My boyfriend recently moved to Cambridge from a less cool part of the greater Boston area. After he finally settled in--after buying all the furniture (that I assembled because I love doing that stuff), painting and re-caulking the bathroom, hanging the Guinness bar mirror, finding the perfect bar with a wrap-around footrest railing, installing strip lights on the bar and behind his brand new 46" television ("I wish it was bigger." Cue, "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones), finding the perfect 1970's bi-level side table, visiting a local nursery for low to medium light house plants, insulating his door to dampen external and, eh hem, internal noise, sorting and finding a third of his clothes fit for donation, and a slew of other little tasks--he was still missing something. I couldn't imagine what. He seemed to have thought of everything.

"A salt and pepper shaker for the dinner table. I can't find it anywhere!"

He eventually bought a cheapo pair from Amazon.com that even greasy dinners, I imagine, wouldn't bother with--low capacity and not too durable looking. Had I been part of the Didriks team earlier I could made these far more fun and elegant suggestions:

• Revol France Provence Salt and Pepper Shakers. These French Provence inspired shakers take to straight back to my time in Nice and Eze-Sur-Mer.

• Pillivuyt Pleated Salt and Pepper Cellars. In the very hip salt cellar style that the culinary connoiseaurs are going gaga for these day, this porcelain set is fully attached with caddy handle for easy cupboard to table transportation and passing around the table.

• Match Pewter Salt and Pepper Caddy. This elegant caddy not only looks classically fabulous, but makes passing the set across the table easy.

• Heath Ceramic Salt and Pepper Shaker. The unusual and contemporary design of this set makes them my personal favorite. The flow perforations on the side of the cork-plugged jar top makes the filling and pouring of salt and pepper from this set unique and totally fun. It comes with the matching salt and pepper shaker tray to make it easy to pass around the table.

Whatever you decide to have at your table, remember that you'll be using and looking at it everyday. It's worth the investment to get something that you'll enjoy having around on a daily basis, often several times a day.

Like strip lights behind the bar, for instance. Or a girlfriend who knows her way around Ikea furniture, in particular.