Tubu Kids | Kids Rooms, Kids Decor, Love By FIve

Time for a little spotlight on a lovely children’s lifestyle store, local to me in the Sutherland Shire (and online too, naturally!)
Welcome to ‘In Bed With’ Love By Five

Meet sisters Brooke and Shannon, born and bred in the Shire, with a love for all things kids.

It sounds like a dream to work with your sister, but in real life do you need to work at it, like a marriage?!

We definitely have our moments, like I’m sure any business partnership would. We both have very different styles, but we think that can be beneficial to the shop. At the end of the day it’s pretty awesome – I mean if you need a day off your sister can’t really say no!

Describe Kirrawee…

Kirrawee is definitely growing at a fast pace. We are next door to the amazing Baked Patisserie, down the road from the Black Olive, around the corner from Bourke Street bakery, and the huge development at the brick pit is underway. The upgraded Kareela shopping centre is also a stones throw away. Kirrawee is getting bigger and better by the day!

Lots of people dream of having their own bricks & mortar shop (I definitely do!) so what made it a reality for you / what made you bite the bullet?

Our husbands! We had always worked in retail, and lived and breathed kids fashion, bedding etc. We have always loved the customer service aspect – we didn’t just want another online store. We love to see our customers and have a chat. Our hubby’s really gave us that support and extra push to finally do it.

Your store is gorgeous, how did you do it on a start-up budget?

A LOT of editing! Of course we wanted so many things in store, but we tried to cut everything right back to our absolute must haves. It’s been awesome to watch the shop grow over the last 12 months and see what’s worked and what hasn’t. We can now see the direction we want to head in, and have more funds to do so!

You’ve done amazingly well and just celebrated your First Birthday! But keeping it real, have there been any cock-ups along the way?!

Um, not really….. we’ve been lucky! There are definitely brands or products we think will sell well that don’t move, but it’s all a learning experience.

What kids room trends are you seeing through sales in your store and online?

Prints, prints and more prints!

We love to change up the styles we have in store and the prints always sell well. I guess it’s a fairly cost effective way to pretty up a room or give it a bit of a facelift. We also stock the Sack Me Range of bed linen, which we LOVE as it’s an injection of colour, and all the collections past and present can be mixed and matched.

What are some of your current favourite kids brands and why?

Sack Me (their new range launching at Kids Instyle is amaze balls!), The Zoo Keeper prints (we think their coastal style is perfect for our local area), Papier D’Amour, Stef Collections – I could go on and on…

If I style a shoot, I end up buying half the product. Have you changed your kids rooms a lot since opening your store?

Let’s just say they’ve all received little updates along the way! Particularly linen – how many doona covers can one child have?? We think you can never have enough!

What’s the best part about the next thing you’re doing?

Now we have been open 12 months we can really see brands that are working and brands that aren’t. We are looking forward to streamlining what we have in store, and really concentrating on the areas that people seem to be loving.