Ten Enchanting Things I Don't Need But Totally Want Anyway

1. My husband cannot for the life of him figure out why I continue to hang on to old issues of certain magazines -- World of Interiors, Domino, Dominique Browning's House and Garden, etc. Now I can tell him, "Because I knew someday this would be invented" (with a note of triumph in my voice).

(The Adjustable Storage Stool by NJU Studio, $200. HERE.)

2. I love making soups and stews but the fumes from the onions make my eyes water and my lids swell in the most alarming manner. I've been using my son's swim goggles as makeshift protectors, but this pair is sooo much more stylish. Very "I'm a 1920's heroine with a racy past and a yellow Hispano-Suiza motorcar", no?

(Retro goggles, $24. HERE.)

3. I have a downstairs powder room that's a study in black and white and needs a shot of color. This guest towel would brighten things up marvelously and has the added benefit of being densely colored enough to hide all the schmutz from a nine-year-old's hands.

(Pink carpet hand towel, £40. HERE.)

4. This ingenius bookrest lamp will save your page when you're done reading and turn itself into a symbol of warmth and domesticity at the same time. Is there a more poetic way to say there's no place like home? The lump in my throat makes me think no.

(Bookrest Lamp by Suck UK, $80.00. HERE.)

5. Because it's beautiful to look at. Because it's a great hostess gift. Because it's fun -- you brew yourself a pot of it and then pour it directly into the bath. Because it has lavender and all sorts of lovely therapeutic herbs in it to make a long, tiring day go away.

(Organic Lavender Bath Tea, $12. HERE.)

6. It's no secret that I am besotted with the 18th and 19th centuries, and this reproduction English coat rack brings all my fantasies of being a Victorian lady explorer into sharp reality. It's just the thing for hanging up my family's collection of cloaks, capes, shawls, heavy woolens and Ulster coats.

(English Tavern Wall Coat Rack, $68.99. HERE.)

7. I don't know what it is about this scarf, but I'm smitten. Is it the enchanting color palette? The arresting photograph? The fact that it so effortlessly embraces modern and vintage at the same time? The fact that it's by one of my favorite designers?

(Paul Smith Silk Rabbit Scarf, $160.07. HERE.)

8. Years ago, the World of Interiors did a feature on moquette, the upholstery fabric used by the British Transport System and I fell in love with its colorful eccentricity. It's almost impossible to find, though (I've looked).

(vintage London tube train)

This wash bag from the London Transport Museum uses a pattern developed for double decker buses between 1939 and 1942 -- I find it very "Don't you know there's a war on?" And those jewel tones -- it's like tumbling into a Farrow and Ball fan deck.

(RT Moquette Wash Bag, £59.99. HERE.)

9. I have long coveted the "Heathcliff" pillow designed by Sam Taylor-Wood for The Rug Company, but at $895, it's not looking likely.

(Rug Company "Heathcliff" pillow. HERE.)

This cushion, on the other hand, is smaller but strikingly similar (if you don't mind the riders) and is a euphoria-inducing $82.00.

("Over The Hedge" needlepoint pillow. HERE.)

10. No explanation necessary. Husbands and boyfriends, you have been warned.

("Forgotten" man bag. HERE.)

("Wrong" man shopper. HERE.)