(Photo: John Lawton)

The Best Bet
This mirrored wooden console from Bombay Company ($449; 900 Broadway, at 20th St.; bombaycompany.com for more locations) is the perfect fit for New York apartments. Its gleaming surface makes it an accent piece—and a light-reflecting boon to dark spaces—but its squared-off lines are subtle enough to happily cohabit with almost any décor. Factor in relatively diminutive measurements and its storage function (shelves are adjustable), and you have a console that meets the demands of the cluttered spaces in which we often live. The beveled edges give it a kind of Hollywood-in-the-thirties feel, but the price is well within the grasp of ordinary mortals.