Fuck your piles of books with things on top...

Hello, it's Abi posting today. Kate's recent post on colour-themed shelves (and the nod to the witty FYNC website that knowingly mocks such interiors mag leanings) got lots of "yep, guilty as charged" reactions. Including my own. 

With permission, we'll post up some of your own excellent over-stylings shortly (so keep them coming) but meanwhile, browsing through FYNC again, I was reminded that, yes, I spend far too much time artfully arranging piles of books with a small objet (do omit the "c" for extra design-led twatness) on top. And that – just sometimes – perhaps I can take things a bit too seriously. So I've rounded up some of the most sublime and ridiculous design moments in our house. Do have a look-see...

Look at all our cool old LPs!

Hey, why not display your books as artworks!

I have an uncomfortable amount of 1970s coffee pots!

Yes, I have made these decisions and I stand by them. But I also laugh long and hard at me too.

And I know my printer's tray jewellery holder should score top marks for total Noguchi Table fuck-offery, but I also absolutely know it's the best way to store tiny stuff that gets tangled, lost, scratched and broken. One point back to me.

But I leave the prize for the most design-ridiculous thing we've done to our house to the infamous Golden Nook. Yes, this tantalisingly named area (already qualifying for having a title) is a tiny corner of our house in our spare bedroom. A tiny pointless corner fit only for displaying marvellous things in. "I know," says the husband, "let's gold leaf it so it reflects and shimmies and oscillates" and several other wildly eloquent things. "OK," I say.

The nook is TINY. But gold leaf comes in even tinier packets costing, well, a packet. So... many hours of artisanal dabbing from the husband later, we got our golden nook. One that cost the GDP of Bulgaria. "It's very lovely," I say to the husband, "but, um, can't you get tins of gold paint from, oh I don't know, B&Q, that cost about ten quid?" I shan't repeat his reply.

So come on, 'fess up and share your own over-styling shames with us. Look, even Kate has shared her own "thing on a pile of books". You're among friends...

How-to... turn a printer tray into jewellery storage

A while back I wrote about some different ways to store jewellery, for those with lots of bling...

...like my friend Abi, who sparked the idea in the first place by sending me this image:

...with a plea for inspiration about a less jumbly way to store it all.  Abi is one of the most organised people I know, she even has really lovely, ordered handwriting that looks like a midcentury take on calligraphy. (While I can only dream of such swish legibility.)

One of the ideas I suggested was to use a printer's tray. This is the one she liked the best, and so she found one and transformed her jumble into...

...this!

Looks great, I think. Helped, of course, by the fact that Abi has some very bold and beautiful baubles to display.

So here's what Abi (pictured below, uncharacteristically bling-less) did:

"I bought the tray at Kempton Antiques Fair for £12; got it home and power-washed it (using a Karcher jet wash, from around £100 at Argos, we had one already for cleaning the garden paving) to remove most of the decades of grime then I did a very rough sand to remove any splinters. 


"I had to remove some of the sections, to make room for larger pieces of jewellery (the Tatty D horseshoe, for example), this I did with a tiny modeller's hand saw; very fiddly but easy.

"Once I'd worked out where everything was going I used a combination of picture hooks to hang the jewellery from (small brass screw-in hooks for the earrings, rings and necklaces, and single and double brass picture hooks for the brooches). Once they were in I sanded it down again and decided against liming or varnishing it as I quite like it a little roughened.

"Whole thing cost around £20 to do and a few hours of graft to make! Hey presto: a unique and lovely thing that displays my bling to great effect."

Meet Rosita Bonita

A real treat for you for the bank holiday: be very inspired by the work and wonderful home of Rosita Bonita. I totally love her busy, colourful, collector style...

Rosita Bonita makes striking and unusual jewellery, which she sells through one of my favourite online shops and big supporter of new creative talent, Culture Label. 

From left to right: gold leather rose lapel brooches, £59; gold foil embossed printed horseshoe pin badge, £19; gold leather heart earrings, £39

And looking at her home you can really see where she gets her inspiration for these pieces. 

Where do you live? In a lovely rented flat, but I’ve been here for about six years so it feels like home.

What does it say about you? We don’t have a living room. What used to be the living room is our studio, so I suppose that reflects how much of my life is work!

Tell us a bit about you and your designs... I started producing jewellery under ‘Rosita Bonita’ in 2009. It’s a fusion of illustration and jewellery design. I print designs onto leather shapes and assemble them with chains and findings. I make everything here in my home studio. I have also produced limited editions of framed artwork (from my jewellery collections) and hand-printed and stretched lampshades. My design work is heavily influenced by the things I collect and surround myself with.

What do you collect? I’m a big fan of jumble sales. I tend to buy a lot of printed ephemera, picture frames, jewellery, clothes, tins, toys and trinkets. I love to make collages out of the various bits I've collected. I have a big box-file full and every now and then, when I have a spare day, I’ll get everything out and spend hours laying things out to fill a frame. It’s often my reward after a deadline. Some things I have for years and years until I use them.

What don't you collect? I always go with my gut instinct. there are no other rules.

What are your rules for arranging all your stuff? I’ll often use colour as a common thread, or a theme (eg. teeth, spain, cats). sometimes this is perhaps a little tenuous (to other people), but feels right to me. little stories/moods pop up when you put certain groups of things together, even if it’s a bit abstract.

Talk us through some of the things in your home... I’m very attached to all my things. There is a picture of a Victorian circus pop-up book (well, half of it) that I’ve had since I was very small. I only realised a few years ago what a strong effect it had had on my visual tastes. It’s beautiful – it unfolds into a whole big top ring, with the crowd and performers all folding down.

Next to it is one of the first big collages I made (see above), which includes cigarette cards of soldiers uniforms, various postcards and flyers collected in different places over a number of years, and some holiday photos. That’s next to a photo of my new-born boyfriend with his mum and a beautiful chameleon postcard, which also represents him.

The red plastic mermaid comb (above and below) is one of my favourite objects. I found it in a jumble sale. My new collection is about mermaids.

I have a few of my lampshades around the house. I made the first ones to light a market stall I did last summer at some festivals, and had such a good response to them that I made some more for a pop-up shop I did at Christmas. I’m now just making them on request. The one on the mantelpiece (below) has a print of a nymph in a clam shell, that I print on the pouches for my jewellery. That's next to my collection of flamenco Avon perfume bottles.

Where do you shop? eBay is a source of many of my treasures. Fantastik is a great shop in Barcelona (they ship to the UK) full of the world’s finest trash trinkets from China, India and Mexico etc. I recently got a great little tin bandit badge, and they do some lovely homewares. I also go to a lot of charity shops and jumble sales. My faves are the Saturday flea market on Kingsland Road, for vintage postcards and photos, and the Sunday jumble at Princess May school, Dalston (both northeast London), for unexpected delights. 

Jewellery storage

Today's Insider column is all about ideas for decorative jewellery storage, as inspired by my organised friend Abi who has the best stash of swish jewellery you've ever seen – but was struggling to contain it all in an orderly, yet beautiful and easily accessible fashion. 

If you, too, need a better way to store your stones and sparklers, here are the images that illustrate today's column (with a couple of bonus ones, too). For specific tips, do check out the column.

1. A brilliant way to put knackered old picture frames to good use. Simply paint, suspend string/chain to the back (you'll need a hammer and some of these), and hang; 2. I posted last month about the stylist, Jasmine Orchard's excellent storage tips; 3. Sometimes simple is best: nails, a hammer and a spirit level will give you this clean, serene necklace hanging solution; 4. These old-school scoop storage boxes are meant for kitchens. They'd make excellent, see-what's-inside places to stash bangles and other large jewellery. From £180 at Ella's Kitchen Company; 5. see how to create this jewellery bust at Design Sponge; 6. Hardboard, from your nearest timber yard or DIY shop, covered in felt and leant against a wall is an idiot-proof and sleek way to go. I'd use sturdy black push pins; 7. This pegboard hanger is via Edit My Closet. Just add paint colour of your choice and s-hooks from somewhere like B&Q (I prefer it unframed, as seen in this kitchen context at Design Sponge); 8. Ikea see-through magnetic storage tubs, £4.99 for three (they come with a magnetic wall-board); 9. I posted about this excellent use of a printer's tray last month. Here's where to buy one; 10. Brilliantly creepy 80s mannequin from a selection at the Mannequin Shop

Above: this (from Emily Chalmers' excellent and inspiring book, Modern Vintage Style), I think, is my favourite. It's just so simple: and if you have some nails, a hammer, a spirit level and enough blank wall, its ridiculously simple too.