Object of the day: new Muji shelving

I can lose hours going into a branch of Muji. All those satisfyingly minimal solutions for storage you never knew you needed...

Sometimes I just like to imagine I'm really organised and, if I was, what I'd put in all those little acrylic containers. But this season it's Muji's wood that's got me going. And since last week was all about beautiful Japanese things that are hard to buy, it only seems right to share.

The new shelving range (on sale n the flagship London branch, Tottenham Court Road, and online) is beautiful in its simplicity. It's also designed to be configured to your space, so the wall beam above (these start at £12.95, depending on length) works well alone or in a long line or in any arrangement you fancy.

I really love these shelves and might have considered them for the bit of my living room revamp I have yet to polish and unveil (a long shelf along one wall for, well, that's what I'm working on). As it was I went for painted MDF but this would have added a nice warm feature.

So often, when people come over to the house they comment on the wall hooks I have up in the hall. They're really simple wooden ones that I bought in bulk in Ikea a few years ago (I now have lots of them lined up for coat and bag storage, as well as one on the back of each bedroom door and in the bathroom). Last time I went to the great Swedish megastore I didn't see them and am not sure they're still available there. But these understated hooks from Muji are a good second best. Unlike the Ikea ones, they only come as singles, but you might not feel the need to put them everywhere in your house as I have.

The range comes in this finish – natural – and also in a darker wood. I love this one the best.

The box shelf is £29.95. Wall beam as before.

A couple of years ago, when my house looked quite different, I photographed it for the Muji newsletter (I really am a superfan) and the focus of that was also storage. For a bit of a Throwback Tuesday, you can nose at it in this previous post if you're interested (please forgive the typo).

Find the new range here at the Muji website.

I'm up for doing the newsletter sort of thing for any other brands I love and have featured on this blog (or would happily feature on it), so do get in touch if of interest.

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...

Colour-themed shelves part II

My good friend Vinnie has just moved into a new house. She's just assembled and arranged her new shelves there, to decorate a large blank wall. 

Our mutual friend Paul used to be my lodger; he's good at order (I'm less good) and so while he lived with me he was the technician behind my colour-co-ordinated shelves. So Vinnie heard about the shelves and decided to give the idea a go too. Here's how it went...



"As you'll see," she says, "I took colour coordination to a whole new level, matching vases and random stones and artwork to the different book coloured sections. Utterly ridic, but oh so fun."

Then I sent her a link to this page on the excellent Fuck Your Noguchi Table blog, and we congratulated ourselves on being total interiors wankers. 

What's the most design-ridiculous thing you've done to your home? 

My boyfriend saw a shop display that had books all facing the wrong way round – so you just see the pages end not the spine with the book name, and therefore can't find any books. He copied it. (He's a graphic designer. He liked the way the colour and texture looked.) What with my own occasional propensity for aesthetics-over-practicality, I do fear for the dignity of the house once he moves in... next week. I shall keep you posted with highlights. 

Blog fancy: Brigg

Do you ever look around your unfinished home and sigh, thinking that if only you could justify spending the cash, you could resolve all sorts of small-scale domestic frustrations – from creating better storage, to more stylish seating, better lighting... if you're anything like me, the list goes on.

Which is why I was very happy this morning to discover a brilliantly inspiring Norwegian blog, called Brigg, which proves over and over again in its creative posts, that the solution is – literally – often right in front of you, and will cost you nada (not even a degree in DIY)...

Photo: http://briggslekehus.blogspot.co.uk/

Coat hanger bedside shelf This is a staggeringly simple idea. Yes, you could spend some time painting a wire coat hanger a good colour, but even unpainted it's a good-looking, space-saving solution to where to put your magazine or book at bedtime, particularly where space is limited.

In my own bedroom, I have a mezzanine that my mattress sits on and it goes right up to the walls each side. Meaning no bedside table space. This would have worked perfectly (perhaps several of them on each side of the bed). Instead, when I did it up, I found a perspex kitchen cupboard divider in the Ikea kitchen accessories section to use for the purpose; a shallow rectangular box that I attached to the wall on one side. Things on the other side get stuffed down the side of the mattress. Which isn't ideal. So I think I'll try this in my imminent bedroom re-decoration project. Watch this space.

Photo: http://briggslekehus.blogspot.co.uk/

Paper bag vase I have lots of small vases or jugs or jars to put little bunches of flowers in. But for large blooms, options are limited. And even with small arrangements, sometimes the right container for the job just doesn't go as well as it could with the flowers. Or you want matching vases but have recently cleared out (as we did the other week) your overflowing 'I'll keep these jars in case they come in handy for something' cupboard. Solution? Put a bag over it. What doesn't go with brown paper? 

Photo: http://briggslekehus.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Bedroom storage Just goes to show that with a tiny bit of pimping – painting one drawer with blackboard paint, wall-mounting the unit and adding an interesting lump of wood to dangle things from above – a plain old Ikea Moppe mini chest of drawers can become a feature rather than just a functional thing announcing that you shop in the Swedish megastore.

Photo: http://briggslekehus.blogspot.co.uk/

Dog bed I love this (and the cheeky little hound modelling it). I have old cushions and pillows – rather than a zig-zagged child's mattress, as used here – that I could use to the same end, along with the dog's favourite bit of soft fabric. Belts, eh? Genius. If you don't have suitable or spare trouser holders to hand, luggage straps would do. You can also make stools using them around piles of magazines, like this.

Love that light arrangement, too. I have one of those industrial/outdoors lightbulb garlands in my under-stairs cupboard, left behind by the previous owners who'd strung it up with multicoloured bulbs in the garden. I have never quite worked out what to do with it... until now.

Do check out more excellent ideas and beautiful images from Brigg yourselves.

Old and Cold's ingenious book hanger

It's not often you come across an object with an everyday job completely re-thought and done differently. It's most refreshing and, in the case of the piece of furniture below, designed by Copenhagen-based Old and Cold, aka Agusta and Gustav, it is also very beautiful.

I'm not sure what you'd call this – it does the job of book shelves, bedside table or clothes hooks. And more, I'm sure. On their Etsy shop, Agusta and Gustav call this particular design a book rack; but they have different sizes and configurations for use all over the home. The one pictured above costs £129 plus postage from Denmark, and is available in oak, wenge and beech, and with coloured hooks (see below). 

Here are a few more images to give you a better idea of how it works...

It can also be used as a 'side table', £71, above right. And, below, some more configurations...

As well as these designs, Old and Cold sell a well-edited selection of classic Scandinavian style homewares – from Bjorn Winblad wall plaques to sexy lampshades. 

It is a small but perfectly formed shop.

Vintage luggage racks from the London Transport Museum

I've just developed a very passionate crush on some storage hitting the shelves at the beginning of February. These cute, curved metal shelves are, in fact, the luggage racks from London Underground's recently decommissioned 1960s Metropolitan Line trains.  

The strictly limited collection, comes in two sizes: the large ones (101cm x 23cm x cost £250 x 33.5cm) cost £250, and the small ones (45cm x 26cm x 32cm) are £150.

I'd like one of these next to my sofa, which is up against a wall and so has nowhere to put books, the remote control (which, brilliantly, the gentle bucket shape of these things would hide) and a glass of wine.

I'd have another small one by the door to hide just-got-in paraphernalia (keys, pocket chaff, dog lead etc.) and a large one in the kitchen, with pots and pans hanging underneath it.

You can buy them from next month at the London Transport Museum Shop.