22 Jun Wall Art For Kids
We chat to Aussie wall art brand for kids, Wondermade about motherhood and starting their own biz.
One of our most popular wall stickers reads, ‘welcome to chaos!’ Motherhood is fun chaos and should bring you all joy. A fulfilled mother is a happy mother, and a happy mother is a good mother.
It’s impossible not to be changed as a person when you become a parent. Once a new baby arrives, life is turned upside down and given a good shake. But once the dust settles and everyone finds their place in the new family order, you have a whole different perspective, because suddenly you’re part of something bigger than yourself – you’re part of a special little gang. That’s super cool.
You really can’t guess at what it is going to be like to be a mother until you live it. Now that I have, I find it’s more wonderful than I expected, and more brutal, more chaotic, lovelier, messier, more fun, more monotonous… Just much more than anything that came before really.
What surprised me most about becoming a mother is the relentless worry! I was always a worrier before, but it really dials up a notch once you’re responsible for this little person (or in my case three little people, one dog and two chooks). Who’s fed, who’s watered, who’s bathed, who needs a cuddle, who’s happy, who’s sad, who lost a shoe, who’s upset with a friend at school? It really never ends – it’s this mental checklist that never gets ticked.
Raising a child is like baking a chocolate cake. Everyone has a different recipe, but each recipe yields the same result – a chocolate cake. I just have to find my own recipe.
I worked in magazines as a stylist and writer and then founded and ran an online baby and children’s clothing and gift website for seven years called Baby’s Got Style. I then sold that and had my third child and Wondermade became my first foray back into the world of small business. My business partner, Anette, is from Denmark, but married an Aussie and they now live on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with their three kids. Anette has a background in fashion and accounting and has the most impeccable interiors-style vision – very mid-century, very stylish, very Danish!
Wondermade is a range of re-usable, removeable, restickable (20+ times) wall stickers. Anette and I saw a trend for well-designed, stylish and inspiring quote posters in kids’ rooms, but wanted to make it easier for busy parents to decorate. So rather than having to frame and hang, you just peel and stick! They also can be moved around really easily. For less than the price of a paper print you can have one of our decals up on your wall in a flash.
We called our new brand Wondermade because we liked the idea of products that inspire wonder, that are wonderful. And ‘made’, because we made them.
We both work independently from home, but Anette lives on the Northern Beaches of Sydney and I live on the North Shore. We share the workload across two homes and spend a lot of time on viber and email. My eldest two are at school when I’m working, and my little guy sleeps in the middle of the day, so I tend to focus work into his rest time and at night. My husband is currently renovating our shed into a painting and craft ‘she-shed’ for me to use, so I don’t have to always pack up in the middle of a project. Our kids love seeing our new designs and giving us helpful feedback.
Becoming a mum inherently makes you more creative – you use your creativity in so many ways every day with little people: “Let’s get into your car seat and buckle you in like a pilot in an airplane”, or, “No these aren’t meatballs, they’re dinosaur eggs!” They’re so naturally imaginative, so it’s hard not to be inspired just by being around them.
Our creative endeavours are driven by the need to create fun, happy, uplifting places for kids to be kids. I love a styled room as much as the next interiors lover, but I think kids spaces should be colourful, alive and inspiring – not always perfectly styled and Instagram ready.
Daniela Minns is a mum to Allegra, 7, Celeste, 5, and Hugo, 2, and co-founder of Wondermade with mum Anette Kirk Goodare, mum to Mikkel, 6, Jack, 4, and Cecilia, 2. Together they have created a range of affordable, on trend decals to inspire and brighten your walls. They both live in Sydney, NSW. You can find them at their website, Facebook and Instagram.
Images by Wondermade
