When we first lived together Jonny and I rented a furnished apartment in Old Ford Lock. It was directly opposite the Olympic Stadium although back then they had only just started to build it and sitting on the balcony probably wasn’t as restful as I assume it is these days. The wow factor came more from the fact we had celebrities in the building than what you could see on the other side of the river; diggers and cranes were not on my radar in quite the same way a few years ago. Now, of course, I point them out to people even when Jimmy isn’t with me which is rather embarrassing when we come above ground on the tube to an exited sounding, fully grown adult on her own shouting ‘LOOK, crane’!

It might have been surrounded by the Olympic building site but that pad was pure luxury and I loved living there. It was a MASSIVE converted warehouse and, at the time, the lifestyle we were living meant it was the height of cool. We had a 24 hour concierge, all mod cons, a bathroom EACH and we LOVED throwing parties because it was THE perfect venue… I can’t believe it was just the two of us with so much space and we had such minimalistic furniture too. It’s amazing what buying your own place, having two children and investing in your own furniture does to you because we could never consider our flat now in anywhere near the minimalistic stakes when it comes to decor!

But that’s the thing see, much as I loved living there it all felt a bit pretend and not even owning our own bed because the flat was furnished was always a big problem to me. I used to wonder who had slept on it before me and it creeped me out; I don’t think I could ever again live with a rented bed, there are some things you just need to have as your own! When we bought further out East and instead of a cool warehouse stumbled into Victorian Terrace territory I was so happy to finally feel ‘at home’ rather than ‘just visiting’ and SO happy to go bed shopping!

I even put the bed together all on my own (although Jonny will say it needed all the bolts to be tightened after me) when it arrived; that bed was totally and utterly mine! Fast forward a few years and I wouldn’t say I get much room in MY bed any more… The current climate for sleeping places in this house is that we play musical swapsies all night long and the children rather take over MY bed fighting over who gets to sleep next to me until I move into the middle! Poor Jonny slopes off to the top bunk in the children’s room (which he loves by the way so don’t feel too sorry for him) and I battle out for a sliver to call my own! I wouldn’t have it any other way as I love snuggling up to my babies but I would definitely like a bigger bed… Think this should show you why!

Having the bed you want is absolutely paramount I think. I loved living in my warehouse but I never quite settled with that rented bed and now, even when it’s full of children who should be in their own beds, I’m perfectly happy because it’s mine. But, like I said, it could do with being a bit bigger! Next time I’m going to go for something ENORMOUS to accommodate all of us. Carpetright actually do beds as well as, well, carpets didn’t you know? And I’ve found this one on their website that would do me (And Jimmy. And Florence. And of course Jonny who technically the bed in our room belongs to as well) perfectly. Not only is it Super King Sized to start with but if it all got a bit crowded we could roll someone out onto the guest bed below! It reminds me of that song ‘There’s were ten in the bed and the little one said roll over, roll over’!

In association with CarpetRight.

Follow