The hunt for good flatware
Bamboo-farmhouse core, $90 forks, unsettling spoons, and an appreciation for Salvador Dalí
My primary daydream growing up was always how I would decorate my future home(s). In school I would zone out imagining the classroom was an apartment and sort out how I’d make the space work (just one wall of windows isn’t ideal for a home!) In one of my earliest design decisions, I made a pact with myself that I’d eventually only own beautiful things. Every item in my house would be interesting and unique - from my furniture to my kitchen scissors, every item would be note-worthy. Anthropologie proved this was possible with their thoughtfully designed measuring cups and other often-over-looked home goods. Now seven years into living in my own places, I’ve amassed quite a few good-looking things. An antique-inspired sterling silver pizza cutter, a toilet bowl brush disguised as a cherry, and my bear-sculpture coffee table have been especially good wins.
Recently, my friends hosted a dinner party and requested to use my plates, glassware, and napkins - extremely flattering! However, this dinner party spread brought my attention to a hole in my collection - my silverware. My current set is an utterly uninteresting, slightly mismatched, set of silver flatware from IKEA, desperately ready for an update. I googled “interesting flatware” thinking this would be an easy fix, only to go down a flatware rabbit hole and find there’s next to nothing good out there. It’s all pretty mediocre or chugey or trying too hard to be different. Then of course, the sets I am not not a fan of are priced … accordingly. Here’s what I’ve found so far…
Sticks. So many sticks.
I may be a Vermont-living, nature-loving, Birkenstock-wearing gal, but I prefer my nature to remain outdoors, not in my kitchen drawer. So the myriad stick flatware I found was all an immediate no. I did enjoy the other biophilic designs I found playing with leaves and flowers (these $108 teaspoons from anthropologie are dreamy) so perhaps it is something more nuanced that bothers me than just “nature indoors.” Maybe it’s that these look terribly uncomfortable to hold. Or that thin, stubby little twigs like these aren’t really the stars of the forest. Or that the proportions of these handles to the utensil tops are unbalanced and the contrast in texture is stark in an after-thought sort of way. It’s probably a mix of all the above and some other deep subconscious belief that I don’t know I hold!
Alongside sticks was a niche of bamboo handles. With these, I appreciate the tiki and retro silliness of them and would happily use them for a themed party, but certainly not every day. What I appreciated the most about discovering these though, was how one HGTV Canada writer wrote about them: “Got a farmhouse vibe at home? Keep the theme going with rustic, natural bamboo flatware. Crafted by hand, the cutlery brings a casual, yet stylish feel to the table.” They either used AI or didn’t expect anyone to read the article - either way, I enjoyed the concept that bamboo matches a Canadian farmhouse aesthetic.
Plastic. So much plastic.
The primary search results for “interesting flatware” are acrylic-handled sets in just about every color and pattern you can imagine. I like a lot of these, but was especially interested in none of them. My favorite of the bunch was this Alain Saint-Joanis set, but only when I first read it as “marble” not “marbled resin.” Most surprising of all with the plastic-handle variety: the price point. Those marbled resin bad boys will cost you $80 to $90 apiece. As in, $90 for a single fork. Which in comparison, makes this set designed exclusively for the MoMA a steal at $656 for a 24-piece set! Oh, to be stupidly wealthy.
The consistent stars of the plastic-handle flatware game seem to be the French company, Sabre. According to their website, “The word “limit” doesn’t exist in the Sabre Paris vocabulary – because there are none! From the first day of the adventure, the House has claimed its total creative freedom. It spurns conventions to invent its own rules at the table.” A bit of a stretch i.m.o. but they do seem to be the center of the colorful handle universe, and a husband and wife duo making it 30 years in business is no small feat, so, kudos to them!
The introduction to colored handles spurred a new question - why is it silver anyway? This Google search was much more easily answered. According to the German silver company Robbe & Berking (est. 1874!) “Unlike other metals, silver has an inherent property – it’s antibacterial - that prevents the buildup of bacteria cells in its chemical bonds, inhibiting bacteria from surviving and thriving, which makes it beneficial to use silver cutlery for eating. This aspect of silver has convinced many health-conscious people to use silverware daily. Utilizing silver cutlery has once again become a habit to foster good health.” Apparently this has been common knowledge since 400 B.C. when Hippocrates of Kos, “known as the founding father of Western medicine” wrote about the healing and hygienic benefits of silver. “He used the bioactivity of silver for preparations of ulcer treatment and to promote the healing of wounds. In fact, silver has been widely applied in medicinal use worldwide. Silver has been proven to stimulate new cell growth and therefore is found it in everyday products, such as patches, creams, water- and air-filters etc.”
…The more ya know!
Not all that glitters is [silver]
While silver has been the gold… or should I say silver …standard since earliest written human history, a few brave folks are daring to go against the grain with color-coated stainless steel. Mostly it’s just gold or black, but there is a subset of rainbow metallics taking up a % of the “interesting flatware” market. The oil-spill appearance and aggressively saturated neons are an “ew” from me, but there was one set that turned my “ew” to an “oooh.” (Funny how close two sounds can be and yet, opposite in meaning!) Unfortunately, that “oooh” comes at the price of $335 per set of 5. Go figure. I did also find a set of flower-shaped teaspoons on Amazon that sparked joy despite their Barbie Universe nature. Still, the gold option is my personal favorite and at 8 for $8 I may send it on these. Fun fact: I found the same ones sold on anthropologie for 3 for $14 (;
Unsettling Minimalism
If one side of the flatware spectrum is oil-spill flower spoons, the other side is American-Psycho-approved minimalist flatware. It is not uncommon to spot these stretched-out, thin, surprisingly heavy utensils at contemporary fine dining spots, and despite the beautiful food they often accompany, they weird me out. For context, I’ve always been spooked by things that are disproportionally stretched out - the sleeves of straight jackets, thigh-high boots (specifically when displayed alone, on a person is fine), and this nightmare-fuel sculpture at the BTV Airport. So I may be coming at this with a strong bias, but it’s a definite no for me. And while proportional minimalism does not spook me, it bores me.
A fun fact from our friend at HGTV Canada - The Arne Jacobsen set was originally designed for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen in 1957 (and can be yours at $335 a set).
Enter: Salvador Dalí!
Overall, I have been deeply underwhelmed by what I’ve found. I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking for, but I was yet to be struck by awe until one Salvador Dalí entered the conversation. If you’re looking for out-of-the-box originality, you can always count on Dalí to deliver even now, 35 years after his death. In addition to his paintings, he has an impressive collection of metalwork - mostly in the form of jewelry but his exploration of flatware is what we’re here to admire today! These sculptural marvels took my breath away and made me wish more than ever to be stupidly wealthy. (A set of 5 sold in 2012 for $28,125.) If you like these, go ahead and give his furniture designs a look, too. This set of drawers is my personal favorite! Did you know he designed the original Lip Couch? He really is worth the hype.
So my takeaway after all of this? I’m a few thousand short of purchasing the flatware that really makes my heart sing, and there’s room at the table (pun intended) for some true creativity in silverware. Until then, utility will win out and my Ikea set will go on to see another day.
xoxo,
Julia