On the second day of Christmas... Folklore slate supper board

OK. So it's not the second day of Christmas, it's the third day of December. But it's the second item on my gift-idea-a-day bonanza that is running until the big day.

And today's affordable present idea is one for foodies, table-styling supremos or people who just like to eat things off something more interesting than a plate.

Someone in my family is very fond of eating his toast off a nice little slab of wood, for example. And every time he does it, the toast gets elevated into more than just an everyday snack. It becomes a ritual, an occasion, a comfort. So I'd prefer this for breakfast rather than supper, but it'd also spruce up all sorts of other snacks (ones you can eat with your hands, perhaps), from bread and cheese to crudités or some big chunks of chocolate to have with an after-dinner coffee.

Handmade Irish slate supper board (15cm x 40cm), £14.50 from Shopfolklore.com

You can also click on the "gifts" tab on the left for lots of general present inspiration. Or keep checking back on the Christmas gifts 2013 tab, which will appear under each post this month, accumulating ideas.

I'm also about to overhaul the tabs and navigation generally on the blog – if you have any suggestions, ideas, glitches etc. do let me know so I can factor them in.

Post by Kate

Object of the day: Folklore's breakfast cups

£15 isn't cheap for a cup. Or is it? A favourite cup is a thing you will use every day – and it will make you happy each time you do. 

And with that in mind, fifteen quid is almost a bargain. Especially if you only buy two of them.

The Basic Red Breakfast Cup is from Folklore and they are handmade with grey clay from a Burgundy village with a reputation among generations of potters around the world. The clay has a nice textured look due to the sandstone in it. You can blast these in both microwave or dishwasher too. Shopfolklore.com

Post by Kate

Folklore at Aesop

Do you know the lovely shop Folklore, a place that sells pared down and beautifully-made simple objects? 

I have featured some of their more affordable products here before, but they recently collaborated with Aesop, the Aussie skin-care brand of comparable stylistic leanings, and set themselves up a presence in the brand's north London branch to celebrate Aesop's anniversary.

More than anything, this is a gratuitous excuse to perv over the beautiful shop interior. I'd quite like that as my alternate reality kitchen – it reminds me a bit of what Retrouvius did with a shop display cabinet in this kitchen, and how pleasing the Folklore stuff looks in situ.

And if you think this is lovely, take a look around Folklore's own London store. It's a stunner.

Some good things for your house

Today, just some very nice things that I've lusted after this week. 

I have some very nice charcoal, rib-knitted cushion covers by Nkuku, the Devon-made company that sells these lovely glass and iron picture frames. They come in three sizes, landscape or portrait, and the hanging fabric pieces are recycled sari ties. A sweet present with a special memento inside – and the best thing is that if it isn't exactly the right size for the frame, it will look even better. Nkuku's products are ethical as well as beautiful and reasonably priced. I really like their Fair Trade moss-stitch throws in sludgy earth tones too, £75 and mango wood salt and pepper bowls, £19.95.
Kiko glass frames, £10 from Not on the High Street.

Folklore is a stunning shop that sells online and also in Islington, London. It is not, on the whole, a cheap shop – the products are largely locally crafted and built for life. But these beautiful pressed, recycled paper lampshades, complete with fabric cord and ceramic lampholders, are one of their more affordable items (but not because they are flimsy – the material is entirely water resistant). I like that they are unusual enough to become a talking point. They also have an excellent name – a story in itself: the 'Columbus Egg' refers to an idea deemed excellent and simple, but only after the event. It comes from the Christopher of the same name who, so legend has it, was told that discovering the Americas was no big deal: so he threw down a challenge for someone to make an egg stand on its tip. No one could – only for Columbus to tap one end of an egg on a table and flatten its tip.
Egg of Columbus lampshades, Folklore, £26

The shape of this new mug from Habitat is most pleasing. And in the realm of Nice Mugs, this one is also very cheap.
Courbe mug, Habitat, £4.50

Cachette is  a beautiful online store run by Anglo-French couple, Steve Rogan and Delphine de Chabalier, who swapped London life for a slower pace in the south of France to start their business. Nothing the couple sell is produced on an industrial scale – generally coming from young designers, unknown artisans or old heritage manufacturers from Europe. I love the simplicity of this plain, wooden lampholder, which comes in six shapes, complete with charcoal grey flex. Just make sure you get nice bulbs for it – try Historic Lighting.
Beech Suspension Light, Cachette, around £43 (their prices are in Euros)

Wild horses

A friend emailed me this week with a link to this cushion, saying "saw this and thought of you". She knows me so well; I'd almost bought it a few weeks earlier, while loitering in the H&M homeware department (which is full of many other good things too, this season).

I think I really need a horse cushion in my life. Especially as I'm broke at the moment and this is only £7.99. Find it on the H&M website.

It's not, after all, the first time I've hankered after a bit of horsey homeware. A while back, there was also this...

...and, below, this, available from Surface View (and by the way, the wall got filled with something entirely different in the end, and gained a life-size fox, which I don't think anyone but me likes).

And I love this large, recycled wooden horse, from Folklore, £48, below.

But this old metal toy horse already lives with me. I love him.

And, nothing to do with interiors or, even, horses really, but my equine obsession has also got me hooked on the horse_ebooks spambot. This Gawker piece introduced it to me. If you like surreal Twitter feeds, check it out.

Introducing... Folklore

I've had my eye on Folklore since the holding page for their online shop appeared over the winter, and offered a tantalising glimpse of some beautiful furniture and homewares to come, selected by its co-owner, Danielle Reid. 

Finally, they came – last month, the shop was fully up and open for business. The Folklore look is clean, calming, unfussily stylish and – beautifully – designed to last. The shop is pretty much the diametric opposite of my own home style – which starts with intentions of coming over all grown-up, but quickly gets hijacked by my hoarding habit, inability to resist lots of colour and a trail of things I haven't quite got around to finishing. So I am in awe of Folklore and wanted to find out more about the shop's style and how to create it. Over to Danielle...

What is Folklore and who are you? Folklore is a new independent home and lifestyle store in Islington [and online] started by myself and my husband Rob. We curate mindful design for home and life. We stock a selection of homewares, furniture, lighting, art and lifestyle goods that are created with care and made to last.

Sum up the Folklore look Our product range is a mix of handmade or antique pieces or items made from recycled or found materials. Others are easily recyclable at the end of their life or made in an environmentally mindful way. Our aesthetic reflects this and is clean, modern, simple and natural.

Tell us about a couple of the designers you sell The work of Naomi Paul is stunning. She uses recycled, upcycled, organic, industry waste and British luxury material to create unique and intelligent textiles. We stock her GLÜCK pendants (below), £399 which are just beautiful.

David Shillinglaw is an artist who immediately stood out to us. His work combines street with studio ranging from small handmade books to canvases and from reclaimed materials to large scale wall murals. We’re very excited to have collaborated with him on the first of our own in-house range. Backgammon (below) and Domino cushions, £80 each, are made from vintage linen and are screen-printed using David’s designs. They are available exclusively from Folklore.

Hendzel + Hunt are a creative studio based in Peckham in south London. We collaborated with them to make The Cabinet (below), £2950 – the first of a series of storage pieces currently being designed and produced. Their work is outstanding but even more so when you consider they use only salvaged and reclaimed materials to construct their pieces from.

[Scroll down for my pick of Folklore's more affordable goodies]

Where do you like to shop? There’s a little boutique in Paris that sells beautiful handmade ceramics called Le Petit Atelier de Paris which is really special. Closer to home, Anthropologie is one of my favourite stores. 

Who/what are your style inspirations? Anything that catches my eye really! We have a Pinterest page which is brilliant for keeping hold of beautiful imagery that I come across all the time. 

What are your interiors commandments? 
Craftsmanship, quality, simplicity and durability. This is reflected in the interior design of our store where we chose a simple colour scheme with raw, natural and reclaimed materials. For example, the hanging shelving (above) is made from reclaimed scaffolding planks. We sanded them back and left the wood untreated to allow the natural beauty of the wood to come through. The wall cladding is Victorian floorboards which we left bare.

Thanks Danielle. Now here is my pick of some of Folklore's smaller items... 

From left to right: Large Wooden Horse, £48; Cardboard Trophy, £50-65; Ceramic Dip Cup, £29