News + Trends

Why the fruit bowl is becoming the most exciting object in interior design

14/8/2026

Translation: machine translated

A bowl for fruit – sounds trivial, but it isn't. At recent design events, it became clear: hardly any everyday object is taken as seriously as this vessel. Five pieces show why.

A fruit bowl is usually the most inconspicuous item in a room. It sits there, it fills up, it gets refilled. Nobody thinks much about it. However, at the last furniture fairs in Copenhagen or Lausanne, I saw that this year the exact opposite is happening: young studios and workshops are treating the vessel like a sculpture – made of clay, marble or wood, often in limited editions or handmade.

There's also a practical reason for this: bananas, citrus fruits, avocados and onions, as I've already written in a previous post, don't belong in the fridge. How you store them makes a difference: open, well-ventilated forms help with even ripening and reduce food waste. Five studios have drawn conclusions from this – both creatively and skillfully.

More than storage

I discovered the first example at Deoron in Copenhagen: Clementine Long chose a shape for her "Wheel" wall bowl made of satin, white-glazed stoneware that is inspired by the Ferris wheel. Eight handles hold the fruit, each piece is handcrafted from clay coils, making it unique. Mounted on the wall, the bowl also doesn't take up a single centimeter of counter space.

At Abordage in Lausanne – a pop-up format by two brothers who showcase contemporary art in an unconventional way – I came across two more positions. Renaud de Francesco rethinks the "Circuit" bowl: inspired by marble runs, made of oak or maple wood, manufactured in sheltered workshops in Switzerland. The design has a practical core: the grooves keep the fruits at a distance. They don't touch each other, ripen slower and last longer.

It gets more sculptural with Vincent Kohler: his large wooden object called "Banana Split" is reduced to a single, almost droll gesture. Not an everyday object in the classic sense, but a good example of how far the fruit bowl theme can move away from pure function.

Gus Studio from Lausanne, founded by Lucile Conti, presents "Halo", an oval, bulbous ceramic bowl that consciously oscillates between sculpture and function with its simple opening. It was created as part of a competition by the Lausanne Design Days: ceramists and designers were invited to design objects for the Le Clay Hotel – a new design hotel in the middle of the Lavaux vineyards, which will open in 2027 and will house its own ceramic studio. Behind the competition is Ferus, the hotel's branding agency, which initiated the collaboration with the Design Days. "Halo" was selected as one of four projects.

At the other end of the spectrum is "Skala" by Cristallina Design, developed in collaboration with ECAL/MAS Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship and Switzerland's only marble quarry at over 1200 meters in Ticino. Designer Murilo Weitz designed the bowl from millions of years old marble, originally from fossilized sea corals. This gives the bowl an unexpected depth despite its austerity. It was also presented at the Lausanne Design Days.

A trend with substance

What unites these five objects is more than just their appearance: open forms made of glass, metal, ceramic or marble allow fruit to breathe from all sides, instead of enclosing it in a closed bowl. This allows it to ripen more evenly – a side effect that further justifies the sculptural claim of these pieces.

You don't have to travel to Copenhagen or Milan to bring a piece of this thinking home. Because: such designs are also available here.

Why the fruit bowl is becoming the most exciting object in interior design

More than storage

A trend with substance

These articles might also interest you

Nothing embodies summer in interiors as much as fringes dancing in the wind

Form follows farfalle – the pasta becomes a trendy motif

From the potter's wheel to the drawing pen: How Joel Adank found his second handwriting

Jewellery that doesn't want to go on the ear - but on the vase

Your mug has a secret – and a chip is all it takes to reveal it

Kintsugi for beginners: How I gilded a transport damage

Stoneware objects with standing man qualities

Fashion meets home decor: 5 ways to use jewellery and clothing to decorate your place

3 surprisingly great mug trends

Double the size for slow-paced pleasure

These articles might also interest you

Nothing embodies summer in interiors as much as fringes dancing in the wind

Form follows farfalle – the pasta becomes a trendy motif

From the potter's wheel to the drawing pen: How Joel Adank found his second handwriting

21 comments