A vase shaped like a T-shirt! A literal fruit basket! Decorating your home with ceramics is a simple but elegant way to begin a collection of objets. Typically small, ceramic items like vases, dishes, and other receptacles can be both practical and design-forward without seeming pretentious or intimidating. Which is why this new collection by Italian company Il Coccio Design Edition speaks to our understated-interiors philosophy.
Best known for its whimsical take on the usually dull humidifier, Il Coccio has created a line of 19 household items that continue that vein of the playful-and-pragmatic. Each of the products, ranging from clocks to candle holders to dish ware to fruit baskets, embrace the ceramic from which they are made, making the material?from the Nove district in Vicenza, Italy?shine. The collection was designed by a slew of designers under the direction of Il Coccio?s Giulio Iacchetti, including Augustina Bottoni, Dario Gaudio, Odoardo Fioravanti, Carmelo Zocco, Valerio Sommella, and Studio Klass, and is available in four colorways: white, army green, dusty pink, and grey.

Minimalist and slightly mischievous, the pieces incorporate an element of drollness to the otherwise standard objects. A round clock with a slightly concave face and a ridged outer ring rests on a sliced-off edge, while a literal basket holds fruit, as does a 3D section of blocks. A coin dish doubles as a type of piggy bank, thanks to a slot along an edge, and a vase...