Cambridge - 7 Piece Curated Set

The Cambridge curated set has seven ceramic flowers: a rose, a camellia, a dahlia, two poppies, a French marigold and a stargazer lily. Each arrives in a Chive box of its own, ready to hang straight from the keyhole. Seven turned out to be the right number for a long wall. Fewer looked lonely, and more started to resemble a parade.

Good hallway wall art can be appreciated in passing, and Cambridge's navy, violet blue and pistachio blooms were chosen to read clearly at walking pace. Ceramic also suits a busy corridor, with no glass front to crack and no canvas to scuff. I have bumped into my own hallway wall more often than I would like to admit. The flowers have handled it better than I have.

The Cambridge ceramic flower collection features navy, violet blue, robin's egg blue, pistachio green, dewberry and burnt yellow. Reactive glazes give each piece slight variations, so the blues shift between morning and evening light. In a hallway, where light tends to arrive from one end, that shifting is part of the appeal. The wall looks different every time you pass.

For a hallway, arrange the Cambridge set in a long, loose line rather than a tight cluster, alternating the navy pieces with the lighter blues and greens. Keep the Burnt Yellow Poppy near the middle so the warm note sits at eye level as people walk by. Mark positions with painter's tape first. Hallways are unforgiving of second thoughts.

The Cambridge curated collection is easy to hang, with a keyhole recess on every flower that drops over one screw in standard drywall. For a hallway line, a strip of tape at one height keeps everything level. Seven screws and a quiet afternoon will do it. The tape is the only real trick involved.

Caring for the Cambridge ceramic flowers is mostly a matter of dusting now and then with a soft cloth. Because the finish is colorfast and waterproof, fingerprints from a passing hand wipe away easily. Hallways collect dust, coats and stray umbrellas. The flowers are the one thing out there that never needs sorting.

Yes, the Cambridge flowers are sold individually too, since every bloom is listed separately. As a set, though, the seven were picked to balance warm against cool along a long wall. Buying one is entirely reasonable. Buying all seven spares you the work of deciding which blues get along, which took us longer than we would like to say.

The Cambridge ceramic flower set suits hallways, stairwells and landings, any long wall that people pass more than they sit beside. The blue palette also works in a bedroom or a navy-painted study. Its real strength is turning in-between spaces into somewhere. Most homes have at least one corridor that has been waiting years for that.