Designing Functional Home Decor

A tray, a holder, an organiser — the small objects in a home are easy to overlook, and easy to get wrong. We think they deserve the same design attention as a statement lamp.

Functional decor lives in a difficult middle ground. Purely decorative objects add nothing to daily life; purely functional ones are often ugly enough to hide away. Our essentials are designed to do both jobs at once — to be genuinely useful and worth having on display.

Function is the starting brief

We begin with the job the object has to do. How is it actually used? What does it need to hold, hide or make easier? A desk organiser that does not suit the things people keep on a desk has failed before we have even discussed how it looks. Getting the function right is the non-negotiable first step.

Then we make it worth looking at

Once the function is solved, form does the rest. Proportion, weight, edges and finish are what turn a useful object into a considered one. A clean silhouette and a premium surface mean a piece can sit out in the open — on a desk, a console, an entryway — and add to the room rather than clutter it.

Material chosen to fit the job

As with everything we make, the material follows the design. Some essentials are best in fabricated, powder-coated metal for durability and structure; others suit 3D-printed forms for texture and detail. The right choice is simply whatever makes the object work better and feel better in the hand.

Small objects, same standard

We hold our essentials to the same standard as our lighting and furniture: designed in-house, made to order in India, and finished by hand. Good design should not stop at the big pieces — the everyday objects are where a home is really lived in.