Spotlight on... Ingela Arrhenius for kids

Ingela Arrhenius is a Swedish illustrator, who specialises in colourful, graphic and (largely) child-focused designs with a midcentury slant. 

Looking at her work makes me happy – it's got the sort of joyful simplicity of Charley Harper, and the characters she draws are friendly without being sickly.

Lionface poster, £18 from Hus and Hem (details below)

I featured some of her for-grown-ups work in this gift guide for chaps a while back and discovered that, disappointingly, her work wasn't then widely available in the UK. So I was delighted when a reader (thank you Tim!) emailed me the link to a nice shop in Dorset called Ruby Rockcake that sells lots of her stuff. And it now also appears to be stocked in quite a few other Brit outlets. Hurrah.

Because how good would a child's wall look decorated with these melamine plates (£6.95 each, 20cm diameter)?

Though, frankly, why save it for the little people?

Her memory card game is, from an adult perspective, a box of tiny prints ripe for adorning any room. I have a set of the Charley Harper memory game cards arranged in a square Ikea frame that hangs in my hallway. People always stop on their way out to comment on it.

Matryoshka dolls, £19.95 from Ruby Rockcake

Among Ingela's designs for larger fans of Ingela's illustrated animals, are these washing up cloths (above) from Hunkydory Home, £3.75 each. Apparently Scandi dishcloths are generally this good-looking. Gap in the market, Brit designers?

Find Ingela Arrhenius designs at shops including: Hunkydory Home, Ruby Rockcake and Hus and Hem. If you like her work, do also check out her nice blog, Ingelaparrhenius.com.

Post by Kate

Animal-themed interiors

The wonky-legged pup was being particularly charming today – and it doesn't take much to make me come over all animal-y. That did it. So thought I'd do a round up of some favourite four-legged items for the home. A couple of things I've had my eye on for a while...

1. This Bitossi dachshund  (or 'Hound No. 44' as he's affectionately known) is part of the Rimini Blu collection created in the early 1950s by Aldo Londi who was, at the time, art director of Bitossi ceramics. There's a whole menagerie available alongside him at SCP but he is one of the cheapest – he's £30.71 and measures 24cm high – and, I think, the best.

2. Oh 'Urban Fox' how innocent and wholesome you look on this sweet Lisa Jones bone china mug. Nothing like the rangy and mange-y specimens that prowl the city streets round these parts, bin riffling, courting deafeningly and cat scaring. £12.50 from Hunkydory Home.

3. It is only as I type now, that I see I have osmotically been drawn to a double dachshund situation. That is what happens when I spend time with my 99-year-old granny and we talk about bad husbands and the short-legged succession of expensive dogs she always much preferred (spouses and canines, I should add, all hers). This 50x50cm cushion is just a tenner from Habitat.

4. Want this lamp. Want this lamp. Want this lamp. Why oh why is it £79 (from Liberty)? The long lasting joy it would bring its owner would surely justify the cost. But, just in case, I've also found that Good Gracious sell almost as nice versions (and in different colours) for just £39.99. They're currently out of the white ones though (just red, pink and green). But Caravan have them at £49.99. * NEWS: GG have white rabbits back in stock – and they are, I'm reliably informed, the very same as the Liberty ones!