The best purchase I made last summer was a set of sea urchin and anchovy painted plates from Il Riccio, Capri. Famous for their fragrant dessert room appropriately named the Temptation Room, this cliffside restaurant is what Italian summer dreams are made of. Even though there was no shatterproof, budget-friendly way to get these plates back to the U.S.—other than to literally hand-carry them along with 15 additional pieces of tableware I picked up along the way—I bought them. I lugged them onto a ferry, then on two connecting flights home to New York City. They bring me back to the feeling of a perfect summer day every time I use them, even in the dead of winter.
So to piggyback off of last summer’s biggest fashion trend (shell jewelry), I’ve rounded up 17 home decor items inspired by the sea. Cowrie shell-adorned earlobes crowded the beach and puka shells the runway last season; winter is the perfect time to bring this seaside trend into our homes. Whether it’s literally a shell on a stand for your bedside table, or Anissa Kermiche’s naked pitcher—a subtler interpretation of lazy summer days—below, 17 ways to bring summer into your home year-round.
