We have a dread of excessive knick-knacks that dates back to our least favorite childhood chore: dusting. In fact, for years our favorite way of describing decorative objects with no function was ... dust-collectors.
Our advancing years are not only expanding our vocabulary but mellowing our curmudgeonly convictions. We've recently decided that a limited number of tchotchkes is home- and life-enhancing, so long as they're well-chosen (i.e., they have signifigance to you and you like looking at them all the time), and they're confined to areas where they're not easily knocked about.
or you could make it. instructions here:
http://woodworking.about.com/od/projectplans/ss/square_shelf.htm
i really enjoyed the interior at "Little Star Pizza"
(finally made it there and have to say it was insanely scrumptious),
the tchotchskes on the similar shelves against dark walls, not too many, incl. plastic animals, perfect for taking the piss out, or over seriousness out of things.
The key thing here is the point about limiting the number of tchotchkes. A couple of years ago I began a major apartment overhaul and the first thing I did was go "clean" -- minimal, modern, free of tchotchkes. Boxed them up and hid them away. Agreed, a few very personal or very significant items are worthy of remaining visible. Choose carefully. Things that are NOT worthy are the crap you see in the photo above - multiple dice, 8mm film reels, or old cameras.