Photo-Illustration: retailers
Like many couples, writer–slash–creative consultant Harling Ross and her fiancé got engaged before the pandemic and then had to postpone their wedding because of it. “When I first built out my registry last year, I didn’t include a lot of cooking stuff, because I honestly didn’t even know what I needed,” Ross explains, adding that their registry has changed a lot since they began working on it. As with most second times around, she says that being able to revisit and revise their registry “was an unexpected outcome from having to postpone — but ultimately kind of helpful.”
After months of cooking at home, for instance, Ross “now knows all of the gadgets we need” in the kitchen. And when it came to other home goods, only pieces the couple wants to keep “for years and years, if not decades or the rest of our lives,” made the cut, according to her. “We tried to come at it with a sense of permanence,” she explains. This approach resulted in a registry with things that “not only seem useful and have longevity but also feel unique and personal,” including a cloud-shaped cheese board, a sculptural humidifier, and an electric kettle that looks like a design-y children’s toy.
I like my drinking glasses sturdy and dishwasher-safe. Thinking about what it would actually be like to hold and sip from one was important to me. I don’t like a really thin lip. This tumbler comes in a bunch of different colors, but my favorite is this apple green. There’s just something really pretty about the way water looks against that shade of green.
My fiancé is obsessed with sleeping with a humidifier. I always made fun of him for it, but now I’ve actually come to like it too. He’s had the same clunky humidifier for half a decade. It’s kind of dirty; at this point, I feel like it’s almost becoming more of a health hazard than something that’s good for us. We want to replace it with something a little more aesthetically pleasing, and I’ve heard great things about this humidifier from Objecto. It kind of looks like a piece of art but is also a functioning humidifier.
Twisted candles just make everything a little more visually interesting. I have one set of these, but I love them so much I’m truly afraid to light them. A backup set would change that.
We’re big ice-cream people. We usually eat it in mugs, because our hands don’t get as cold and they’re easier to hold while watching TV. The freezer in our apartment is kind of finicky and is known to turn ice-cream pints into legitimate rocks. This ice-cream scoop has some kind of defrosting agent in it, which I think will come in handy. Though I’ll miss the bicep workout that is regularly hacking into a rock-hard pint of ice cream with a dinky spoon.
While I want to register for another Hill House Home nap dress (I own two), I compromised with my fiancé and registered for this coverlet instead. I’m just as big a fan of the brand’s home stuff, and in warmer months, this seems like a really practical alternative to a heavier comforter. I have printed pillowcases, but I want the rest of our bedding to be all white.
I have a few pots from Great Jones already. I use them all the time because the quality is fantastic. The brand came out with a bakeware collection in December, and I’ve been eyeing a lot of the pieces. I’m not a huge baker, but I feel like one of these bread pans in deep green would transform me into one. I almost registered for the pie pan and then I was like, I will never make pie. Whipping up a little banana bread or something feels easier.
We knew we wanted to register for a couple serving trays, but most of the ones out there are rectangular. This one has a cloud shape that drew me in. There is just something very pleasing about the shape that makes me want to cover every inch of it in cheese.
I was never really into tablecloths until I started working at my kitchen table and noticed my laptop was scratching the wood. That prompted months of internet searching using various permutations of key words like cool cotton tablecloth. My research brought me to Lisa Corti, who mixes all sorts of patterns within the same tablecloth. This one is really visually interesting. You can appreciate a new section of it every time you fold it open.
I’m an electric-kettle evangelist. They heat water so much faster than a regular teapot can. I use one every morning to make matcha, but the electric kettle I have now is kind of chipped and peeling because I’ve had it for forever. This one from Hay is a dream replacement. It looks like a chic children’s toy.
This bowl reminds me of a frothy ocean. I find it soothing. I imagine using it as a fruit bowl from day to day and then, when we can have dinner parties again, serving big salads in it.
Over the past year, I discovered one of my go-to weeknight meals is a homemade poké bowl. It’s easy, since the only thing you have to really cook is rice. Everything else is raw, which is perfect for me since I get a little flustered when I have to cook a bunch of things at the same time. I religiously hoard takeout chopsticks to eat my homemade poké bowls with, but I want to upgrade to these. I love that the silicone holders also double as rests for the chopsticks on the table.
My current cutlery situation is a little dire. I fantasize about everything Matilda Goad makes, but this flatware is a particular favorite. It comes with forks, knives, and spoons, and I like how the handles are all different colored cool tones. A true mishmash.
Stemmed wine glasses are great for a dinner party but too scary to me for every day. I always worry about tipping them over. So I love that these wine glasses are stemless just as much as I love their color. Estelle Colored Glass is one of my favorite recent homeware discoveries. The brand describes its pieces as jewels for your table, which is basically a pickup line targeted at me.
When I go to the bodega to get snacks, I’ll often pick up some fresh daisies or whatever’s there. Bodega flowers don’t always last very long, but I love having them in my apartment. This vase’s wiggly handles make it kind of look like a sea creature. Morgan Peck makes all of his stuff without using molds, so the pieces have slight variations that make each one feel special and really charming.
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