Object of the day: Hundreds & Thousands tray by Jonna Saarinen

These colourful laminated birchwood trays by Finnish designer, Jonna Saarinen, are like useful little pieces of art.

I have previously mentioned my tray shelves. They are waiting to be filled. One or two of these mini ones could boost the fledgling collection...

Aren't they cheery?

After spying these trays, I checked out Jonna's website to see what other nice stuff she'd designed. But first I discovered the story behind the designs – which also feature on trivets and tea-towels, below. I love this story.

Jonna, who completed her MA at the Royal College in 2010, grew up by the sea, near the Turku archipelago in southwest Finland.

The "long hot summers"of her childhood were spent "running around barefoot in the forest" with her late grandmother, who wore "amazing" woolly socks and aprons. Along with these memories, the region's vibrant colour palette, full of wild berries, flowers, rock moss and evergreen forests has fed into these designs.

Jonna explains: "The Hundreds & Thousands collection celebrates mis-matching styles, over printing, everything seaside, saying 'hurrah!' to way too many patterns." Like her grandmother would agree, she thinks, "you can never have too much of a good thing."

Hundreds & Thousand Breakfast Tray by Jonna Saarinen, £22 from Objets de Desir.

Post by Kate