Wish List: Lamps like scooters, and peel-and-stick wallpaper

Rita de Brún alights on lookalike Vespa lamps, a bronze kestrel perched on a car engine, and game-changing wallpaper

PEEL APPEAL

For DIY-dabbling renters and homeowners, self-adhesive peel-and-stick wallpapers are a gift. Especially those with excellent print quality and design. Livette’s Blushing Lemons removable wallpaper is a heart-gladdening sight.

Bright and beautiful, the fabric-based material makes for a wonderfully subtle, canvas-like texture, while the bright white base colour makes the printed design appear especially vivid. This one feels as good as it looks. And being completely free of vinyl and PVC compounds, it has eco-kudos as well. It’s €12.99 from livetteswallpaper.com.

WATCH THE BIRDIE

Perched on part of a car engine, this solid bronze kestrel by Krys Pomeroy is striking in its magnificence. 

Great art is always covetable, and particularly so right now, with decorating space around a spectacular piece of sculpture being so very much in vogue. Featuring an impressive wingspan in its 66cm width and 47cm height, this thought-provoking artwork is yours for €3,800 from kilbahagallery.com.

ONE-OFF TABLE

Upcycled furniture is having a moment. One that’s set to last — and not just for aesthetic reasons. This wooden console has a wood veneer layer — delivering an unusual and beautiful grain. 

Purchased secondhand by Revamped Furniture and Home owner Beverley, the console got a new life when the furniture artist used her prowess to paint and redesign the table, creating a one-off piece that’s good for the planet and easy on the eye. It’s priced at €224 from Revamped.ie.

ZERO-WASTE ART

Wall art is everywhere. Handcrafted, feel-good, textured and textile. But for sheer, feel-good vibrancy, this handwoven, zero-waste wall hanging from Gift of Hands is a beauty and a natural one at that. 

Using upcycled woollen offcuts from Foxford Woollen Mills, that might otherwise go to landfill, the Rainbow Shades piece is a kaleidoscopic explosion of hue and texture. 

Soft and deep, it’s a visual and tactile magnet that looks as exquisite on a wall as on a chair, floor — or wherever this colourful piece of comfort is placed. It’s handmade by Mayo-based non-profit group Gift of Hands, so all profits go to the local community. It’s €195 from wemakegood.ie.

TAKE A SEAT

This year we’re more excited than ever by artists that work by hand with natural materials such as wood. With its bold exotic print and magnificent carving, this old teak chair is the epitome of traditional skills and original crafts being ethically celebrated. 

Upholstered with kantha-stitched block-print cotton, it comes with three assurances — that local craftspeople were paid a fair price; that it comes from one local community (in Rajasthan) to another (Schull, Co. Cork), with no big factories involved; and that there are only four like this in the world. It’s €340 from East Meets West Emporium, Schull, Co Cork.

CRAFT TO TREASURE

When it comes to bed parts, organic tufted textiles are stylish and charming. This brown headboard lends a contemporary style to the traditional craft of hand-tufting. 

From the Le Chéile collection at Ceadogán Rugs, it blends beauty and utility, to make beds look better. 

And feel better too. Handmade in Ireland from 100% wool, this piece of unframed, tufted creativity by the artist Martina Navratilova is a treasure. It’s priced from €800 at Ceadogán Rugs.

PINK POWER

Cupboards, presses, cabinets or something else — whatever we call them — every home is the better for having one. We’re loving them in pink in 2023 (especially in warm, earthy shades) for the sense of style they bring. 

This Raheen display dresser is a one-of-a-kind, teak, antique piece, made in the mid-1800s and expertly restored by craftspeople using traditional techniques. With half-glazed doors, antique gold hardware and three shelves it’s €2,299 from House McGrath, Douglas, Cork.

FULL THROTTLE

When choosing a lamp, it’s refreshing to choose something extraordinary that’s eco-friendly as well. And if any home accessory epitomises the reduce, reuse, recycle movement that’s in full throttle right now, it’s this solid metal table lamp. 

Made from original, used parts from old, no longer roadworthy Vespa scooters, each one has a colourful past. It’s visually striking as well, with its quirky design and distinctive shape bringing a little Italy into your home. It’s €341.25 from Flanagans Furniture.