"My house is pretty empty; only what I need is in it." —Georgia O'Keeffe

We have many reasons for selecting the things that surround us in the gloriously personal universe we call “home.” Here, in our private quarters, away from watchful eyes and free from the weight of the world, we get to choose which items to place in arm’s reach and what artifacts to use in animating our daily private lives. Whatever our relationship to “home,” it’s often objects that bring color and comfort to our domestic worlds.

As years have passed and pandemics have waxed and waned, the articles of domesticity have taken on new meaning. Quarantining, working from home, or simply seeking refuge, it’s likely that most of us have spent more time at home over the last few years than ever before. As we’ve found ourselves housebound, new essentials have emerged – those objects and tools for living that today we wake up to find are absolutely necessary for shoring up the scaffolding of our daily existence.

Small or large, soft or hard, commanding or slight, functional or simply nice to look at, these new essentials are the things we cannot live without. Not because they’re life-and-death, but because they speak to our souls in a way that reminds us we’re human. Each of us is capable of experiencing joy and satisfaction, and although there is plenty just outside our doors or even in the next room that might steal those emotions away, inside these four walls, with our personal objects d’art, we are alive and we are ourselves. These are the new essentials for a life well lived at home.

 Brief Essay: written by Lauren Gallow