AELS home decor: vintage picture frames, throw pillows and small things for the house

AELS home decor: what we make

AELS makes home decor for the layer of a room that sits on top of the furniture: vintage picture frames, throw pillows and pillow covers, woven storage baskets, lampshades and small lit pieces. The design starts with materials and color — cast polyresin with a hand-brushed finish, real glass fronts, velvet and linen blends, paper rope and stoneware — and with the space each piece will occupy, from a 4 x 6 snapshot on a desk to a gallery wall of 8 x 10s.

Our frames are where most people meet us. We cast oval picture frames in black with gold trim, sage, blue and off-white; ornate rectangles with scrolls, beading and vine relief; arches and octagons for a gallery wall. Each one stands on an easel leg or hangs from hooks in either direction, and the backing opens by hand, so changing the photograph takes a minute. The contrast between a dark frame and a pale print is the oldest trick in framing, which is why the black oval with a gold line is the shape we keep in the most sizes.

The pillows follow the same rule of texture first, pattern second. Botanical pillows are cut to the outline of a cactus or a leaf; novelty pillows are sculpted lips, hearts, stars and moons; our pillow covers come in linen blends with chenille stripes and close on hidden zips. Most go straight into a cold machine wash, and every page says whether you are buying a filled pillow or a cover only.

For storage we weave cotton rope and paper rope into baskets that keep their shape when empty, and we fire stoneware into slotted berry baskets for the kitchen, with cutouts that let fruit breathe. Seasonal ranges change the light and color of a room for a few weeks a year: lit ceramic villages, pom-pom trees and gingerbread for Christmas, ceramic pumpkins and neon ghosts for Halloween. Every piece is designed to be moved, swapped and stored — home decor you live with, not a set you install once.

A frame is a small piece of sculpture around a piece of art, and we treat it that way. The organic curves of a scalloped oval, the abstract rhythm of beading round an arch, the beauty of a brushed gold edge catching evening light: these are the details people love when they pick one up. An artist’s print, a child’s drawing and a wedding photograph all deserve that experience.

Contemporary rooms often have plenty of open space and very little texture. One unexpected shape — a velvet monstera leaf, a bronze lips pillow, a black oval on a white shelf — strikes the balance between clean and lived-in. Everything in AELS home decor was created for that role: small enough to try, distinctive enough to change the space around it.