Inside artist Laura de Búrca's Dublin studio

Dublin artist Laura de Búrca's work is mesmerising and evocative. I love her use of colour, her attention to detail and the way she can capture a precious moment of shifting light. Three of her pieces hang on my walls.

We attended the same school and recently bumped into each other in our local park, the War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge. The NCAD graduate warmly welcomed me to her Thomas Street studio recently, which was a real visual treat.

Laura is currently working on a book about her father's family's orchard in the countryside near Tuam, Co. Galway. Poring over newspaper archives to find details of its prize-winning country fair entries and studying the people and the place in black and white photographs, she has been inspired to create a series of beautiful illustrations for the book, from the ivy-clad frontage of her grandparents' home to detailed studies of fruit and foliage.

Like sunlight breaking through the trees, she breathes vibrancy and light into the still-life studies of the apples and other fruit grown on the orchard. Her research has also shed light on Irish varieties that have since been replaced on shop shelves by imported fruit.

On Laura's desk (formerly owned by an architect and picked up for a song on a recycling website), my eye was instantly drawn by a series of tropical birds. The inspired choice of canvas? Paint sample tiles rescued from a skip outside the nearby Farrow & Ball showroom on Cornmarket. The English paint company is renowned for its range of high quality heritage colours, and I love how Laura has found a new use for her find. Red tags from a vintage label maker proudly describes the rather unusual breeds of bird, such as Candy Plumed Sundove (below), that she has brought to life.

Photos relating to Laura's painstaking research of the orchard also hang on the walls.

In every corner of the studio, creativity blooms. Laura, who has worked as an artist facilitator and workshop devisor with The Ark, a children's cultural centre in Temple Bar, made the leafy paper garland for a friend's wedding from old paper. She can also turn her hand to lifelike flowers, as pictured on top of a table she recently volunteered to upcycle for Oxfamhome on Francis Street, the subject of a blog post I wrote for the Oxfam Ireland website.

See Laura’s work on http://fawnchorus.tumblr.com and www.flickr.com/photos/lauradeb. She also blogs about colours on http://coloursnames.blogspot.com

The blog post about the table she upcycled for Oxfamhome is 

http://www.oxfamireland.org/blog/2012/04/04/how-to-upcycle-second-hand-furniture-from-oxfamhome/

Look book: Colour-co-ordinated shelves

My dad used to work in the National Library and I'm sure he won't be too impressed when he sees how I have categorised the books in my living room. 

Not by author, genre or publishing house (as one of my friends has done!), but by colour. When Eoghan's parents enquired was there anything in particular we might like for Christmas, he joked: "Maybe some more grey books, we don't have many of those."

SHELF LIFE: A selection of our books sit on white Lack wall shelves from IKEA.

Forget the Dewey classification model preferred by libraries, displaying books by colour has a pleasing effect. I began with the shades of white, beige and yellow before orange turned to red. Purple gave way to blue and greens, then grey made its way to black. Luckily, my favourite author David Lodge's books come in every shade, helping to provide markers.

It is quite pedantic and took a good two hours, but I think the effect is quite striking (just don't expect me to locate a particular book in a hurry). When using floating wall shelves, it's probably best to stick to books of roughly the same height. The majority of our bulky books live upstairs in a Billy bookcase from IKEA and on our beside lockers, which meant I could pick and choose which ones would be placed on the Lack floating shelves, also from IKEA. 

Random point: I was surprised by how many books have a spine in a different colour to the rest of the cover! 

READER'S RECOMMENDATION: This photo of a Georgian flat in Bristol (spotted on the Living Etc forum) inspired me to try colour-coordinating. It provides a focal point in a room otherwise dominated by more neutral tones. Check out the apartment's stunning before and after! Image: kbspitfire on Flickr

Should you choose to colour-block (and be slagged by friends when they come to visit), here are my recommendations:

1. Kill the clutter

I had attempted colourr co-ordinating before on the shelves to either side of the fireplace, but they were too narrow (and cluttered with photo frames and other decorative objects) for it to be effective.

BEFORE: The colour blocking was lost among the clutter on these shelves, which I've since had removed during my before and after living room makeover.

2. Go wide if you can

Colour co-ordinating works best on wide shelving, particularly when the storage spans the length of a wall or where shelves are arranged in a grid-like pattern, as seen in the image below:

GREAT SNAKES:  Apartment Therapy shared this photograph of Eccentric Scholar's book collection. He explained: "I aligned my books in honor of the Rainbow Snake of Australian mythology. (Hence, the colors move in a zig-zag pattern, from top left to top right, then right to left, and so on)." Image: Eccentric Scholar on Flickr

3. Tall and narrow also turns heads

Graduating colour and height can also work very well, particularly on a narrow book case.

BEDTIME STORY: The graduated heights create interest in this arrangement and includes space for books of the same series on the bottom shelf. Love the little white rabbit too! Image: ashleyg on Flickr

4. Stack 'em high

Stacking books on top of each other according to colour fills out the gap normally left above books, allowing space for other items.

FILLER PIECE: Packing some sections with books allows for 'feature boxes' in this bookcase on a houseboat (the house tour is well worth checking out) on the Thames. Image via DesignSponge

TITLE WINNER: This image (via The Inspiration Blog) shows how to colour co-ordinate using limited shelf space space by stacking. I'd like to have a flick through some of these books, particularly the Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface by Lars Muller 

5. Don't be afraid of the dark

Although white shelves provide the perfect back-drop to colour co-ordinating, it is also very striking on wooden and black shelving.

LIBRARY'S FINE: The arrangement of books by colour has transformed these dark wooden shelves. More importantly, there's a gorgeous pug in this photograph! Image via The Inspiration Blog which is packed full of examples of colour-co-ordinated books!

6. No shelves? No worries

You can also get the look by simply piling books according to colour and never be accused of being messy ever again!

PAGE TURNER: Create your own mini skyscrapers with colour-coded books. I like how they graduate in height also.  Image via HomeShoppingSpy

7. Apply to other media

Colour-blocking can extend to other collections, such as films, records and other media.

CINEMA CLUB: DVDs are arranged by colour on the top shelves of this bookcase. Be warned though, most have either black or white spines, which doesn't make for great colour-blocking. Image via The Inspiration Blog

COVER STARS: A collection of comics and kids' books are put centre stage by displaying them face forwards. Image: Craft and Creativity on Flickr via LilSugar