The 10 Pieces You Need to Start Your Forever Homewares Collection Especially if you Rent
Look around your home and I'm guessing that whatever your age or size of your abode there are pieces that have travelled with you from student places to forever spaces. Things that signify, to you, that you are home - in that peculiarly British sense of the word - meaning the emotion of comfort and belonging as much as the physical bricks and mortar. Today I thought I would outline some of those things so that you can start, or recognise, your own collection. I'm not talking about sofas and beds - of course we need those but they will change over time as taste and more importantly space permit. No, I'm talking about the rug that once spread out makes you feel you have truly moved in, the vase that, once on the shelf, means friends will know it's your place. To employ an over-used phrase it's sort of your desert island pieces but it's a collection that can start at any time and carry on as long as you want.
1 AN ACCENT CHAIR
I say accent advisedly as it doesn't have to be an armchair. And, as I said above, a sofa may be too big to move usefully with you but an accent chair can start off in a small sitting room, then move to the corner of a bedroom, or even find a home on a good-sized landing. Find one you like and keep it for as long as you need before you perhaps pass on to a child leaving home. It may have to be re-upholstered over the years and look quite different but it's still your chair. Find one you like and love it forever.
2 A RUG
Big rugs are expensive but worth the investment and small rugs can always be layered up. I have two rugs I brought back from a year in Senegal (west Africa) that are now so threadbare they are used as throws but from the age of 22, they were laid on the floor of every flat I ever lived in. In fact, writing this has made me think I should make them into cushions as I still love them but they don't really qualify as rugs any more. I do also have a small collection of Persian rugs variously acquired from family and shops that have also been in every house and every room.
3 A BIG MIRROR
Nearly 30 years ago when I was a journalism college in Darlington, I bought a huge mirror in a car boot sale. It had clearly once been attached to a piece of furniture - some sort of dresser or dressing table - but its lower half was long gone. It's terribly heavy and for the following years in rented flats it had to be propped against the wall. But when we bought our first flat we were finally able to drill holes in the wall and fix it in place. Now it lives in the hall and is one of my most treasured possessions.
4 A PAIR OF CANDLESTICKS
It's the small accessories like that this that are eminently portable and real signifiers of home. I don't actually have a pair as such, but The Mad Husband has a wooden one he has had since he was a student and which currently lives on the kitchen table although it has been variously on the mantelpiece, the bedside table and in the bathroom.
