Decorating With Trays at Home

A rectangular valet tray, anchoring a collection of special things at home.

I've been building trays for many, many years: even before I founded Parvum Opus, I was crafting trays as tools to display my artworks and corral my collections. I'm quite attuned to the enchantment of objects, especially those that are of an intimate, domestic scale and have been made by human hands. For collectors like me, these carry deep meaning and exist in the world in a very special way. Trays are wonderful because they allow one to arrange (and rearrange) things while leaving them completely accessible. Seen from above the compositions contained in the trays form wonderful collages-- even quotidian things become part of an aesthetic whole.

Aesthetic clutter gathered in a pair of square valet trays in the studio.

I love to see my favorite things all around me, and when when I can gather and compose objects within the frame of the tray, it allows me to see them anew. As you might imagine, I collect trays of all sorts: antique ones made from silver, copper, wood, papier-mâché, etc. Somewhere along the way, trays I made with book boards and beautifully patterned paper became my particular favorites, as they add wonderful color and texture to any setting. They sit companionably among antique and modern art objects, and the paper ages in a beautiful, gentle way, like a well-loved hard-cover book-- they share the same materials and methods of manufacture, after all! I thought it would be fun to gather some of my favorite images of trays at work, in hopes that you might be inspired to bring your collections of small treasures out from the cabinets and let them live on your desks, tables and nightstands.

The rectangular valet tray at work, just right for pens, notecards & orange Tic Tacs stashed in an old snuff box.

A wave edge tray, housing a mini-museum of fossil and mineral specimens.

A small tray with block feet, just perfect for small collections.

Sometimes desk necessities include jelly beans.

An octagonal tray, in a classic Italian print, providing the perfect frame for this composition of antique wax seals.

A petite tray, holding a letter opener & an antique tartanware measuring tape, nestled in amongst the collections on the library table.

A wave-edged tray in beautiful shades of amethyst. The paperweight holds a reproduction of a charming gouache painting by my great grandfather in Colombia.

A wave edge pen & pencil tray pressed into service as a watch tray on the nightstand.

Composing according to color on my desk.

Of course, I couldn't resist adding in an image of the portable paper trays I've made with Bridie Hall!

Layered trays in spring-like colors.

A petite honeycomb tray, inviting a session of close-looking.

Small trays like the ones I've shared really are so useful to have around. As they're meticulously made to order with the very nicest materials and go directly from my hands to yours, they have a unique kinship with the special objects we treasure and use everyday. Having your necessities and collections at hand, artfully and thoughtfully composed, can be such fun. I hope this will inspire you to see your surroundings and cherished things with fresh eyes.

Souvenir is the blog for Parvum Opus, an artist-run studio in Detroit, specializing in artistic decorative objects and home furnishings. Comment below to join the conversation, and if you enjoyed this, don't forget to subscribe to receive an email when we publish new posts.