British-Canadian YouTuber and content creator, Emily Norris
Emily Norris is a British-Canadian YouTuber and mum of three boys who loves to chat about all-things motherhood, life and beauty. On her channel you’ll find lots of mum hacks, cleaning, cooking and organisation, as well as day-in-the-life videos. Emily and her family recently moved to their forever home and are in the process of revamping and sharing renovation and decoration stories along the way.
For her home, Emily chose Alternative’s Wool Milkshake to create that all-important homely feel with a beautifully soft yet hardwearing carpet. An all-natural, warm and snuggly wool flooring choice, ideal for bedrooms and children playing on floors. Wool is a family-friendly fibre – a natural insulator, easy to clean and has that bounce back factor!
We chatted to her about her flooring choices, interior inspiration, and the decoration tips.
Alternative Q&A’s
Describe your home, when did you move in and who do you share it with?
We now live in our “forever home” if that is a thing anymore. We moved here in October 2020 and we are on a mission to make our mark on everything. It’s a mock Tudor style home on the exterior and had a very 90s style interior, albeitimmaculately finished as the previous owners were decorators. In November 2021 we began a large renovation, adding a large modern zinc black box on the back of the house.
We live here with our 3 sons who are 6, 8 and 11, oh and our Cavapoo named Kiki. We have 3 very active boys so the house needed to be practical but also something to be proud of as we love a well-thought-out home.
Emily Norris and her family. Follow their home renovation @emilynorrishome
How does family life influence your interior and design decisions?
We definitely have had to have a few reality checks, but on various occasions style has won us over. We have also made a some alterations based on having a dog, and have some plans to do more to accommodate her. We may live to regret quite a few light finishes, but the boys are that little bit older now and can be trusted in a room – unlike when they were toddlers!
How did you hear about Alternative Flooring?
I actually saw one of Alternative’s carpets tagged on an Instagram post. I loved the pattern and started following from there really. I then started noticing the brand a lot so used the carpet for a bedroom makeover.
Alternative’s lifestyle shot of Wool Milkshake Marshmallow. For more Insta-spiration follow us @alternativeflooring
Tell us about the flooring choices in your home.
Upstairs we have only carpeted two of the bedrooms. Due to renovations, we have held off as we intend to make it the last thing we do really. Our middle son’s bedroom and our primary bedroom now has Alternative Wool Milkshake in Rhubarb and we love it. We had it first in our middle son’s bedroom as we changed the structural layout of the room around 18 months ago so it needed new carpet. We used a fun Woodland theme for his bedroom (to celebrate his love for the outdoors, my Canadian roots) and he still loves it now. His teepee bedhead is quite the talking point.
And then downstairs we have just put down around 170 sqm of engineered wood which runs throughout our hallway, games room, gym, open plan kitchen, pantry, dining and living space. We will eventually carpet the front room to make for a cosy adult sitting room in front of the fire.
Alternative Wool Milkshake in Rhubarb as seen in one of the kids’ bedrooms
Why did you choose Wool Milkshake for your bedroom floor?
Every inspiration pic we were saving were wool carpets so we knew it had to be that. And then the Wool Milkshakestuck out to us straight away and we just knew it was the one, especially in the Rhubarb shade, not too dark, not too light, it was just right to work well with so many of our interior choices. And we also feel it is a shade that will be quite timeless as trends and the decor change.
Emily’s newly renovated bedroom with Alternative’s Wool Milkshake in Rhubarb carpet
As a mother are natural materials and eco-credentials of products important?
Most definitely, and we live in a world when it’s the norm for our children to understand the importance of how something has been made. Your opinions definitely change as a parent, and it’s not different for the home.
Where does your interior design inspiration come from?
Working online it has to be social media for me. But also living so close to London has meant we have bundles of inspiration on our doorstep. Instagram and Pinterest are my go to’s but we are forever snapping pics whenever we travel.
We also work with an interior designer – Gingernest Interiors. We first worked with them on the boys’ bedrooms and the relationship developed from there. Abby and her team have helped us with most aspects of the house and we are so pleased with what they have come up with.
Find Emily Norris on Instagram @emilynorrishome and @emilyloves on Pinterest
How do you put decorating schemes together – any tips?
Like I mentioned, Instagram and Pinterest are our main sources. But then we order in samples and put all the pieces together. With paint colours we often paint a large piece of wood and leave it in the room it will go in for a week or so we can see if it works.
Ask brands for real images of products in-situ. Or if they have a showroom, you can go and see something up close – and take your samples with to hold up against. Also embrace dark spaces and don’t worry about things matching.
What your home means to you?
So much, as we are bringing up our family here. We are proud of what we have done and are so excited with the other rooms that we have planned. It is where our day starts and ends, where we host lots of friends and family – especially as we have lots of family that live overseas.
Emily’s newly renovated bedroom with Alternative’s Wool Milkshake in Rhubarb carpet
How do you spend your free time?
What’s that?! We back on to fields and I love to hop over and walk the dog once or twice a day. And all our boys want to do is go on their trampoline and it’s one of my favourite things to do with them – and good exercise.
The past year has been somewhat different having lived through the renovation but we’re starting to get our life back again slowly. We love interiors and renovating but even we have found it pretty challenging!
Emily Norris’ newly renovated bedroom with Alternative’s Wool Milkshake in Rhubarb carpet
Describe your style in three words…
Victorian/Scandi, modern, functional, warm. (Sorry 5 words!)
Any good advice? Who gave it to you?
Definitely use an interior designer. Even if you have an eye for design, using a designer is invaluable in my opinion. Even if it means holding off on a room or two to pay for it. They thought of things that we would never have thought of, and it is pretty overwhelming how many decisions you need to make often in a short space of time. Try them out for one room, and if it works you can utilise them elsewhere.
Emily’s Wool Milkshake carpet has been expertly fitted by Byrver Flooring
“Billy and his team at Byrver were fantastic. Such a smooth process and nothing was a problem. The fitting is faultless, we would definitely use them again.”
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