How to bling up your 'Billy' bookcase

Dan Black and Martin Blum are behind Anglo-Swiss design consultancy Black + Blum. As well as advising other companies on creative issues, they design their own range of products for the home.

"Our main priority was to give this piece a bit of character. In its basic form, it is very recognisable as the cheapest bit of shelving you can buy from Ikea, so we wanted to give it a new identity as well as a function by turning it into a self-contained home-office unit.

"We joined two of the shelves with hinges to create a work surface that can be folded up to hide a laptop. We hung magazine racks on each side and added one at the top to change the shape – it almost looks like a winged creature now.

"Staring at the back of a bookcase while you work wouldn't have been very inspiring, so we laminated some fake grass to add an outdoors feel to the back and added a blackboard."

The Independent