Designer homes at the Geffrye Museum

If you missed the Ideal Home Show earlier this month, don’t get your tassels in a knot. You’ll find design inspiration plus stuff to keep your little ones entertained all year round at the Geffrye Museum in E2.

This interior design museum showcases the changing tastes of the English middle classes from the 17th century to the modern day.

There’s a slightly voyeuristic feel as you peer into living rooms checking out the décor and floral arrangements.

It’s fun to see how design elements, such as wallpaper prints, keep coming back into fashion. Ezra enjoyed scoping out the rooms, balancing on arm chair models and listening to the recorded excerpts from novels or music from the different eras.

But the main reason for our visit was the museum’s Spring is Sprung event, two days of springtime dancing, crafts and Easter trails. Armed with clipboard (and mum and dad for guidance), Ezra followed the trail through the Geffrey’s award-winning herb and period gardens, learning to identify various plants by smell and earning a prize (choice of stickers, sweets or Easter egg).

The Geffrye has a children’s section on the first floor and two large art rooms downstairs that regularly host activities for all ages. Kids can rent a free backpack filled with crafts and the friendly staff go out of their way to make young ones feel at home.

The museum’s spacious enough to amble about but small enough not to get lost in, so Jed had a blast toddling to and fro. It’s also wheel and pushchair friendly with lifts and baby-changing on both floors.

The lawns out in front are a sweet spot for picnicking but if you haven’t planned ahead, the museum’s got a lovely, airy restaurant with wall-to-wall windows overlooking the gardens. We rounded off our trip with a tea of scones and deliciously moist carrot cake and left with crumbs and big smiles plastered to our faces.

For details on the Geffrye Museum’s events for families, visit the web site.