Some collectors want the tackiest items imaginable, but for others they are heartfelt reminders of the past

For Caroline Walker, 65, holiday fridge magnets aren’t merely practical souvenirs holding up the shopping list but “meaningful little reminders” that bring her back to a time or place in her life. The first in her collection was a little magnet from Dnipro, Ukraine. It was a gift from the leader of a group of Ukrainian students to whom she taught English. “I look at it now and I wonder where they all are, if they’re OK, how many of them died, how many of the boys are fighting,” she says.

Walker is among dozens of people who contacted the Guardian to share their emotional response to holiday fridge magnets in light of a new study conducted by Liverpool University that suggests these objects may also provide an important means of accessing happy – and not so happy – memories of past trips.

When interior designer Delia Kenza took over her aunt’s home, she had to make it comfortable and keep its character, but bring in a little of her own

New York interior designer Delia Kenza didn’t go through any bidding wars, or an arduous search for the perfect family home to acquire her 1880s Brooklyn brownstone; the Clinton Hill property has been in her family for generations. Delia and her family moved into the home after her aunt, who had lived in the brownstone for decades, no longer wanted to live in the city full time. “Since I was a little girl I’ve known the house; I’ve grown up seeing the original details, high ceilings, shutters and plasterwork,” Delia says. She had a clear idea of how she wanted to modernise her new home, which she shares with her husband Júlio Leitão and their two daughters, but the very details that lend the property its character and charm would prove problematic when making the home comfortable. It was up to Delia to find solutions that wouldn’t interfere too much with the fabric of the building.

A trip to France had made a lasting impression on the interior designer and would have a marked influence on the aesthetics of the family home. “I had visited the Louvre while in Paris and was inspired by the timber floors, white walls and brass handrails,” she says. “The rooms were full of very old paintings, yet the space was modern and I appreciated the way they managed to bridge the old and the new together.” Delia borrowed the black-and-white palette with brass accents for her interior scheme. “With this arrangement, whatever artwork we’d hang would pop on the walls.” Alongside the art, other stylish additions include an Afteroom bench by Menu and the IC pendant light by Flos .

The discovery of an old fresco inspired the colours and themes for this distinctive reworked apartment

Sometimes it only takes a hint to change the fate of a project. For Andres Eduardo Avanzi, a young architect from Chile, it was a glimpse of a faded, dusty colour that emerged from beneath a thick layer of paint and plaster.

He suspected that the soft blue, seen on a wall during the first stages of the renovation of his apartment in a late 19th-century building in the heart of Bologna, could be an original fresco.

Stylish lighting has replaced plants and vases as the new interior must-have, be it colourful, cordless or even works of art

Our choice of ornaments has come under fierce scrutiny ever since Instagram, TikTok and lockdown Zoom meetings put our knick-knacks and trinkets on public show. Houseplants , candles , vases and books have all had their turn as the accessory of choice. But for 2024 the interiors must-have, artfully spaced on a living-room shelf, is the side light or table lamp.

And if it’s a one-off, all the better. Secondhand homeware platform Narchie reports a boom in lamp sales “Lighting is one of our most popular categories on the app, with sales increasing 47% compared with last year,” says Harriet Pringle, Narchie’s chief executive. “Recently, table lamps have consistently been the most searched-for items, followed by floor lamps, lampshades and wall lights.”

A psychologist and his partner create a sanctuary with bold and bright hues

Inspiration is one thing, the ability to express your ideas in a tangible and functional way is another. Working room-by-room, Tom Lalande and Julian-Pascal Saadi have fused influences from their travels and heritage to bring warmth, energy and life into this east London townhouse.

“As a psychologist, I’ve always been very interested in the mind, our feelings and what we think about,” says Julian-Pascal. “I know that there’s a very strong link between architecture, colour design, and how we feel internally.” With this in mind, he was clear that he wanted each room to have a specific effect.

A textile designer’s Cheshire home is a skilfully curated collection of modern pieces, heirlooms and charity shop finds

A lison Sharpe has long surrounded herself with stylish, colourful people from whom she takes inspiration. She was a punk on the Manchester fashion scene before becoming a textile designer, and her love of interiors has been a constant.

The 1930s semi in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that she shares with her husband is filled with personal treasures, from a vintage bergère armchair upholstered in a Vivienne Westwood fabric to a painting by friend and artist Ben Mayman that brings the blue-painted walls of the dining room to life.

The highlights of London’s Collect craft fair, an illuminating show from Sadie Coles and an LA musical repair shop that deserves an Oscar

This month’s news covers water, light and the need to make and mend. There are stories on everything from Amazon’s Smile to celebrating the menopause with ceramics. For more features and articles like this, sign up to our monthly Design Review newsletter.

The appeal of bookshelf wealth and its ensuing outrage tells us something uncomfortable about our culture

I remember this one assembly. I was seven, eight? And the headteacher was talking about what makes a book. I guess it must have been around whatever passed for World Book Day back then. No Harry Potter costumes for us in those days, no Elsa-from- Frozen (because-we-have-the-activity-book-actually), no, these were the days when we would take it in turns to read from the papyrus scroll, perhaps in a little pretend Shakespeare beard if our mums remembered to pluck the goat the night before.

But I remember Mr Bainbridge’s assembly as revelatory and sort of beautiful. He talked about the way imagination could blossom, then be corralled into words, and how these words could be lined up on a printing block, and there was something, I think, about growing a tree for its paper, and then, how this story was bound and protected by its cover, and how each of these little folders were impossibly precious. He inspired in me, back then, a kind of reverence for books. But lord, my admiration is nothing compared to the dislocated, swooning awe for the book as object that exists today.

A 20th-century home in Pesaro, owned by the same family for generations, has been updated with vintage and eclectic finds

Situated in Pesaro, this early 20th-century villa overlooking Italy’s Adriatic coast is a cross-generational treasure. It belongs to the family of Matilde d’Ovidio, CEO of Ratti Boutique , which was founded by her grandparents in 1945. Matilde’s mother, Licia, still lives on the top two floors, while Matilda, her husband, Alberto Curandi Gaist, an insurance broker, and their child live on the ground floor. All enjoy the garden with its heady mix of palm trees, jasmine, tamarisk trees, pittosporum and oleander, either on foot or from the comfort of armchairs.

In 2018, the couple began working with interior designers Raffaella Moroni and Steano Pompucci of Zucca Design to give what Moroni describes as the “very old-fashioned” and “heavy” interior a contemporary look while preserving “the soul of the house.”