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Growing Family

UK home and garden blog sharing ideas, inspiration and tips for busy family life, written by Catherine Hughes

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Tips for upgrading your interior lights

November 20, 2020 by Catherine Leave a Comment

Collaborative post Winter is traditionally a time to give your home some wow factor with festive decorations. But you don't have to limit the changes to Christmas decor; it's also a great time to think about upgrading your interior lights. Yes, Christmas decorations have their part to play, and this year more than any other it's going to be all about the outdoor decorations. Colourful lights, twinkling characters, and even Santa Claus ...

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Filed Under: Interior Design Tips Tagged With: Home, home improvement, Home maintenance, Interior Design, Interiors, LED lights, Lighting

Easy ways to make your house feel like a home

September 28, 2020 by Catherine Leave a Comment

Collaborative post With most of us spending more time at home right now, it’s no wonder our living spaces are under pressure.  They’re multi-tasking hard to provide a practical place to live and work, as well as a relaxing sanctuary that helps to boost our mood. Feeling at ease in our homes can have a huge impact on our mental health and sense of wellbeing.  I definitely feel the stress levels rising when our house is messy, for ...

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Filed Under: Family Home Tagged With: Family home, Home, home accessories, Houseplants, Interior Design, Interiors, Lighting, photo prints, Soft furnishings, Top Tips

Easy ways to introduce rustic interior design to your home

December 18, 2019 by Catherine Leave a Comment

Collaborative post Have you embraced rustic interior design in your home? The trend for rustic interiors is hugely popular, and it’s not hard to see why.  The rustic look is all about using natural materials, embracing earthy colours, and dialling up the comfort factor to create a warm, welcoming home.  And you don’t have to live in an old property to make it work; modern twists on the trend have brought a freshness and light ...

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Filed Under: Interior Design Tips Tagged With: Fireplace, Furniture, Interior Design, Interior trends, Interiors, Lighting, rustic, Soft furnishings, Top Tips

Creative lighting ideas for darker nights

October 1, 2019 by Catherine Leave a Comment

kitchen pendant light

Collaborative post Has the shift into autumn and the accompanying reduction in daylight hours taken it's toll on your mood? Having started painting the shed too late in the day last weekend and finished it in the dark, I can definitely say I'm not a fan of the shorter days! It's understandable why the onset of autumn can impact on our general enthusiasm: those balmy evenings of barbecuing, entertaining and relaxing outdoors are gone for ...

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Filed Under: Interior Design Tips Tagged With: Garden Lighting, Interiors, LED lights, Lighting, Natural Light, Top Tips, windows

Kids’ bedrooms: design tips for small spaces

September 26, 2019 by Catherine Leave a Comment

kids' bedrooms

Collaborative post As the season shifts into autumn, my home projects are also shifting focus from outdoors to indoors.  We’ve done so much work to our home in the last twelve months, including a major kitchen and garden renovation, so I definitely don’t have any big plans for the near future! That said, we do need to make some tweaks to our youngest’s bedroom, and this is my next interiors job to tackle. In my experience, kids’ ...

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Filed Under: Bedroom Tagged With: bed, Bedroom, Beds, Children, design tips, Interior Design, Kids, Lighting, storage

Design tips for creating the perfect home office

August 21, 2019 by Catherine Leave a Comment

Collaborative post Does your home have a dedicated office space? With more of us working from home than ever before - it’s estimated that by 2020 up to 50% of the UK workforce will be working remotely - the demand on our homes to provide a comfortable, stimulating working environment has never been greater. Even if you don’t work from home, chances are you need to use your home for some form of ‘office’ work on a fairly regular basis. ...

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Filed Under: Interior Design Tips Tagged With: Chair, Desk, Furniture, Home office, Home working, Houseplants, Interior Design, Interiors, Lighting, storage, Working from home

Tips for creating an outdoor living area

August 15, 2019 by Catherine Leave a Comment

vonhaus roma parasol

Collaborative post Do you think of your garden as an outdoor room? Using our gardens as an extension of our homes is a trend that’s most definitely on the rise.  The Office of National Statistics reports that the average number of people per household has remained constant this decade, but according to Which?, new houses built in the UK since 2010 are smaller than ever before.  So it’s no wonder that lots of us are looking to our ...

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Filed Under: Garden Design Tagged With: Entertaining, Garden, Garden design, Garden Lighting, Lighting, outdoor furniture, outdoor living, Outdoors, Patio

How to create your ideal bedroom ambience

July 19, 2019 by Catherine Leave a Comment

bedroom ambience

Collaborative post There’s no other room in the home quite like the bedroom. It’s the place where we go to relax every day, and is often the room where we let our personality influence décor the most. However, striking the balance between personality and clutter can be a fine line. Since we spend nearly 34 years of our life in bed (yes, really!), creating the right bedroom environment is crucial. Here are some of the best ways to create a ...

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Filed Under: Bedroom Tagged With: Bedroom, Family, Family home, Home maintenance, Interiors, Lighting

How to get your garden ready for summer

May 20, 2019 by Catherine 7 Comments

orange flower border

Summer is on the way, and with it the chance to spend more time enjoying our outdoor space.  Is your garden ready? During the colder months we naturally spend less time taking care of our gardens, but when the weather warms up again in summer we immediately want to get out there and enjoy them.  The trouble is, there’s often work required to get things looking good before we can sit back and enjoy the view! If your garden is looking a bit tired, ...

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Filed Under: Garden Tips Tagged With: Containers, Deck, Entertaining, Garden, Garden furniture, gardening, Grass, Home, Lawn, Lighting, Maintenance, Outdoors, Patio, Plants, Shed, Summer, Tools, Top Tips, toys

Interior lighting: how to get it right

March 26, 2019 by Catherine Leave a Comment

reading lamp

How early in an interior design project do you consider the lighting?  I suspect we’re all a little guilty of leaving this particular element of a room re-vamp until the later stages, concentrating instead on things like room layout, paint colours and furniture.  But really, lighting should be one of the first things we consider when embarking on an interiors project, because it’s so integral to the finished ‘feel’ and functionality of a room. If ...

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Filed Under: Interior Design Tips Tagged With: Home, Interiors, Lighting, Top Tips

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Hi, I’m Catherine. Welcome to Growing Family, a top UK home & garden blog sharing ideas, inspiration and tips for making the most of busy family life, indoors and out.
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Catherine Hughes is a home & garden blogger sharing ideas, inspiration & tips for making the most of busy family life, indoors and out.
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