Exclusive: Martha Stewart reveals her utilitarian home accessories, holiday plans, and the essentials we need this fall

As the weather cools and we retreat into our homes, many of us are breaking out our autumn and winter seasonal candles. Naturally, a lighter is a companion to these cozy home essentials – but Martha Stewart has made us rethink how we store these items and how they can be decorative accessories.

The all-around domestic mogul has partnered with BIC (and Snoop Dogg) to release the Hold The Phone case – an iPhone case with a slot for an EZ Reach Lighter, tapping into the ever-popular functional design trend.

'Everybody's trying to make everything more utilitarian,' Stewart tells us from her farm in Bedford, New York, where she says it's already starting to cool down. 'For me, if I'm working in the kitchen and all my stoves have pilot lights, I have to have a lighter to light my stove.'

While lighters may not typically be thought of as stylish accessories, Stewart believes that selecting one that is thoughtfully designed can elevate any space. In fact, she says lighters are a crucial part of one of her fall rituals – lighting candles.

'I have a lighter on pretty much every table because I have such pretty lighters,' she explains. 'I have a lot of brass tables in my sitting room, and I put the gold-colored or brass-colored faux bois on that table. They just blend in, and they're so, so pretty. The silver on a dining room table, and you have silver candlesticks. You also have the woven rattan look, which is also very pretty in a kitchen. That's why I work with Bic; these blend in. You can have something beautiful and utilitarian at the same time. That's my dream: to have things that are utilitarian look as beautiful as the rest of the stuff that you have out on display.'

As far as other table accessories go for fall (and yes, Stewart confirmed that she is already prepping for Thanksgiving and her epic Christmas party, which she hasn't hosted since 2019), she likes to source from her garden.

'Bringing in the pumpkins, the squash, the last of the beautiful dahlias... I'm looking at two great big vases of dahlias right now, bringing in that fall color,' she tells us. 'There's not a lot in the garden, but what's there is special. Also, bringing in branches of changing colored leaves looks really pretty when you bring those into the house. Even a big bowl of chestnuts that had fallen on the ground is a gorgeous centerpiece.'

Apart from party planning, Stewart is also gearing up to release a new cookbook in November (it's her 100th – no big deal). When asked about kitchen staples, she names a couple essentials.

'I am thinking of bamboo or wooden cutting boards because they're now finding out that plastic cutting boards are leaving shards of plastic in food, which is very bad to ingest,' she says. 'Also, with coffee now, if you go out to the coffee shop and order a one-shot cappuccino with whole milk, you can pay up to $7. And think of it: if you drink one a day times 365, that is an awful lot of money in one year. It's very, very smart to maybe invest in a really good foam cappuccino machine.'

Above all, Stewart says that safety is imperative to her home life, and as such, when she does any outdoor grilling, being careful is key.

'I'm very practical,' she says. 'If you're going to go and light a fire outside at your barbecue, think of the wind. If you have a Bic EZ Reach Lighter, the wind doesn't blow it out like a match and it's so much more safer and it's nicer. 'It's always there and it always works.'

Shop Martha Stewart's Seasonal Essentials