I have a purple wall in my small sitting room, the rest are cream, as are the curtains. The colour is a feature wall paint from Crown and a beautiful quality paint - I always find its much better quality than Dulux myself. My husband was not sure at first, but when we moved in it was so bland. The mismatch of gold picture frames/large mirror I had packed away from the late eighties/nineties came out again and really work on this wall! When we move to our new house, I plan to have at least one aubergine wall, as the fabric I've selected has some of that shade in it (I bought a 40 metre roll of overstock designer fabric on ebay at a fantastic price). At the moment I'm thinking aubergine in the hall perhaps as the floor is grey slate and the trim is all natural waxed pine, but we'll see if I'm that brave.

My hand-bag should be much lighter these days but it's not. Big ones are away from home, small ones are teens - so old enough to cram all their worldly goods into their own pockets + suck it up if anything is lost/broken in their care. Now handbag is full of elderly relative's goods - prescription meds, haemorrhoid creams, spare nebuliser capsules, pocket hankies, spare catheter bag, his appointment cards, his paperwork, his pension card + shopping list, Vicks Vapo-rub, a caipín .... Car emptied of pushchairs + buggies + car-seats, replaced with walking sticks, 4 wheel rollator, Handybar for ease of getting in + out. Have learner plates + disability sticker on windscreen ... Ho hum

Try Etsy which has lots of woodworkers selling all sorts of wooden articles, including corbels.

It's great that you have cookery books and a love for plants - those are perfect starting points for adding character to the space. Besides standard shelving, consider mixing in some floating shelves to display your cookbooks and maybe a small indoor herb garden for your plants. You could also hang some framed food-inspired art or decorative plates to add a personal touch.