If you don't follow Chloe Thurston from @chloeuberkid, you should add her to your feed now. Originally a director of a tech company, the mother of four became an interior stylist after her son Rafferty arrived...
“I decided I wanted to combine doing what I love with being with the kids as much as possible and kids styling was the way to go,” she says. You’ll love pouring over the dreamy images of her colourful and creative home and her gorgeous children – Bella, Satchel, Kitty and Rafferty – in England’s South Coast. Just a warning: her feed will make you want to shop. She’s always sharing covetable new products she’s discovered and styling them in clever ways. We caught up with Thurston to find out more…
Go to www.uberkid.net or follow @chloeuberkid
Motherhood has taught me not to be so squeamish…
I used to be disgusted by pretty little things, but I can now deal with a nappy change mid meal without even flinching (too much).
The advice I'd give my younger self is…
Travel as much as you can before the kids start school and you get stuck in its system!
Life as a mother of four is hectic…
Someone always has something going on, something to do and definitely something to say!
I juggle work with motherhood by staying up until 2am most nights…
I don’t even attempt to work most of the time when I am with the kids (unless I am taking photos of them of course), as I know that one of them will have an incredibly urgent question such as how many days there are until their next birthday or where the 2mm carrots that Sven the reindeer came with could possibly be. Or someone will injure themselves by jumping off the sofa for the millionth time in exactly the same way they injured themselves before, or find themselves suddenly literally collapsing of thirst and hunger! I don’t think I have enough brain cells left to try and get things done with constant interruptions and I don’t want to get stressed with them so I find it easier to wait until I have a bit of peace and quiet and then deal with it all.
The most challenging part of motherhood is trying to find enough individual time for each child…
If it has taken me a long time to get the younger ones to bed (I have to sit with them until they fall asleep) sometimes the last thing I feel like doing is simultaneous equations or attempting to remember my menu French the second I get down stairs. I could really do with homework being banned, they spend all day at school and if I get half an hour to spend with them I don’t want to be doing that!
Sleep deprivation is my normal…
I am an amazingly bad sleep trainer (even after four) and each of the kids have ended up coming into our bed every night. At the moment we have Kitty around two or three AM and Raffy shortly afterwards. In a small double it doesn’t make for the most comfortable nights sleep after that and I’m normally coverless, trapped against a wall with a head of hair in my face!
My approach to interiors is white, white, white…
I have to try and be quite strict with myself because I am so fickle! I have learnt to just change accessories around rather than key items and decor. My husband Tom started refusing to wallpaper after we removed the third lot and wasn’t impressed when I was pregnant with my son Satchel and I made him paint everything mint only for me to decide it actually made me nauseous a month later. I know now as much as I want to buy that expensive pink chair that I Google constantly and am completely sure it will be incredibly amazing in every room and that I seriously will never go off it and absolutely love it forever, I should just stick to white and buy a cheaper pink throw for it, as next week I will be thinking exactly the same about a yellow one!
The ingredients of a great kids room are fun but good quality choices and lots of hidden storage…
I want the kids to love their furniture while getting a feeling for great design. And all the other stuff they love, without so much of the great design, I want to hide in storage bags that are more pleasing on my eye!
My time management tips are pretty non-existent...
The one thing that I find really helps me is online grocery shopping… I think is the most sensible adult thing I do, I have a six-week menu that we all came up with and I can literally do my order in five minute, twice a week to be delivered the next day. I find it so much easier and cheaper to have it all ready than constantly trying to think of meals and traipse around the shops with the kids in tow.
My favourite Instagram accounts are always Australian…
Australians seem to be so far ahead than the UK with their designs and kids home products and I think a lot of sunshine is always great to see!
I focus pretty easily…
We have an open plan house so as long as I know Tom is there to answer and deal the kids I can get on with things while holding a child asleep on my shoulder, hearing Darth Vadar and Luke Skywalker having their ultimate battle, or cooking for eight or so kids.
I shop for homewares at all times and everywhere…
I may even 20+ window shopping tabs going as I write this!
Today I am wearing black...
Like every other day. Ok I might have 10 % of my wardrobe in white and grey too.
Happiness is being with my family and not having to do anything else…
I can’t say that happens too often so just being with my family is pretty perfect.
The last meal I ate was a bowl of cereal…
Cereal doing emails is my number one meal!
I'm next travelling to the mountains…
We are off ski-ing at Easter and then for a little visit to Barcelona. I am scared of flying so we are always get the boat over to France and see where we can go from there! 12 hours in the car with four kids is always fun, right?
I keep my house tidy by becoming less sentimental…
We live in a relatively small house (for it’s six occupants) and unfortunately I am naturally quite a hoarder… We are talking every birthday card ever sent to us, every item of clothing and toy the kids have had etc. and way too much more! It got to a level though when there was just too much stuff and I had to get ruthless! I scaled it down to about 50% of the items so not exactly that ruthless but I at least vacuum packed the clothes so they take up less space so I’m pretty sure that counts! I now try and get rid of things quickly before I actually become attached to them.
I get stressed out by trying to do too much and being distracted…
I need to have some hope that I can finish the job when I start it!