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Curbed
gift guide

12 Useful Gifts for the Person Who Can’t Stop Renovating

 From a drill that handles brick walls to the perfect basket for organizing the day’s chaos. By Angela Serratore
  1. The Best Gifts for Design-Minded Kids From a Keith Haring play mat for babies to a highly adaptable jumpsuit for teens.
    By Fiorella Valdesolo
  2. A Freaky Lamp Show in Fort Greene Light-up socks, blenders with bulbs, and a banana pendant.
    By Louis Cheslaw
  3. 11 Actually Affordable (and Especially Nice-Looking) Floor Lamps Including a handsome option sourced from the children’s section of Crate and Barrel.
    By Ming Thompson
  4. An Assortment of Excellent Under-$400 Wall Hangings Pennants, pint-size quilts, and framable tapestries.
    By Ming Thompson
  5. Gift of the Day: A Sleek Stacking Decanter “Stacking decanters have been around for a while, but the updated lines of this one make it stand out from more traditional leaded-glass versions.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  6. Gift of the Day: Particularly Special Vintage Posters According to interior designer Liz Caan, they’re great gifts for young adults, teens, and even babies.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  7. Gift of the Day: A Smythson Planner That’ll Last Past the Year Once you’ve amassed a couple years’ worth, says interior designer Jennifer Hunter, “they look beautiful stacked on a bookshelf.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  8. Gift of the Day: An Especially Versatile Wicker Tray It can be used as a “centerpiece, coffee-table tray, kitchen vessel, or entry catchall.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  9. Gift of the Day: Some Extra-Fancy Steaks Plus, a recommendation for an especially sleek knife set.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  10. Gift of the Day: The Mount Everest of Lego Sets Recommended by a cabinet maker.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  11. Gift of the Day: A Book on Boring Architecture Designer Juan Garcia Mosqueda said the book’s premise stood out — “precisely because it’s about things that don’t stand out.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  12. Gift of the Day: Monica Khemsurov’s Favorite Foot-Shaped Vase “There’s a certain absurdity to putting flowers into a foot on the dining table, where feet are not supposed to go.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  13. Gift of the Day: A Handsome Zigzag Blanket Per architect Andrew Ashey, it’s “not too light or too heavy, forms to your body well, and is soft without feeling too precious.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  14. Gift of The Day: A Small Stack of Art Magazines “Reading through, you feel like you’ve stepped into a series of incredible rooms.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  15. Some Soothing Gifts for Those With Climate Anxiety No excessive plastic, nothing single-use.
    By Curbed Staff
  16. Gift of the Day: A Geometric Bag for Dinner Parties “It’s also large enough to hold all of the items you need for the day — like an iPad or water bottle or, in my case, kids’ books or baby bottles.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  17. Gift of the Day: Extremely Limited-Edition Screen Print “It’s signed, dated, and numbered as one of ten.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  18. Gift of The Day: A Lucite Backgammon Set Sunnylife also makes lime-green Lucite dominoes and a poker set with Lucite chips.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  19. Gift of The Day: A Bowl With Porcelain Petals By Baughaus, who also makes ceramic ornaments shaped like breadfruit and ackee.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  20. Gift of the Day: A Shimmery Odds-and-Ends Tray “It looks good on anything and everything — leather, wood, grass cloth, even an upholstered table.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  21. A Smattering of Zizmorcore Gifts A Curbed curation of New York City-ish merch.
    By Curbed Staff
  22. Gift of the Day: A Lavish English Greenhouse At nearly $17,000, this is — needless to say — something of a splurge.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  23. Gift of the Day: A Designer Couple’s Favorite Elderflower Candies “The packaging caught our eye, as did the idea of an artisanal Swedish fish with elderflower, a flavor we love.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  24. Gift of The Day: Some Wall-Worthy Rugs “They definitely have those ’90s Much Music and Dunkaroos vibes.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  25. All Manner of Animal-Themed Décor Some horse-printed sheets and an armadillo pillow.
    By Ming Thompson
  26. Gift of the Day: A Color-Blocked Coffee Machine A collaboration between two Singapore-based companies.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  27. The Best New Books to Give Architecture, Design, and Urbanism Enthusiasts Five Curbed staffers recommend their favorite new releases, from an atlas of iconic houses to an illustrated history of New York.
    By Curbed Staff
  28. Gift of the Day: A Spotty Ceramic Vessel Recommended by a self-described ceramics aficionado.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  29. Gift of the Day: Jill Singer’s Favorite Lumpy Goblet “They’re highly impractical and honestly superfluous, which is exactly why they’re such a fun gift.”
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  30. Gift of the Day: An Architect’s Favorite Black-Paged Notebook It comes with jelly pens.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  31. Gift of the Day: The Simplest, Handsomest Socks As recommended by a Canadian with a substantial cold-weather collection.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  32. Curbed’s 2021 Advent-Calendar Gift Guide Over the course of the next 25 days, we will be doling out, one by one, the gifts recommended by dozens of design bigwigs with extremely good taste.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  33. Gift of the Day: A (Somewhat Strange) Fruit Tree It produces funky-tasting calamondins.
    By Alexandra Ilyashov
  34. Nice-Looking (But Still Playful) Kids-Room Pieces A maplewood floor bed, a Calder-esque mobile, and a gigantic pillow.
    By Ming Thompson
  35. 15 Space-Completing Side Tables In all manner of materials.
    By Ming Thompson
  36. 26 Cheap (But Expensive-Looking) Throw Pillows and Covers for Every Type of Room Including a macramé pillow for the ’70s conversation pit and a giant stuffed baby seal.
    By The Editors
  37. 50 Cheap (But Expensive-Looking) Kitchen Accents Including an Umbra soap pump, linen napkins, and a vintage timer.
    By Dominique Pariso
  38. Some Under-$500 Architect-Approved Side Chairs A cousin to the popular CB2 Gwyneth Chair, a crushed velvet swivel, and more.
    By Ming Thompson
  39. The Lower East Side Tailor to the Scene Clients have generally found Ramon Tailor through word of mouth. Now — suddenly — there are lines out the door for his custom pants.
    By Louis Cheslaw
  40. What Artist Peter Shire Can’t Live Without “It’s a really nice sexual enhancer — smooth and silky with a light scent reminiscent of a mountain meadow crossed with an exquisite rendezvous.”
    By Peter Shire and Liza Corsillo
  41. 10 Elegant (Yet Still Utilitarian) Trash Cans From open-top bins for the bedroom to semi-closed wastebaskets for the bath to tall cans for the kitchen.
    By Ming Thompson
  42. 15 Especially Well Designed Bedside Lamps We asked designer Ming Thompson to share her favorites across all price points.
    By Ming Thompson
  43. The Best Small-Apartment Ideas, According to Professional Organizers How to make the most of your cramped living space.
    By Lori Keong, Louis Cheslaw, and Jenna Milliner-Waddell
  44. How to Shop for Furniture on Instagram Business is booming for the city’s vintage-store owners and amateur thrifters who are using their Instagram accounts to sell secondhand housewares.
    By Hilary Reid
  45. What Are the Best Cloth Napkins? A simple way to elevate your at-home dining experience.
    By Lauren Ro
  46. 23 Floor Lamps, Vetted 23 Ways Including an elegant vertical LED light and a circular lamp that looks like the many Charli XCX has.
    By Louis Cheslaw and Lauren Ro
  47. This Etsy Shop Sells Some Extremely Nice Lamps At a fraction of the price they would be anywhere else.
    By Hilary Reid
  48. The Best Winter Houseplants (and How to Care for Them), According to Experts Keep your indoor tropical garden lush, even when it’s dark and dreary outside.
    By Karen Iorio Adelson
  49. Chess Forum’s Imad Khachan Talks 25 Years on Thompson Street With @NewYorkNico “It’s something that time forgot, I feel like — the place — and me in it.”
    By Nicolas Heller
  50. What’s the Best Doormat? “They are, hands down, the coolest doormats you’ll find right now.”
    By Leah Muncy
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