Welcome to our Shop Showcase series, where we’ll be showcasing some of the best shops selling home accessories.
Mora Approved is a shop I first became aware of via Twitter. It struck me as being that little bit different. It’s good to find shops and websites with products that are unusual, with original products. Mora Approved sells European goods, and you can search on the website under country. The list of countries contains both western and eastern European countries so you know you are going to make some interesting finds.
Mora Approved sell a brilliant range of home accessories. We’ve put together a list of our top ten favourites from the site – the innovative, the beautiful and the must haves.
Top of the list are these Hukkaa Deisgn Oy soapstone whiskey cubes. A Finnish design, the idea is that you put the cubes in the freezer. When you are having a glass of whiskey (or any other drink) you take them out and place them in the glass instead of ice cubes. For £19.50 you get ten cubes – 2cm by 2cm by 2cm. The soapstone comes from the Finnish mountains and doesn’t absorb any liquid or pass on any of its own flavour. They are a great idea and surely would be a talking point at a party.
From Urecht in the Netherlands we have this beautiful set of eight vintage bowls. Measuring 8cm by 5cm the handmade bowls are a mix of mottled blue, green and cream – each one slightly different from the next. Having eight in the set is great. It allows for breakages, extra guests or larger families, or simply for putting nibbles in and using them separately. The cost is £25 for the eight.
What isn’t immediately apparent from this Lockengeloet upcycled vinyl fruit bowl is that it is made from old vinyl records. But when you examine the bowl you see that the inside has a recordat the centre. This is one of Mora Approved‘s products from Hamburg, costing £25.
Here we have more handmade products, this time from Italy. This L’officina set of four rustic coffee tumblers are made by Sonia Girotto, a ceramic artist from Turin in Italy and are blue inside with a white glaze outside. The ceramic stirrers really add to their appeal. The price for the four is £49.50.
The kingfisher is one of the most beautiful birds and so colourful. Myrte de Zeeuw designs these cushions inspired by the birds in her garden in Eindhoven in Holland. The designs are printed on to organic cotton and turned into cushions. It is hard to beat the colours on this cushion, not only on the kingfisher itself but on the surrounding background. The Myrte de Zeeuw kingfisher cushion costs £45.
Prrint! is a Spanish company which turns old maps and encyclopedias into unique gifts. In this picture London’s Big Ben and the red balloons are printed on ‘Chatterbox’ a children’s magazine from the 1900. But obviously each one will be unique, and because it is an authentic print it has that antique look about it. The Prrrint! London vintage print can be bought for £8.
This Pavel Sidorenko numbered upcycled vintage vinyl clock is made in the same way the fruit bowl is made. But the clock is made by Estonian designer Pavel Sidorenko. Old vinyl records are used and laser cut to produce the clock with its interesting grooves and shape. The price of the clock is £54
From France we have this Reine Mere arbot trivet. The trivet costs £25 and is made from sustainable birch plywood from France and is great for resting hot pots on. It looks really good so you would be happy just leaving it on the worktop for easy access, rather than having to tidy it away.
These side by side bookshelf bookmarks are another great idea. The idea is that if you have a few books beside your bed you can sit them on the bookshelf, and the book you are currently reading can hang over the top so that you don’t lose the page. Designed by Simon Bredt and made of untreated oak the bookshelves are small enough to sit neatly on your bedside cabinet or shelf. Cost is £49.95.
This vintage 1920s Dutch Droste cacao collectible tin is more than seventy years old.The Droste effect is when an image is contained within an image, so here you can see that the tin features is in the picture of the tin. Vintage Droste cacao tins are famous for their intricate lithographs and the world famous picture. This tin costs £45.
By Jackie Cosh
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