Boring desk rejuvenator

The product I'm about to share may not have the sort of aesthetics that get me hot under the collar, but there's quite a lot to be said for a product that gives you back some desk space. 

Especially if, like me, you work from home and quite like to tidy things away at the end of the day so your work clutter is a less prominent part of your home-life. But, like me, you also fail...

I've got a a laptop that sits on a complex arrangement of books and upturned Muji perspex thing designed for some other purpose, long since forgotten. It's not that pretty, but better than RSI I guess. (Ew, my shelves are a right mess, aren't they?)

Anyway, so the laptop is on its last legs, which means – hurrah! – so is the messy perspex proppy situation: a proper desk computer is on the horizon. But my desk is small and I want to avoid the same chaos but on a bigger scale. So might this gadget, the Space Bar (£99.95 from Prezzybox.com) be the answer – or is it just too damn techy-looking?

Because this kind of thing has become unavoidable, and it's giving me bad Feng Shui vibes. Whereas this...

...with its six built-in USB ports, looks rather more calming. I'm not keen on those tiny keyboards, mind, and don't think my current beast would slip so neatly beneath. The best gift my mother ever gave me was an enforced and excruciatingly dull typing course in Kingston the summer after I left school. Being able to touch-typing at speed is a skill I value every day – but you do need the right keyboard: my current one writes like a dream but looks a bugger.

How do you keep your desk functional but neat – and pretty?

The USB typewriter: would you?

Well, would you?

Old typewriters are beautiful things. And recycling beautiful old things is a beautiful thing. And this Smith Corona Sterling isn't the only old-school machine that Pennsylvanian techy inventor, Jack Zylkin, has transformed into a fully-functioning USB keyboard for any PC, Mac or iPad.

Look, here's another one he's pimped.

They go for around £400-700, depending on the vintage of the typewriter. "People love typewriters," Zylkin says in his Etsy shop profile, "and lots of people have them on their mantle or in their attic. But there is just no place for them on a modern computer desk. So, with the USB Typewriter project I am trying to rescue typewriters from garages and attics and put them to use again." He also sells DIY kits at $74 (around £48) so you can convert your own old typewriter at home.

The conversion is all about attention to detail: Zylkin has devised ways to incorporate non-standard keys such as F1-F12, and the Esc and Ctrl keys. On request, he'll also fix the typewriter's carriage return key (post-typewriter generation: that's the big key that goes "ping" in the office scenes in Mad Men, and moves you onto the next line on the paper) to work as a modern keyboard's enter key. The old machines will also work computer-less, for an extra vintage sheen, and can be used as iPod docks too.

It's a totally brilliant idea. Just like those old-fashioned telephone receivers you can get to plug into your mobile. But the only people who used those were fashion show front-rowers and early east London adopters – and as soon as the fad lost its new sheen, landfill was surely hit with a heavy load of bakelite and moulded plastic. So are these keyboards different? Would you use one?

Find the USB Typewriter shop on Etsy.

Ingenious objects

In today's New Review magazine, in the Independent on Sunday, I selected some of the most ingenious objects I've come across lately in doing this job. 

You can read about it in my Insider column in today's paper – but if you've arrived from the Independent website, here are the images and links to illustrate what I'm on about.

Trophy bike rack

Bliss Craft & Brazen sofa arm table (you could also try Vanpey for an alternative design, and for ordering in Europe)

The Alarmdock by Jonas Damon, which you can buy at E-side

Kirath Ghundoo wallpaper

Old & Cold/Augustav peg book hanger

T-shirt lampshades by Belle & Videre

Wooden technology

You may already know of Jonas Damon's lovely wooden iPhone alarm clock radios, made to look like 1970s wood veneer beauties.

I was nosing around the designer's blog yesterday, and found that he has been busy making more iLovelies of a similar ilk. And how fantastic are his new iPad and iPhone holders; one is designed to replicate an analogue radio, the other an old-school TV. They are prototypes at the moment, but watch out for them in production soon.

And there's more wood about in unlikely, but lovely places. Isn't this maple wireless keyboard, by Orée Design, gorgeous? It comes in walnut, too, and with Mac or Windows keyboard layouts and – rather beautifully – you can even choose from a range of different fonts for the keys (or personalise it with your own ideas). It costs £125 and was recommended to me yesterday by Tent London as one of their favourite tech-y designs of late.

Retro style radio

My dad has just very generously got me a belated birthday present of a digital radio / iPod dock (my old, not very good, nor very beautiful one was on its last legs already before the roof leaked and finished it off a few months ago).

Having had a bit of an ugly beast of a predecessor, and one that was badly made, I wanted to get something beautiful that would last for many years. Here it is...

It is a Revo Heritage, and I fell for its walnut/aluminium charms, reminiscent of the 1970s and retro-looking without a whiff of twee. It also goes quite well with my kitchen cupboards, I thought. The radio is pretty large and sounds incredible, and has an iPod dock as well as internet radio too. It should have been nearly double what was paid for it (Tesco sell it for around the average RRP of £229). But I checked eBay, to find a few shops selling manufacturer-approved, under-warranty, refurbished ones – for around £100 less than that. We got mine from the Revo Outlet Store for around £130. But it took a lot of searching to find it. Here are some of the ones I nearly chose...

I have written here before about my love of old-school technology, aesthetically, at least – and love the way radios used to look. So I started researching the obvious contenders such as Roberts, who do DAB versions of their classic, leather-clad beauties. But my kitchen is more 70s than Cath Kidston and none of them were quite right – until I found this...

Roberts Vintage Portable RRP £130 – or from around £96 on Amazon. I love the look of this and like the carry strap and battery charge, but realised I would probably never move it from the same spot in the kitchen so didn't need that. Also, there is no iPod dock (but you can plug one in, or any other MP3 type device, with a mini jack lead).

On the iPod dock front, the Roberts versions of those don't look very Roberts-y, and are all a much more futuristic shape, although the Roberts Sound 100 (above) has the look of an old-school radio alarm clock, which I like. And it isn't cheap (£249 from John Lewis); besides, I wanted something that looked like a radio.

A friend was hankering after a radio she'd seen in another friend's house, by a company called Viewquest, which I also checked out and nearly went for. I like how the iPod dock pops out at the front, and it has a hint of Roberts-y styling about it, and comes in lots of different colours. If I hadn't found the Revo, I may have gone for one of these. They have been well-reviewed, too. You can find them on Amazon starting at around £67.

If I could have found any of the Genus Type R radios (above), which allow iPods and other MP3s to be attached with a mini-jack, for sale anywhere I would have gone for it. Isn't it a stunner? However, I was too impatient to pursue it after half an hour's Googling offered me nothing... It is around £150 – if you can find one.

The other nearly-bought, was this Sony (above), which again starts at around £67. You can trust a Sony to last long and sound good, I figured. And this one looked the part (though I'm happier with my moody walnut over this sunny birch). But there is no facility – even with a mini-jack – to plug in an iPod and though I rarely do that, it's the sort of thing I know I'd suddenly want to do all the time if I got one that didn't let me. One should always be ready for a kitchen disco...

Old-school sound systems

This weekend, my youthful lodger looked at my music corner (below) and commented: "Stuff for playing music was big in the olden days, wasn't it?" 

And he wasn't even looking at the admittedly chunky record player, which really is quite olden-days (read more below) but the amp and CD player above. "Yes," I thought, smoothing a wrinkle in my face, "and that's what makes it so brilliant." The equipment was once a prominent and important part of music enjoyment.

The record player, which has flashing lights that go on and off in time to the music, is possibly one of my favourite possessions, though it has a troubled past, but the ex-boyfriend involved in that story probably wouldn't thank me for airing it here (it should have been his, you see). I found it in a charity shop in Penzance and amazingly it worked. I took it to an enterprising repair man who cunningly wired it away from its internal speakers (very tinny, as you'd imagine) and gave it the facility to be plugged into my amp (bought, along with the CD player, bought in a ritual ceremony at Richer Sounds).

So when I saw these new music playing gadgets at Urban Outfitters, I came over all nostalgic...

Crosley Stereoluxe speakers, £190
Isn't this iPhone/iPod dock and AM/FM analogue radio a beauty? Perfect shade of 1950s pistachio green (which would go well with my newly painted stairs). Shame there's no digital hidden amid the old-school stylings (I need my BBC6 fix) but then you can always listen online via your phone, if you have a good tariff of course.

Boombox, £260
This has a nice bit of function hidden inside its 80s New York hip hop stylings: the flap where you'd once have stuck a cassette will take your iPod, and it also has a remote control. Most importantly, it has two 15-watt speakers. If only it really would play old tapes though... I have two big drawers full of the things that I haven't listened to in years. If, like me, you could do with the real thing – try the Vintage Cassette online store.

Crosley portable Tweed turntable, £160
This gorgeously boxy, totally portable turntable is a bit more modern beneath the 1960s exterior: it has USP capabilities, meaning you can spruce up the sound of your vinyl by plugging this baby into your Mac or PC. Though that warm, vinyl crackle is a big part of a record's charm so I'd be tempted to leave it unplugged for playback – but it will revive dusty old records if, of course, you're old enough to have any dusty old records...