We’re getting to the time of year when the tension over missed deliveries and postal delays makes online shopping more stressful than braving the crowds, rain and looped Christmas music of the shops.
The good news is, there are still plenty of opportunities to hunt down unique, fun, beautiful homewares for the interiors fiends in your life.
We’ve tracked down some beautiful, quality options that offer a touch of surprise or uniqueness, be they new offerings from favourite stores or truffled out finds from brands your friends haven’t heard of yet.
Labour and Wait
There’s even more browsing space at Labour & Wait’s capacious new Covent Garden store, opened to coincide with the east London stalwart’s 25th anniversary.
And the functional homewares brand has brought out special versions of some of their most popular items to mark its silver jubilee.
An enamel milk pan (£40) in modish chocolate brown and marble swirl is a covetable kitchen item that will also see plenty of use, be it for bedtime cocoa or boiling eggs.
Tekla
In late November the Danish bedding brand beloved of Harry Styles, Alexa Chung et. al. opened its first store outside Copenhagen, meaning no delivery charges and no fingers-crossed wait to see if the postman does actually call before mid-January.
There are any number of elevated gifting options in store but a lambswool tartan hot water bottle (£150) will perk up January no end.
Colours of Arley x Bettina Ceramica
A hot collaboration between two of London’s most coveted indie interiors brands, Colours of Arley’s striking square lampshade sits perfectly atop Bettina Ceramica’s sculptural ceramic base.
It’s Christmas so we say opt for the red and green ‘Primi’ colourway (485).
Londoners can pick up a lamp from Colours of Arley’s east London showroom at 61 Hackney Road.
Toast
With the fabric handwoven using traditional methods at Bristol Weaving Mill, this block stripe blue, coral and fern cushion (£69) will add a little timeless Toast artisanal texture to any number of interior schemes.
The fringing along the opening is a small but special touch and each cushion has a unique pattern placement.
toa.st/collections/gifts-for-the-home
Villa Bologna x Gavin Houghton
South London artist and designer, Gavin Houghton has made a name for himself with his expressive paintings (often on plates) recalling such British greats as Cecil Beaton and Charleston.
Enter stage right ceramics brand Villa Bologna who have worked with Houghton to produce a capsule collection of swoon-worthy hand-painted plates (from £32) and pots (£220) produced at the brand’s workshop in Malta.
The range is available online only but they do ship from the UK meaning there’s still just about time to order.
Baobab candles
New for Christmas is the Rosace candle, pictured, in a glass vessel covered in a silk-screen print with motifs inspired by medieval rose windows found in Gothic architecture. Think fir and warming woody notes that aren’t overpowering. From £105.
Or, hedge your bets with a Les Exclusives duo set, £98, which has two small metallic-glass candles in best-selling scents Platinum and Aurum. The Baobab boutique on Marylebone High Street is open until Christmas Eve, or shop the brand at Harrods and Selfridges.
Andrew Martin cushions
There’s something (colourful) for everyone at Andrew Martin’s Walton Street showroom in Chelsea.
Pick up a Meadow Multi, front left, or Falling Leaves Multi cushion, front right, for a joyful, vivid piece from the Andrew Martin x Kit Kemp collaboration. Cushions cost £175.
Seletti treasures
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What could be more unique than an unexpectedly beautiful kintsugi plate? The Japanese art celebrates the beautiful in the imperfect, where fractures in the porcelain are highlighted with 24-carat gold.
Last online order date for pre-Christmas delivery is 16 December, or head to Selfridges where this 27cm dinner plate costs £75.
Verden x dbCeramic
Head to the ‘Home for Christmas’ pop-up at Edward Bulmer’s Natural Paint on Pimlico Road, on until 20 December, to shop for ceramics by Deborah Brett.
The limited-edition Vellum candle, in collaboration with fragrance house Verden, would make a stunning gift. It costs £130. Reuse the sculptural, porcelain white pot as a bud vase or pen pot.
Smeg
If you’re braving Regent Street for your Christmas shopping, the capacious Smeg store (open until 1.30pm on Christmas Eve) is the perfect respite from the hustle and bustle.
While you’re there, pick up a mini milk frother (£99.95) for the coffee afficionado on your gift list.
Abask
More and more of our admin might be blessedly paper free now, but artful shelfscapes are taking over our homes in almost inverse proportion.
So while this paperweight by south-east London glass studio Gather (£146) might be better described as a tchotchke, it will look just as lovely with the light refracting through it on a windowsill or mantelpiece as on a stack of boring documents.
The House Upstairs
A piece of bespoke handmade furniture is quite an expensive gamble and quite tricky to slip under the tree.
Luckily, while ottomans, sofas and headboards may be this Derbyshire-based furniture maker’s stock in trade, it also offers a gorgeously curated range of smaller, more postable, homewares, including this terracotta salt fish, sourced from an 11th-generation potter in Mallorca, which manages to be both chic and cute at the same time.
National Portrait Gallery
The blockbuster Cecil Beaton exhibition is winding up in the new year so now’s your chance to snap up the Luke Edward Hall Faces cushion (£35), created with inspiration from the show.
It’s museum merch, but not as we know it.
