Competition winners: kitschness wins prizes

Hello and merry 12th day. Great to be back at work? Broken any resolutions yet? Mourning your Christmas tree? Distract yourself with these photos sent in by entrants to a competition I ran at the end of last year.

The prize was a limited edition lava lamp and so, naturally, I asked people to send in photos of the most kitsch things they had in their homes. Here are my favourites...

This vivid artificial stag's head was sent in by his owner, Nathan Miles. I featured some similar wall-hung beasts from the same American company Nathan got his from a while back in this post. ("It was so expensive to get it imported into England," he says – around £50, "but was worth every penny.") I love it. What do you think?

"It's the most kitsch thing in my house," says Nathan, "I recently bought it for my new bedroom and fell in love."

And here is our winner, Paul Baker, posing in a daft hat next to his painting of a dog in a daft hat.

His pug in a bobble hat is famous, too, having appeared in this Schweppes advert (about half way through). Paul won it in another competition.



"It one of my fave things in our house," he wrote. "Cheesy but a conversation piece. My girlfriend's not to keen mind..."

Sophie Griffiths sent in these photos of her revamped telephone table. With its tasteful paint job it doesn't really qualify as kitsch anymore, but it's come a long way...

"This is my kitsch which I turned into cute," says Sophie. "It's a reclaimed 70s style phone chair which I sanded down, undercoated and gave a lick of chalky paint. Totally gave it a different look and it only cost me £15."

Debra Finn, who co-owns a very tasteful art and design company (though you'd never guess) sent in her Catalan crapper. "It's a traditional Christmas decoration in Catalunya would you believe," she explains. "He's fab and my pride and joy at Xmas."

Clockwise from main picture: Claire Smyth, who appropriately writes a blog called The World of Kitsch, sent us her plastic flamingo.

Lynn Doe sent a photo of herself posing with her original 1980s Soda Stream. "Just love the 'fizzy fun' art on it," she says. Joanne Bean submitted a schmatzy piece of kitchenware and Roz Tabberer emailed in this photo of her gorgeous celery pot, gifted by her mother-in-law. (Am I naive in this area – do people keep celery in special pots?)

Thanks to all the other entrants too, but especially these brave souls. Back tomorrow with a brilliant houseboat to show you.

Post by Kate