Candelabras might conjure up visions of gothic mansions or Liberace, but they can also be pretty cool things to have in the home – especially if they look like the Lab candelabra from Habitat.
Miles away from the gothic, this four-slot candelabra looks like a quirky piece of 1960s design, but is actually a modern creation by The Swedes for Habitat, available in a choice of colours (although only this fennel green seems to be available online).
Yours for £16.
A storage rack made from the very things it stores? That is idea behind this Recycled Newspaper Magazine Rack from none other than Marks and Spencer.
Part of their growing Greener Living range, the magazine rack has been fashioned from recycled newspapers. It is predominantly black and white, but with the occasional hint of colour. It costs £19.50 and is part of a collection of storage items that includes boxes and a waste paper bin that has similarly been made from waste papers!
View the whole range online at the Marks and Spencer website.
Regular readers will know of our love of tea – and right now, we like the idea of making it in one of these extremely cool Tealicious retro-styled mini teapots.
Mini equates to around 5 x 5 inches (not including handle and spout) and 17 ounces. Which is enough to make tea for one (or maybe two if your cups aren’t too big). It has a removable stainless steel lid and an infuser basket for your favourite tea. Pour on hot water, brew and enjoy.
The teapots are dishwasher safe and come in a range of cool colours (including the ones pictured above), all retailing online for £16 – which sounds like Christmas gift territory for the tea lover in your life.
Find out more at the Tealicious website
Everyone needs a mug – and for the brainiac on your family, these educational mugs from Heals should be ideal.
Some great designs, right out of an old textbook, including the periodic table and solar system pictured here, along with the rather more gruesome human skeleton mug.
Available now, they retail for £6.50 each.
Find out more at the Heals website
Sebastian Wrong’s range of Font Clocks celebrate the joys of that specialised field of design, typography.
The clock uses twelve different fonts within the mechanism to provide a random mix on display. Eleven of the fonts are twentieth century design, with one 18th century English script thrown in for good measure. Once during the annual time cycle, all of the fonts will run together for 5 minutes.
So these clocks look good and have an interesting design feature, but there is a downside which inevitably is the price. The smallest clock in the range costs £195 and for that price you just get the time. Just over £550 and £800 will buy you a larger clock that includes the date as well as the time.
The full range can be bought from Thorsten Van Elten.
British-born designer Allison Jones moved herself and her business Lark to Australia last year but her range of accessories is still very much inspired by life in the UK. Her range of Vintage Flannel Hot Water Bottle Covers, for example, I don’t think will find so many takers down under, but here in December, they look like a very good idea.
Made from a choice of vintage and retro fabrics, including Fifties Snowflake and Vintage Roses, they fit a standard sized hot water bottle. They cost £15 each and ship anywhere worldwide for £3.95.
The last order date for delivery before Christmas is 7th December so visit the Lark website to order yours.
