Better Homes & Gardens | | style carrot |

Anything can be art under glass. I first heard this from stylist Kara Butterfield, who displayed rocks in and under tumblers on her mantle in Boston. She told me, “If you put anything in a glass, or behind glass it celebrates it, gives it meaning, like a picture in a frame.” Others seem to be catching on. Bell jars, or cloches, seem to be on every console and coffee table, containing anything from fawn figurines to succulents or matchbox cars to brass nails. J. Crew has even been showcasing shoes under them. Here’s a look at 35 examples which includes live plants, dead insects, and inanimate objects from the ordinary to intricate.

Prop stylist Dietlind Wolf

Good boutique in Boston

Better Homes & Gardens | Apartment Therapy

Country Living | Young House Love

Stylist Heather Nette King for Dulux

Stylist Heather Nette King

Traditional Home

Stylist Heather Nette King • Photographer Mike Baker

Elizabeth Martin Design | via Chocolate Creative

Anthropologie | SoSo Sculpture Series from Ginat, Etsy

Ampers & Vintage | home of designer Sarah Illenberger via Aesthete Curator

J. Crew, Midtown Manhattan | Better Homes & Gardens

La Patisserie des Reves | home of jewelry designer Stine A. Johansen

Green Wedding Shoes

stylist Heather Nette King • Photographer Mike Baker

Emma’s Design Blog | Stylist Graham Moss

David Stark Sketchbook

David Stark Wood Shop pop-up at Haus Interior

Prop stylist Dietlind Wolf • Photographer Sabrina Rothe

Montage: 54 Kitchen Banquettes

Our Boston condo is under renovation. One of the features we are adding is a banquette adjacent to the kitchen area. It seems to me that there’s been a proliferation of built-in seating recently. Unlike the booths of the ’70s (I grew up with an orange and white vinyl booth in a kitchen with oversize floral wallpaper that had a gold, brown, and orange plaid border), today’s specimens are sophisticated and sleek.

Ours will be U-shaped (not ideal, but we’re dealing with a tight space), with a pale blue and taupe chevron upholstered seat-back and pale blue faux leather seat cushion. The custom table has a walnut herringbone-pattern top on a restaurant supply style stainless base. I’ll post a photo when it’s complete. (If I’m not dead first.)

In the meantime, here are 54 very fabulous banquettes. In addition, check out my piece “The Haute Seat,” in last Sunday’s Boston Globe Magazine.