diff --git a/include/qom/object_interfaces.h b/include/qom/object_interfaces.h
index a0037968a4..65172120fa 100644
--- a/include/qom/object_interfaces.h
+++ b/include/qom/object_interfaces.h
@@ -90,6 +90,10 @@ Object *user_creatable_add_type(const char *type, const char *id,
 /**
  * user_creatable_add_dict:
  * @qdict: the object definition
+ * @keyval: if true, use a keyval visitor for processing @qdict (i.e.
+ *          assume that all @qdict values are strings); otherwise, use
+ *          the normal QObject visitor (i.e. assume all @qdict values
+ *          have the QType expected by the QOM object type)
  * @errp: if an error occurs, a pointer to an area to store the error
  *
  * Create an instance of the user creatable object that is defined by
@@ -97,7 +101,7 @@ Object *user_creatable_add_type(const char *type, const char *id,
  * ID from the key 'id'. The remaining entries in @qdict are used to
  * initialize the object properties.
  */
-void user_creatable_add_dict(QDict *qdict, Error **errp);
+void user_creatable_add_dict(QDict *qdict, bool keyval, Error **errp);
 
 /**
  * user_creatable_add_opts:
diff --git a/qemu-storage-daemon.c b/qemu-storage-daemon.c
index dd128978cc..9e7adfe3a6 100644
--- a/qemu-storage-daemon.c
+++ b/qemu-storage-daemon.c
@@ -278,7 +278,6 @@ static void process_options(int argc, char *argv[])
                 QemuOpts *opts;
                 const char *type;
                 QDict *args;
-                QObject *ret_data = NULL;
 
                 /* FIXME The keyval parser rejects 'help' arguments, so we must
                  * unconditionall try QemuOpts first. */
@@ -291,9 +290,8 @@ static void process_options(int argc, char *argv[])
                 qemu_opts_del(opts);
 
                 args = keyval_parse(optarg, "qom-type", &error_fatal);
-                qmp_object_add(args, &ret_data, &error_fatal);
+                user_creatable_add_dict(args, true, &error_fatal);
                 qobject_unref(args);
-                qobject_unref(ret_data);
                 break;
             }
         default:
diff --git a/qom/object_interfaces.c b/qom/object_interfaces.c
index 739e3e5172..bc36f96e47 100644
--- a/qom/object_interfaces.c
+++ b/qom/object_interfaces.c
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ out:
     return obj;
 }
 
-void user_creatable_add_dict(QDict *qdict, Error **errp)
+void user_creatable_add_dict(QDict *qdict, bool keyval, Error **errp)
 {
     Visitor *v;
     Object *obj;
@@ -127,7 +127,11 @@ void user_creatable_add_dict(QDict *qdict, Error **errp)
     }
     qdict_del(qdict, "id");
 
-    v = qobject_input_visitor_new(QOBJECT(qdict));
+    if (keyval) {
+        v = qobject_input_visitor_new_keyval(QOBJECT(qdict));
+    } else {
+        v = qobject_input_visitor_new(QOBJECT(qdict));
+    }
     obj = user_creatable_add_type(type, id, qdict, v, errp);
     visit_free(v);
     object_unref(obj);
diff --git a/qom/qom-qmp-cmds.c b/qom/qom-qmp-cmds.c
index 35db44b50e..c5249e44d0 100644
--- a/qom/qom-qmp-cmds.c
+++ b/qom/qom-qmp-cmds.c
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ void qmp_object_add(QDict *qdict, QObject **ret_data, Error **errp)
         qobject_unref(pdict);
     }
 
-    user_creatable_add_dict(qdict, errp);
+    user_creatable_add_dict(qdict, false, errp);
 }
 
 void qmp_object_del(const char *id, Error **errp)