An Expert’s Take On The Best Home Accessories for Small Spaces
Take a look around my house, and you’ll be hard pressed to find anything that is a home accessory in the traditional sense. Home retailers would like us to believe that we need decorative objects to style our home – think wooden bowls, oversized beads — but I strongly disagree.
William Morris is famous for supposedly having said, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” But as a small-space dweller, I take his sentiment one step further: I say, Have nothing that you do not know to be useful AND beautiful. I think there’s no place for beautiful-but-useless objects in a small home. Here’s why:
Home accessories take up much needed space, they make it harder to dust and clean, and they actually create additional visual clutter – even if they’re gorgeous. This is not to say that you cannot have stylish objects in your home! Rather, you should choose beautiful things that serve a purpose.
Living in a small space, I try to be things that are beautiful and useful. For example, there’s a pretty round woven tray on my entry console, but it’s there to corral keys, hand sanitizer and all the other bits and bobs that need to be set down when we come in from outside (not just look pretty). On top of my bookshelf, you’ll see a gorgeous oversized wood bowl on display: it’s my go-to salad bowl for when we’re hosting a crowd that doesn’t fit in our kitchen cabinets.
Some people might scoff at the idea of paying extra for a well-designed utilitarian object, but since my broom is hung within sight: I opted for the petties one I could find on a budget. Even electronics, like my classic Tivoli radio or our retro-style Vornado fan could be considered decorative accessories with their sleek and distinct designs; my Tango printer is not exactly a piece of art, but it’s way more easy on the eyes than any other printer I could find.
If you’ve filled your home with pretty home accessories that don’t serve a purpose, I’d challenge you to box them up and see how your space feels without them. My guess is that the increased sense of space and greater ease with which you’ll be able to clean will far outweigh the decorative enhancement they provide. Use the money you used to spend on accessories to upgrade your workaday home items to be ones that you are proud to display.