This Is the One Cool Living Room Decor Item I Couldn’t Live Without
I’m a maximalist to a fault. Where most see clutter, I see visual interest, so picking my favorite piece of art or decor would be like picking a favorite child — or in my case, pet bunny. That is until a friend gifted me the Pillar Candle by Hay from Design Within Reach. At first glance, I admired its sculptural shape and color-blocked motif, but it wasn’t until I lived with it for a few weeks that I really began to appreciate its complexity.
Designed by Dutch designer Lex Pott, who operates a studio in the outskirts of Amsterdam, the Pillar Candle features unique color combinations (mine is half lavender and half dark teal) and totem-like, sculptural silhouettes that are both playful and architectural at the same time. “I really wanted to make the ideal candle for my own house and table,” Pott says. “I decided to use and redesign the archetype of standard pillar candles into towers that have multiple colors.”
Pott, who typically works with wood, stone, and metal, is known for taking a layered approach to his designs, and this artful candle is no exception. “I am very hands-on and material-driven,” he says. “We made the first candles all by ourselves in my studio in Rotterdam, Netherlands,” Pott says. “This way we could improvise and play with intuitive shapes and color combinations.”
Initially, I styled the candle on the floating shelf above my living room television. The colors tied into my bold artwork and energized my plain white walls without overpowering the surrounding decor, which is precisely the effect Pott was aiming for. “I incorporated both soft, neutral colors and bright, outspoken colors into these candles,” Pott explains. “The size and proportion of each color is very important to create harmony in the color blocking.”
After a couple of weeks of admiring the Pillar Candle on my floating shelf, I decided it needed to be displayed more prominently in my living room. So, I reworked one of the stacks of coffee table books on my media console and set the candle on top like a crown that I could now enjoy at eye-level while watching TV.
It wasn’t until I integrated the candle into my console-scape that I fully realized the value of its idiosyncratic shape. Composed of stacked segments of varying widths, the silhouette of the candle supplies both clean lines and a modern riff on traditional pillar candles. “Regular pillar candles are usually straight and one color,” Pott explains. “The shape of these candles comes from cylinders that progressively get smaller, layer by layer.” As a delightful bonus in this spot, the stacked shape of the Pillar Candle supplies enough width and height on top of my coffee table books to conceal one of the unsightly cords that hangs from my TV, which means it’s both a beautiful and functional piece of decor — no flame necessary!
Which is why, despite boasting a 60-hour burn time, I refuse to light this candle. I believe every object should have some sort of function in a home — even if it’s just to be beautiful and interesting — and for me, this candle is the colorful art piece that I use to hide one of my TV cords.
Since these candles start at $45 bucks a pop, you can grow your collection over time without breaking your bank account or disrupting your decor scheme. As Pott points out, they’re designed to make a statement on their own, but also to be grouped together to form a sculptural sightline inside your home (kind of like what you see in the windowsill photo of them above). “When the candles are combined, the colors bridge and connect with one another to form a colorful landscape,” he explains.