I recently bought this trug from my favourite local shop Quirky Dovetail to hold some of my magazines. I buy a lot of interior design magazines each month and have nowhere to keep them other than on top of tables where they don't exactly enhance the room. I thought a trug would be a more interesting item to store some of them in.

A trug is traditionally a shallow oblong basket made of strips of wood used for carrying garden flowers and produce. The word 'trug' is derived from the anglo saxon 'trog', meaning 'boat shaped vessel' but a Sussex Trug has come to mean a light but strong basket made from willow and sweet chestnut.

Trugs are very strong and incredibly well made so should last a generation! These days people often buy them to use indoors to use for kindling wood, magazines or any other items that they want to display.

I originally placed it in the kitchen but then moved it to the sitting room (you can see it on the left of the fireplace) where I think it makes more of a feature.

And don't you just love this little three-legged stool which I also bought from Quirky Dovetail? It's such a versatile item in the sitting room: children sit on it, we put our feet on it or our drinks on it.

I like to have a few items that are a bit different and generate interest and conversation otherwise an interior risks becoming sterile and boring.