Election Section

Ideas for spicing up your home 

Details count when making your house your home. They could be bibelots to excite the eye and imagination, or they could be the pretty things you use every day: 

• An important, big bowl is often the centerpiece for a table or mantel. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Lismore, its most popular stemware pattern on both sides of the Atlantic, Waterford has introduced a series of Lismore centerpiece bowls of Irish cut crystal. The stemmed 13-inch Scalloped Boat Bowl ($1,500) is an light-catching gem; a slightly simpler design is the 13-inch Statement Centerpiece ($595), which is footed but without the stem. 

• Another spectacular centerpiece bowl, called Amazonia ($3,400), comes from Scottish glassmaker Caithness. This limited edition is handmade, standing 12 1/4 inches high on a graduated stem with a multicolor tropical orchid design within; the bowl is fluted with cut facets and a subtle cobalt blue edging. 

• The London Desk Clock ($750), designed by Pam Waters for Staffordshire Enamels, is both decorative and functional. London landmark scenes are enameled on each panel of this hexagonal piece, with a round clockface on top. There’s also a Golfing Desk Clock ($750) version, showing scenes from famous golf courses around the world. 

• At the table, the choice of fine china can be a treat for visitors or an everyday pleasure for yourself. Pagoda, a new pattern from Tiffany & Co. (September introduction), is hand-painted blue on creamy white French faience, reminiscent of a classic chinoiserie willow design. The line is variable, with simple blue rims or decorated styles, ranging in price from $15 for a bread and butter plate to $175 for a set of four decorated dinner plates. 

• Tiffany Moderne is another new introduction, scheduled for October. This Limoges porcelain is cleanly shaped and bordered with geometrically shaded rectangles in platinum or gold. Estimated price will be about $200 for a five-piece place setting. 

• It’s functional, an eye-catching museum copy — and a tad expensive ($7,200) — but the Gigogne Coffee Service from Christofle makes the after-dinner cup pretty memorable. An art deco design created by Christian Fjerdingstad in 1926 for the French silversmith, the stackable service of coffee pot, creamer and sugar bowl is in sleek polished sterling with round wood handles and lid knob. The original is in the company’s Paris museum; the copies are a limited edition available only in Pavillon Christofle stores. 

• A very different approach to the coffee and tea service is offered by Bulgari for Rosenthal, with its new Concerto and Le Rose patterns in pastel colors. A six-cup Concerto espresso set ($125) depicts various musical instruments on the cups, and the saucers are decorated with musical notations. Single-file blossoms peek over basketwork in the Le Rose pattern (also $125 for six espresso cups). 

• Something new for traditionalists is Wedgwood’s new Rococo pattern ($185 per five-piece place setting), a white bone china embellished with blue bands and gold scrollwork. Another introduction is Traditions ($105 per five piece place setting), a homey bone china entirely in white with embossed swirling scrolls; it’s a new take on Wedgwood’s classic Queens Ware. Both patterns are due this fall. 

• The new Cocoa casual dinnerware ($35.75 for a four-piece place setting) from Pfaltzgraff is like its name — dark and complex. The shapes are simple, but the light plays against alternating matte and gloss finishes. 

• The handpainted casual pottery pattern, Four Sisters (each piece priced separately, but expect to pay around $115 for five pieces) is a breezy design filled with blue-on-white sketches of hens punctuated by polka dots, daisies and the like. Created by Elizabeth Roache for Present Tense, it goes from oven to table. 

• Designer Anne McCracken pays homage to the tradition of saying grace at the table with Gracewords stainless flatware ($320 for eight place settings and four serving pieces). Inscribed on the handle of each piece is a different word meant to inspire prayer or conversation.