A mother of three, a basket habit and a range of hand-woven seagrass animals who make tidying up look like a social occasion. We have rarely been so pleased to see a lion.
Anyone who has lived with small children will know that toys multiply overnight, like rabbits on a subscription. Helen, who has three children, reached the point where the only sensible response was an obsession with storage baskets. Bellybambino is where that obsession led, and the living rooms of Britain are considerably better for it.
Three children and a basket habit
Helen wanted two things at once: storage that was practical, and storage that was beautiful enough for the grown-ups to enjoy having about. She also wanted tidying up to be fun, which is an ambitious brief for any parent to set. So she made her own baskets, gave them faces, and turned "put your toys away" into something closer to "go and feed the lion".
Every lion has his own face
Each basket is woven by hand from seagrass, then finished with felt, wool and hand-painted detail. Seagrass varies slightly in shape as it is worked, so every animal comes out with a personality of its own, and two lions from the same range can wear two quite different expressions. The dyes are specially made to keep the colours bright and the baskets flexible, which matters a great deal when the basket is also, on occasion, a hat.
The menagerie is generous: lions, giraffes, pandas, jellyfish, starfish, unicorns and the odd toadstool, gathered into ranges with names like Born Wild, Under the Sea, Woodland Dreams, Cosmic and Rainbows. There are personalised name baskets too, which make a splendid present for a new arrival.
Quality control by the toughest panel in the house
Every new design is tested on Helen's own children first, and the ones they love are the ones that join the range. It is the most efficient quality assurance available to a parent, and considerably cheaper than a focus group. The result has a relaxed, boho, faintly Scandinavian look that sits as happily in a sitting room as it does in a nursery.
Which size, and for what
Small is for shelves, styling and little treasures. Medium suits nappies and everyday essentials. Large slots neatly into an IKEA Kallax cube, which will be welcome news to a great many households. Extra large is a proper floor basket for laundry or a small mountain of toys, and is, we suspect, the one you will actually need.
The grown-ups approve too
Bellybambino won at the Made For Mums Awards three years running: Best Nursery Accessory in 2020, Best Eco-Friendly/Sustainable Product for Families in 2021 and Best Toy Storage in 2022. It was a finalist in the Made in Great Britain category at the 2021 Great British Entrepreneur Awards, has appeared in British Vogue, Tatler, House & Garden and Ideal Home, and has been recommended by Stacey Solomon, with a mention in her book Tap to Tidy. Helen has also faced the Dragons' Den, which strikes us as considerably braver than facing a toy-strewn floor at bedtime. The baskets have travelled as far as New York, Sydney and Hawaii, presumably with better luggage allowances than the rest of us.
Where to begin
For a new baby, a personalised name basket is hard to beat as a present. For a playroom, the large yellow lion is one of Helen's most loved designs. And for the floor that currently resembles a toy shop after an earthquake, go straight to extra large.
Browse the full Bellybambino collection, wander through Baby + Kids Decor and Kids' Play, Toys + Games, or find something for a small person in Gifts For Baby + Kids. There are plenty more Women-Led and British Brands to discover, and if you are curious about the craft side, we have written about what handmade really means.
The toys are tidied. The fun, as Helen rightly insists, carries on regardless.
