You may have heard: We had a little rain over the weekend in NYC. Looking at the blooms of dripping umbrellas drying in hallways everywhere, we are suddenly appreciating a little-thought-of home accessory, the umbrella stand. Here are a few colorful modern ones we spotted on our favorite clicks, though we have to ask: Can’t you just use a waste paper basket?

The Splash Umbrella stand, $75 at gnr8.biz, reminds us of a flower — a rubber flower!

Aki means autumn in Japanese, but these Aki umbrella stands come the bright colors of spring. $150 at 2modern.com (via Chicago Apartment Therapy)

A classic from the 1960’s, Kartell’s umbrella stand, $150 at hivemodern.com, doubles as an ashtray for an additiional $48. It comes in an array of bright colors.

For the thrifty (that’d be us) why not just use a cute waste paper basket? Most of our umbrellas are minis anyhow, so we don’t need something tall. The Silver Metalla Can by Umbra, $15 at the containerstore.com, looks like metal, but it’s made of plastic and has just a splash of color.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 5:07 am and is filed under decorating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.