself isn't huge, but it's lovely and light with a large bay window overlooking the driveway. In keeping with the bright and airy feel to the room, we chose a neutral beige colour for the walls and accessorised the room with black, white and grey, and a beautiful shade of soft peachy pink as the main highlight colour. The result is a simple and co-ordinated backdrop that feels stylish and sophisticated, with an element of fun thanks to the addition of playful cushions (pictured above), wall art and other bits and pieces that our children love as much as we do. We knocked out the fire place and exposed the original brickwork. Given that the children are still small (and wood burners are somewhat of a hazard), we haven't put anything specific in there, although it has naturally become a fun little play space in itself - a cosy den, a dolls house, a parking lot for our little boy's collection of cars and vehicles... In other words, whatever their imagination dictates on the day.

With the fireplace being the main feature of the room, we wanted to highlight it further by wallpapering the chimney breast in a simple, grey and off-white harlequin pattern from Scandinavian interiors brand Ferm Living.  And either side of the fire place are the all important toy cupboards - one for our son and one for our daughter (and it's amazing how having their very own toy cupboard each is an extra incentive for tidying away their toys at the end of the day): From there, we added little details such as the oak clock and the animal postcards on the mantelpiece: And we absolutely fell in love with these fun and quirky, monochrome moustache and bowler hat door handles for the cupboards: Right above the sofa, we created a gallery of wall art that would help to inject some colour and personality into the room. We used the same frames throughout (thanks Ikea!) to create unity and to keep the look bold and simple: To reserve as much space as possible for playing, we decided against an extra armchair, and chose instead these lovely knotted poufs in charcoal and pink from Habitat - perfect for extra seating and fun to climb and clamber all over!

And as you can never have enough storage, these amazing monochrome laundry bags by Ferm Living are just the job for stashing away toys whilst keeping them easily accessible for the next play time: The majority of the accessories were sourced from one of our favourite children's boutiques This Modern Life. Sharing our vision that children's products don't have to look 'babyish' and instead can be stylish and fun whilst having longevity (and in doing so, appealing to adults as well), we loved that we could buy so many gorgeous things that our children would like as much as we did and that worked so beautifully together - all from one shop.

Our new living room is a place where the whole family can have fun together. If you're looking for ideas for a fun new family room, don't forget to take a look at This Modern Life… Just like us, you may well find exactly what you are looking for.

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Pictured above:

'Gran' Cushion Cover by Fine Little Day (47x47cm), 100% cotton, £30, This Modern Life
'Baby Boo' Soft Toy by Naked Lunge, £15, This Modern Life
Harlequin - Grey Wallpaper by Ferm Living, £59.95 per roll, This Modern Life
'Groaaar' and 'I Love You' Animal Postcards by Tad Lapin, £1.50 each, Molly Meg
Ceramic Door Knobs - 'Moustache' and 'Bowler Hat' by Sass & Belle, £2.75, This Modern Life 'Circles' Print and 'Two Hearts' Print, A3 size, designed by Seventy Tree, £25 each, This Modern Life
Set of 4 Monochrome Postcards/Mini Prints, A6 size, designed by Seventy Tree, £5, This Modern Life
'Knot' Knitted Poufs, pink round and charcoal square, approximately 40cm height, £45 each, Habitat
'Half Moon' Laundry Bag by Ferm Living, 60cm height, £59, This Modern Life.