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If you’re lucky enough to have a garden space, you really should make the most of it. Sitting outdoors, breathing in fresh air, appreciating nature and perhaps getting a little gentle exercise is one of the best things you can do for your body and it’s even better for your kids, which is why it is important to create a garden space that the whole family can enjoy.

Want to spend more family time outdoors? Here are some simple tips for creating a fun and relaxing family garden:

Create Multiple Areas

Kids will be kids which means that, given a chance, they’ll trample your flowers as they chase butterflies, kick balls at your best plants and generally have a messy-fun time in the garden. That’s fine – they’re kids, and they should be allowed to have fun exploring outside – but it probably won’t be much fun for you if you’re trying to relax and catch some sun. That’s why it’s a good idea to create multiple areas in your garden. You can have a patio area, with barbecue and furniture for parties, a relaxation area with pretty flowers, and a play area where the kids can cause as much destruction as they want without harming anyone else.

Add Safety Features

It is as, if not more, important, to make your garden safe as it is to childproof your home. So, if you have a pond, go to the pond supplies section and buy fine mesh to cover the water over, erect a fence that is safe and will keep the kids in the garden, use natural pesticides and generally do what you can to make your garden as child-friendly as possible. Accidents can and will happen, but if you’ve done all you can to mitigate dangers, they’re much less likely to happen to you.

Make it Soft

When kids are running around, they will fall over, which is why you will want to ensure that they are able to break their fall with something soft. If you want your garden to be safe for the kids and look pretty for you, lawn is the obvious choice, but there are alternatives like soft wood chips, which can work just as well.

Hang Birdfeeders

If you love birds and you want to encourage your children to enjoy nature too, be sure to hang bird feeders around your garden. Ideally, you should hang them on a high pole, so that they don’t also attract less welcome guests, and you should put down a lot of seating so you can all gather round and watch the birds do their thing.

Keep Mature Trees

If you have one or more mature trees in your garden, don’t get rid of them. They give your garden some gravitas, and as you will probably know, the average child loves to climb trees, create swings and get mommy or daddy to build them their very own treehouse where they can hang out giving you some peace and quiet – for a while.

Have you created a family-friendly garden? What are your top tips for doing the job well?

If we’re honest, most of us would absolutely love to have a big bedroom. I for one, would love to have a spacious bedroom considering we co-sleep with kids. But the reality of our financial situation means that it probably isn’t going to happen. At least, not yet. As a result, we keep our eyes peeled for ways to make the most of the small bedrooms that we have.

Check out these bedroom decorating ideas for small bedrooms that will have a deep impact.

Lighten Up Your Palette

Fashion star Andrew Gn lives right in the middle of Paris. Despite the fact that he’s doing rather well for himself, not even he is able to afford the space for a luxurious bedroom in his particular part of town. As a result, he’s had to get creative to make the most of the space that he has.

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On the floor of his bedroom is a 1950’s Swedish rug with quintessential Nordic charm. Above that are two nightstands, designed by Benoit Langlade. And on top of those are two 1970s lamps with gold bases. The rest of the room, including the walls, the upholstery on the Danish armchair and the bed sheets are pure white, designed to evoke a sense of space.

Fill Your Bedroom With Collectibles

If you’ve got a small room, but you’re not interested in making it feel bigger, you can still create an impact by doing something unusual. A collector from New York, for instance, decided to fill his room with as many exciting items as he could from his travels in the Orient. Practically every square inch of the room is home to one strange artifact or another.

Use Earthy Tones

Living in downtown New York is cramped at the best of time. But many designers from the city give their apartments a feeling of space by including Earthy tones, like brown, dark green and black.

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Minimalist beds, as exemplified by the designer beds by Cuckooland, are also essential to help avoid making the room appear too cramped. The lines of the bed should be as simple and as elegant as possible, and it should be draped in warm, cozy linens.

Saturate The Walls

Lorry Newhouse, a fashion designer from England, was asked to work on a small attic bedroom in an old cottage in Southampton, a city on the south coast of Great Britain. She decided that the room needed a bit more “oomph” and so she began drawing up designs using whimsical patterns all over the walls, ceiling, windows and bed clothes. Eventually, she decided on using curtains, wallpaper, and bed skirts from Rose Cummings to create a complex, blue-patterned design, giving the bedroom an eclectic atmosphere.

Add A Canopy

The problem with many bedrooms is that they lack a main event. There’s nothing to draw the gazer’s attention to one particular point or another. French homes, however, regularly make use of a canopy over the bed, designed to make the bed feel more important than it looks when it’s situated in such a small room. Canopies also help to add height to rooms that are small.