Everyone needs a great serving bowl. But to be truly great, it should work for more than soup and salad. This Arte Italica bowl is a centerpiece as much as it is dinnerware: hand-blown, alabaster-like glass with a pewter pearl border done by hand in Italy. Keep it out, filled with moss balls or fresh fruit, then give it a rinse when company arrives. Pretty pieces shouldn’t be cooped up in cabinets.
Splendore Serving Bowl #SPL0129, $279, arteitalica.com
Floor mats are meant to go to the beach, live in mudrooms, sit in playrooms, and be the flooring you can cut loose on. They should look as fun as the fun you’ll have on them. We are glad the Koko Company agrees. The designs of their new dog and bird mats are as playful as waterproof, reversible, plastic rugs should be.
Dogs and Birds floor mats $ 46 each; KokoTrends.com (but the best place to buy is call to 1.888-873-5656).
Your alarm is the first thing you look at in the morningso it better be cute. I like my clocks simple, timeless, cordless and in a nickel plated brasseven better. These Roman numeral faces tell time with one double AA battery so needless to say, they have bells but no whistles.
It is just thing I want to wake up next to.
Caravan Old Timers Clock by Two’s Company , $65; available at methomesandaccessories.com
With this table runner, you could serve dinner with paper napkins and plastic forks and the setup would still be chic. Young but sophisticated, preppy but fresh, it is good-looking enough to leave out beyond meals.
Essex Runner, $84; DwellShop.com
