I’ve collected catchalls for years, and as their name suggests, they are a place for everything — from loose coins and receipts to tubes of lipstick and fallen-off falsie lashes. In my mind, they’re as much of an accent in a room as a lamp on a nightstand or a throw tossed over a couch — and, like those categories of things, there are a lot of catchalls out there. So, if you’re on the hunt for an especially nice-looking one, you’ve come to the right place. I did some digging and rounded up catchalls for all sorts of tastes, including one that’s an “exuberant study of the blackberry” and another with passementerie trimmings.
Strategist kitchen and dining writer Emma Wartzman has five of these trays — which are meant to be artist’s palettes for mixing paints — and they come in handy for everything from stray hand creams to keys. (Party expert Dan Pelosi uses the trays for frosting during his annual cookie-decorating party.)
A radicchio leaf done in the style of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings …
… and a bell pepper that looks like it was just picked. (The bowl comes in eggplant form too.)
A play on Georgian lovers’ eye miniatures, this tray would look quite haunting on a mantel.
If you blink, you might think these trompe l’oeil bugs are the real thing.
Brooklyn’s Salter House is known for its Swedish porch brooms and “very sleepy Portuguese aristocrat” nightgowns. This tray is another heirloom-y find.
Yes, Astier de Villatte is pricey, but the feet on this bowl feel truly special.
A needlepoint “Home Sweet Home” tray to greet you (and your keys) in an entryway.
Button the corners on this one and it can become your traveling junk drawer.
Mosser Glass might bill the Bathing Beauty as a sponge dish, but I rely on it for jewelry collecting.
A nod to Diana Vreeland’s famed Red Room with its playing-card pillows.
Antiques dealer Erica Weiner swipes restaurant-branded ashtrays, including this one from Paris’s famous Café de Flore. “Turns out if you’re not drunk and emboldened to steal, you can buy one,” she says.
[Editors’ note: Café de Flore lists its prices in euros, so this is an approximation in U.S. dollars.]
As seen in our Secret Strategist newsletter: A bit of eBay hunting can get you a limited-edition butter pat made for Italian airline Alitalia by Ginori in the 1970s. Strategist senior editor Hilary Reid has a similar hot-air-balloon one.
These dishes by Mottahdeh at William Wayne, which are printed with phrases like “In golf, as in life, it’s the follow-through that makes all the difference,” charmed Reid, too. A chameleon with the words “Be true to yourself” has my own heart.
A wavy tray to sit on your vanity beside your Ultrafragola dupe.
The splatter pattern is a lot less obvious than the once allover terrazzo.
I think the cheeky check trend is going to be making a big comeback soon enough.
If you missed the gift shop on your way out of John Waters: Pope of Trash, there’s a Pink Flamingos–themed tray, illustrated by Los Angeles–based artist Seth Bogart, in the Academy Museum’s online store.
An “exuberant study of the blackberry” from the Book of Flower Studies, housed in the Met Cloisters.
It’s inspired by Portuguese azulejo tiles from the 18th century.
A recent addition to my collection, with necklace chains hanging off the scalloped edges and separated by the pearl in the middle.
Maraschino cherries and candy-cane stripes make for one maximalist dish.
These plates apparently celebrate the Palio horse race, held twice a year in Siena, Italy — a lovely wacky take on the whole “slow and steady” motto.
Pillow-Cat Books — everything has an animal, or an animal character, on it — is a Peanuts lover’s dream, full of titles like The Snoopy Collection: One Thousand Fabulous Snoopy Products and Scraps, a Snoopy Scrapbook. You can also get a sleeping Snoopy and Woodstock on this tray. (Or go for the whole gang.)
Something begemmed for your own gems from the king of decoupage, John Derian.
Speaking of gems, here’s a handy holder for rings.
Though Maureen McAfee’s one-of-a-kinds are often out of stock, you have a chance to get a Thou Art Momo original in a little shop in Maine.
Make this lacquer one even preppier and get it monogrammed (for an additional $13 fee).
A vide poche — French for “empty pocket” — that’s an objet d’art with all the passementerie trimmings.
Ceramicist Stephanie Dawn Matthias’s hand-painted ceramics are on my wish list. I’m eyeing this dish that references an illustration from French artist Daniel Buren that’s in Paris’s Palais-Royal.
Because it’s made from brass, this has a chance of getting a good patina.
A lava-toned flower that looks like it was plucked out of the earth.
To save yourself the trouble of trying to source the lipstick-print skirt (as seen on Sex and the City’s Charlotte) from Prada’s spring 2000 collection.
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
