It’s been awhile.  We made the decision to renovate our house a bit, and the building work started at the end of February.  We’ve converted our garage into a study and utility room, and we’re also building a 7x3m extension to the kitchen.

The original plan was to make the garage into a playroom and utility, but the more I thought about it, the less well it sat with me.  You see hundreds of photos of playrooms in the Facebook groups I’m in, all beautifully decorated and espousing a child-centred view of the world.  But how does it work in reality?  I don’t want Bella off playing in a separate space, as if the rest of our house isn’t for her.  I want her to be a part of all of our rooms, but I can admit that our current rooms don’t feel ideal for her.  So we made that garage room a study instead, and looked at how else to make our space fit her, and us, better.

We landed on doing a rear kitchen extension.  Our kitchen is very well proportioned as it is, but as Bella’s stuff has been added (a small table, IKEA kitchen and easel), it’s starting to feel cramped.  The extension allows us to add a playing and seating area that will overlook our garden (there’s a 4m wide bifold door!), and by design will be a screen-free place for us to enjoy.  I’ve allowed myself to buy a sofa for the space, and everything else in it is going to be things that we already have.

I’m really excited at being able to look outside while eating breakfast at her table, talking about the weather and nature and actually able to take it in during that time. I plan to put in some high shelves to take advantage of the high ceiling, where I can store things that are out of rotation but yet keep them easily accessible.  I can not wait to watch Bella run around the open-plan space.  It’s is a huge change from the rest of our house, which is neatly contained into separate rooms with little space for gross motor.  In summer, we can go outside, but it was really this long winter which made me realise how stir-crazy we can easily get in here.

Do you need a big house to do Montessori right?  Of course not.  Plenty people do great jobs in smaller spaces.  But Bella doesn’t go to nursery and as she’ll only go to preschool and primary school 3 days a week, the majority of her time will be at home.  It felt right for us to invest in our space so that we could reap the benefit for years to come.  We are lucky that we were able to afford it, and I really believe that all three of us will enjoy a significant improvement in our quality of life.