Glass Cloches Are Making A Stylish Comeback. Here Are The Best Ways To Use Them

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It is said that many erstwhile styles eventually come back into fashion — vintage decor could not exist without the phenomenon — but a relative few aesthetics actually break through more than once. For every tasteful antique, there are a thousand avocado green kitchen appliances that are too dated to truly factor into contemporary spaces. But a glass cloche is just the classic, low-lift touch that will shine in almost any design.

A glass cloche, which you might have found hundreds of years ago in darling gardens, made its way into bakeries and home kitchens in more recent centuries. It is essentially just a domed, portable display case. It would have been intended to keep frost off plants back in that original use, and it has a bit of a functional element indoors, too. A glass cloche protects things like pastries from some pesky elements. Still, you wouldn't want to swap it with something like less attractive, but more effective, snapware for too long. Think of a cloche, instead, as a pretty way to draw the eye to pretty things. And, while its culinary applications are some of the best ways to temporarily store dainty cakes and cookies, there are ample opportunities to stage them elsewhere around your home.

While glass cloches have been around for hundreds of years, it's not as if they ever totally disappeared from consciousness like sponge painting and singing plastic fish. Their presence in confection shops and even plenty of other types of retailers has kept them familiar, even if they no longer dot countertops all across the country. That lingering familiarity, rather than ubiquity, makes a glass cloche seem at once like a unique little purchase and something that just makes sense to have around the house.

Having a glass cloche can also be a small semblance of luxury, even in the midst of tougher economic times. The lipstick effect posits that consumers will reallocate their dollars to life's smaller luxuries during times of uncertainty. And, being that whole generations have more or less been submerged in uncertainty for lifetimes, that lipstick effect turns into more of a tattoo. It is literally just easier, both physically and financially, to pick up a nice trinket now and then than to invest in huge pieces of furniture or dive into major renovations.

Odds are that you can find a suitable use for a glass cloche in every corner of your home. We think it's yet another classy piece of decor you should look for at your next estate sale, but you can also find items like this Creative Co-op glass cloche online for faster gratification. You might also just be able to snag one from an old cake stand and then repurpose its base. And it does, of course, look lovely in the kitchen, covering shimmering sugar cookies or even clusters of (unlit) candles. But you can also use it to highlight something like a shallow bowl of floating flowers on the dining room table, or even little groups of succulents in a real throwback. Just make sure that these particular plants will thrive in the cloistered environment before covering.

One of our favorite places to use a glass cloche is on a nightstand or vanity in the bedroom. It is an excellent way to protect things like infrequently used perfume bottles from collecting dust, while emphasizing their own appeal at the same time. The same goes for jewelry or time pieces that you wear enough to keep them out in the open, but not so often that you don't want them a bit more protected. A nice cloche keeps those earrings, cufflinks, and watches handy and helps them stay polished a little longer.