15 best housewarming gifts that they’ll actually want, from homeware to tech

While choosing artwork for your home is a subjective pursuit, we couldn’t pass up this Home Sweet Home print. The vibrant giclée print features the simple, welcoming message in retro neon. But if you think your giftee won’t like this exact limited-edition print, or are looking to spend a little less, there are hundreds of prints and paintings to choose from at Art Republic. You can browse through the expertly curated edits, or shop by style, size, or price. And if you really can’t decide what’s best for the new homemakers, or you’d rather they do the choosing, gift cards are available from as little as £25.

House plant parents will love you for this stylish pot, part of a huge range of colourful and contemporary planters on offer at Pow Pots. We’ve long been fans of this brand for its handmade and hand-painted fibreclay pieces that prove lightweight, frost proof, and actually much stronger than traditional ceramic or terracotta planters. With its metallic accents, the gin and tonic pot is a sophisticated move away from the brand’s typical contemporary brights, and while it is undoubtedly a stand-out, it’ll pretty much go with any interior scheme, minimalist, maximalist… you can’t go wrong.

What cosy new home is complete without a wool blanket to snuggle up in? Designed specifically as a sofa throw – although it works as a versatile, go anywhere blanket – it features double sided patterning with brighter squares on one side and subtler spots on the other against a warm beige background. Made in Yorkshire using the finest merino lamb’s wool, it feels luxuriously soft and supple. And it proves wonderfully toasty, too, which should stop anyone reaching for the dreaded thermostat too soon this autumn/winter. It’s worth noting though that the luxe organic fibres make this one a strictly dry clean only product.

There’s nothing like a bright statement cushion to add a bit of cheer to a new home. The Pillow Drop offers a range of beautifully bold and graphic needlepoint cushions, including some playful travel-inspired numbers to remind us of our best adventures. The Amalfi cushion features a bright yellow lemon motif against a vibrant green background with the place name in bold red text. The light and bouncy pad is backed with a darker green velvet, which adds a touch of luxury. This one works best when contrasted with a battered vintage leather sofa or club chair.

The quickest and easiest way to personalise a new space is to fill it with family photos. Your gift recipients will feel right at home with this pretty Polly Fenwick frame, which happens to be brilliantly purse-friendly – although they won’t know it. The handmade bone inlay picture frame features a Moroccan tile inspired pattern, which brings a touch of north African mystique, while the white and emerald-green colourway adds a welcome colour pop, whether the frame is placed centre stage on the mantelpiece, or it’s bringing a dark corner of the room to life on a side table. If you have a small gift budget, this one guarantees a big impact.

We loved this stylish kitchen top addition that goes some way to make up for the fact that we don’t have an iconic Smeg fridge-freezer in our new home (yet!). As its name suggests, the personal blender is a diminutive number that boasts the brand’s instantly recognisable 1950s aesthetic and comes in a range of chic mono colourways, including the highly covetable pastels. Made for one, it can whip up soups and smoothies in a jiffy and proves reliably durable after multiple uses – as you would expect from a top brand like Smeg. It feels old-school mechanical, rather than cheap and electrical. Best though, is that it comes with a spare bottle, complete with a nifty handled top, that can be taken on the daily commute.

Hitting that sweet spot between form and function for a gift is this cute cherry red baking set designed to go straight from the oven to the table. The stackable stoneware dishes are ideal for casual dinner parties and family get-togethers featuring hearty one-pot meals and sides for everyone to tuck into. We loved the retro-feel embossed branded handles, and the shiny glass porcelain finish. On the practical side, these are microwave, freezer, broiler, and oven safe up to 300C, while they also boast scratch resistant properties, ensuring they stay shiny and new after multiple uses. A stylish addition to both the kitchen and the dining room.

If you’re after a housewarming gift that’s out of the ordinary, these quirky bird hooks hit all the right notes. Made from resin, with a burnished gold finish, they are deceptively lightweight. The birds come in assorted poses, meaning you can arrange them in a unique set-up to create sculptural interest in the hallway, on the back of the door, in the bathroom… anything goes. They’re easily attached with a discreet screw at the back – this bit sits flush to the wall. As practical hooks, they won’t take a huge amount of weight and are best reserved for hats, dog leads or similarly smaller accessories. But you wouldn’t want to ruin the aesthetic by covering them with bulky coats anyway.

Luxury home fragrance is always a great choice as a housewarming gift but if you want something a little more characterful, there’s plenty of inspiration at high-end homeware site, Arighi Bianchi. Anyone familiar with Jonathan Adler will recognise the designer’s playful take on luxury with this lidded ceramic candle in red and white circus-like stripes. Part of a covetable collection including lust and envy candles, the love number proves a brilliantly quirky addition. Scent-wise, it features grapefruit piquant, virgin mint, freesia, marine accord, watery cyclamen and iris. It gives off a potent sweet but tart scent, which fills the room in no time. Of course, your recipients will be left with a stylish lidded receptacle once the candle runs down, making this a gift that keeps on giving.

This is another brilliantly affordable gift that guarantees to bring a smile to your recipients face, plus, it’s practical, too. The portable fondue set doesn’t take up too much storage space in the kitchen with its small cast iron pot, stand and accessories, yet it’s ideal for intimate gatherings. It comes complete with six colour coded forks – handy for knowing whose is whose once you’ve lost count of your schnapps intake – while the user-friendly and adjustable burner (use methylated spirits or solid fondue gel), heats up the contents of the pan quickly and evenly. So whether you’re planning on going traditionally Swiss with cheese and bread, or you’re dipping marshmallows and strawberries into melted chocolate, this will be a gift everyone can enjoy.

With the best will in the world, plants invariably suffer during hectic house moves, which is why we’ve chosen this six-plant bundle specifically designed to welcome residents into their new pad. The plants included are a fiddle leaf fig, a prayer plant, snake plant, calathea, a Boston fern, and a fishbone cactus, giving you a variety of textures, colours, leaf patterns, and of course heights. Arriving carefully packaged and with pots included (some of which are ceramic), all you need to do is give them a water and they’re good to go. Of course, a bundle like this does prove expensive but at Beards & Daisies, you can order individual houseplants from just £10.

Some decent glassware might come in handy at the housewarming party, and this set boasts four distinct colours: blue, green, aubergine, and an amber-like yellow, to give you a casual mix and match feel that’s equally at home in the dining room as it is at the al fresco summer table. At just £18, the glasses may be enticingly affordable, but they are surprisingly heavyweight and satisfyingly chunky, too (read: less likely to smash). Each piece features attractive, embossed decorative detailing, not only on the bowl but on the foot and stem of the glass, too, giving it a quirky goblet-like feel.

Ideal for newly moved in couples, this small bale comprises two bath towels and two hand towels. Featuring a busy pattern of figurative line drawings, the towels bring a chic, contemporary edge to the bathroom – and are a no-brainer as a gift for art loving friends and family. The kindred towels are available in a choice of three colourways; blush, grey, or the vibrant, earthy pecan, which we found really looks the part in a bathroom filled with trailing houseplants. Whichever colour you choose the towels are reversible, with the pattern mirrored in the opposing colours on the underside. They also prove incredibly soft and fluffy.

You can’t go wrong with a bold, contemporary stripe, whether that’s in soft furnishings or indeed ceramics. We love this elevated tray from Oyoy Living Design for its playful form and its soft caramel and rose colourway. The 100 per cent stoneware dish is a versatile number that looks the part on the dining room table or kitchen top, whether holding fruit, or your best multi-layered cake creation. The striped exterior boasts an artisanal chalky matte paint finish, while the rose interior is satisfyingly smooth. For those that love to tablescape, this one brings height, and a craft-driven aesthetic.

Music lovers will appreciate this nifty Bluetooth speaker that is impressively waterproof, and highly durable, making it an ideal buy for those who like to eat al fresco and keep the barbecue going, even when the odd shower threatens to ruin proceedings. Looking not unlike a tin can, the speaker features ergonomic shaping and is designed to be taken wherever you go – it even comes with a handy clip.

Indoors, it’s suitable for a room size of up to 30sqm, meaning it’ll give your homemakers far-reaching, top-quality sound, no matter how open-plan their new pad is. And they can even take it into the shower. Choose from five colourways: black anthracite, green, chestnut, navy, and grey mist.