This Is the Easy, Inexpensive Decor Item That Has Become the MVP of My Home

Throughout all my years as an apartment dweller and now a homeowner, I’ve had a rotating cast of characters that have slowly but surely become my home holy grail accessories. Whether it’s the pan I swear I can’t make my lemon roast chicken without (Le Creuset’s oval dutch oven, for inquiring minds) or the sheets I’d literally take with me to a desert island (honestly, they’re pretty cooling… so it tracks), these MVP items transformed from one-off buys into can’t-live-without-‘em favorites (and repeat purchases) almost instantly. 

By this point, I have a pretty good idea of what types of home decor picks or gadgets will earn a coveted spot on my MVP list. Anything that is functional and beautiful is an automatic win in my book, and the perk of writing home design content for a living means I have a justifiable excuse for perusing my favorite decor sites on the reg. Considering I’m basically always on the hunt for new favorites, even I was totally blown away by what became the indisputable holy grail accessory in our new home. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t even something we bought, at least, initially. 

When purchasing a home, often you inherit other people’s stuff. Some of it’s expected (the previous owner left behind a grill for us to use because we didn’t have one, which was so nice!), some accidental (they forgot a guitar and a pair of shoes), and some unavoidable, like fixtures, hardware, or finishes previously chosen in your home’s past life. In that last category, alongside myriad cool vintage lights, we also inherited an old school, unassuming peg rail shelf, and it’s low-key now one of my favorite features of our home. 

Often also referred to as “Shaker peg rails,” these utilitarian workhorses are plain and practical, just the way (I’d imagine)

There’s so much pressure when designing a home for everything to make a big statement, and I love that a shaker peg rail is kind of quiet — anti-design decor, if you will. It’s basically the accessory equivalent of the popular kid in high school that just couldn’t care less that they were popular (you know the one). It’s unassuming and unfussy, you can style it up or leave it plain, and — maybe most important of all — it really does actually help keep you organized. Plus, peg rails are oozing in period charm and look good, whether stained or painted, trimmed to fit a small area on your wall or wrapping around the whole perimeter of a room. Mount them higher or mount them lower; it’s up to you. Even in modern spaces, peg rails can just, well, hang.

We now have several in our home (from a few different places, but the Near To Home Etsy shop is my favorite!). One corrals my son’s growing hat collection in his bedroom, one in our bathroom serves as a spot to hang hair tools on, and we put yet another in the mudroom for jackets and bags, which makes a charming decorative statement when you walk into our home. It’s the home decor MVP I never saw coming, and I love it.