The 2025 Staring at the Ceiling Gifts Guide
100+ carefully chosen new, vintage, and handmade gifts that will make you say, "wait, that's perfect!"
Welcome to a special edition of Staring at the Ceiling, where I share gift ideas for you and your loved ones.
🫵 This is a long one, so you may need to read it in your browser.
Happy gift guide, everyone.
I have been looking forward to sharing this for months!! I was worried I shot myself in the foot by making last year’s guide simply too spectacular and I thought I wouldn’t have anything to share with you this year, but I underestimated my love of stuff and gift giving.
“Staring at the Ceiling Gifts Guide includes a mix of new, vintage, and handmade gifts for truly unique finds. Best for: People who do almost all their holiday shopping on Etsy.”
The Substack Post, 2024
Last year I got a nice shout in The Substack Post’s gift guide roundup, and their description pretty much still holds for this year’s edition. Unique finds, a smattering of new, vintage, and handmade, and a lot of Etsy. All for the people in your life who have an inclination towards beautiful things.
The categories include kitchen, ceramics, candles etc., books, paper etc., accessories, art & prints, jewelry & embellishments, and decor.
Enjoyyyyyyy <3
Please Note: I may earn a commission on some products purchased through links in this newsletter.
KITCHEN
A little sauce pot $35–$64: I use my little sauce pot to brown butter.
Dansk Flamestone Sauce Pot / MOMA Store Porcelain enamel sauce pot
Mezcaleros $40–$176: These can be a lovely housewarming gift for someone who is into mezcal or liquor or little cups.
A beautiful kitchen tool $30–$95: As someone who cooks and bakes, I love a kitchen tool as gorgeous as it is useful.
Masienda tortillero / Blip by Alessi spoon rest / JB Prince grill press / Hue Gah Home butter knife set / Leif Escher salt & pepper grinder
Egg cups $5–$25: For eggs or candles.
META stainless steel egg cup / Spiral Calder-esque egg cup / Crazy vintage egg cup
French fruit basket $5–$25
Vintage French fruit basket / French wire fruit basket / Primitive wire egg basket
A good cook book $5–$28
Pati Jinich, Treasures of the Mexican Kitchen / Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook / Apartamento Cookbook #9: Sandwiches / Entertaining by Martha Stewart
To pair with the kitchen gear $106–$158
Handmade recipe box / Handmade wooden cutting board / A book stand for the cook book
CERAMICS
A gorgeous mug $20–$200: Drinking a beverage is an experience that can be majorly upgraded by drinking out of a $200 cigarette mug. Or a Snoopy mug.
Swiss Vintage Rössler coffee cup set / Striped ceramic mug / Cigarette mug by Joseph Aligieri / MOMA Store Snoopy mug / MOMA Store Peanuts gang mug / Little mouse mug / Superfluites tomato red frilly mug
A freaky little vase $26–$184: I especially love the knitted vase which is made using a long process knitting around a balloon, popping it, and dipping it in clay multiple times.
Vintage figurine vase by Andrea Vertel / Mender Maker knitted bud vase / Small Ikebana vase / Handmade blueberry bud vase
A weird and beautiful bowl $34–$104: For putting stuff in it.
CANDLES ETC.
A handmade candle holder $35–$130
U shaped candle holder / Candle box by Ella Roze Bandouveris / Perriand metal candle holder / Lichen Galvanized wall candle holder
A sculptural candle $30-$34: For admiring, not for burning.
Oaxacan floral taper candle / Big Night Gruyere Candle / Onora flowered candle / Shop Biddy sculptural votive candle / Beeswax animal candle
An incense burner that looks like a house $16-$30: For every type of home: Irish, Southwest, and log. Use them with incense bricks for optimal cutie vibes. My mom always had these burning growing up.
Tuft Peat Irish cottage incense burner set / Casa incense burner / Paine’s Products log cabin incense burner
A beautiful scented candle to pair with the candle holder $75-$108: Make your house smell like the Ralph Lauren store on Madison Ave!!!!!!!
Ralph Lauren flagship store candle / Xinú Fuegozen candle (favorite candle of all time) / Maison Louis Marie Candle No. 2 / Brooklyn Candle in Santa Fe
BOOKS
Books on interiors $50–$225: These are great for people with growing collections of coffee table books.
Edward Ruscha Los Angeles Apartments / Vintage Luis Barragan coffee table book / The International Book of Lofts
Art and photography coffee table books $90–$120: The more specific the better.
Tennis ‘87 / Foods by Shimpei Asai / World Cup ‘78 / Flora by Robert Mapplethorpe / Perpetual motive, Man Ray catalog book / Picasso sketches coffee table book / California Surfing and Climbing in the Fifties / Cloudspotting for Beginners
Picks from last year:
PAPER ETC.
Desk accessories $23–$75: These make great gifts for the graphic designers or makers in your life who get lost in stationery stores.
Benjamin Edgar gravitational cutting mat / Dahle Vantage cutting mat / Ellepi Klizia 97 Stapler / Toyo Steel stackable box / WMS & Co. Stainless Steel task roller
Calendars and planners $26-$48
Before Breakfast desktop notepad / Large Margin pad / 2026 Crispin Finn wall planner / Present and Correct 1Y 52W 365D planner / Present and Correct Notebook chunk / Word of the day calendar / Baa Bazaar weekly planner
Stamps $38-$66: Great for people who bullet journal, scrapbook, or just keep analog records of their life.
Present and Correct Rotary date stamp / Present and Correct Alphabet stamp set / Present and Correct XL number stamp
Good art supplies $29-$45: A travel watercolor set, are you kidding me?
Kitaboshi x Hot Cool Tokyo Japanese colored pencil set / Kokuyo graphic marker set / Kuretake travel watercolor box
Picks from last year:
ACCESSORIES
A fun embellishment piece $40-$95: Can’t go wrong with a Snoopy watch.
Timex Joe Cool weekender watch / Timex Snoopy baseball watch / XL hoop belt / Alex Mill Handkerchief scarf in wool
A cutie purse or tote $29-$75
Antique 1920s flapper purse / Antique beaded handbag / Red embroidered Potli bag / Gold embroidered Potli bag / Levi’s Back pocket tote / Baggu nylon drawstring bag
A colorful sock $12-$52: At some point last year I started only wearing colorful socks and I would love 100 more pairs, personally.
Le Bon Shoppe cotton socks / Colorful Standard merino wool socks / Polo Bear trouser sock gift set / Alex Mill Maria La Rosa cotton socks
Picks from last year:
Vintage The Real Real ties / Vintage Etsy ties / Any Baggu bag
ART & PRINTS
A beautiful art print $44-$178: Art is personal so go with your heart. These are some prints and paintings I liked.
Pomegranate imposto still life / Diet Coke still life / Green dancer print / Bottle still life oil painting / Original landscape painting / Libby Haines Dinner Remnants print
JEWELRY & EMBELLISHMENTS
A unique piece of jewelry $37-$180: Jewelry can be hard to shop for, but I think it’s better to go bold than to play it safe. The person you’re shopping for knows what they like in their staple, every day pieces so you might not nail their signature style. Pick something unique that reminds you of them. You never know what will hit…
Abstract silver pendant necklace / Bunnie Studio Rework two necklace / Dunton Ellerkamp Owen ring / Faris Rolo stud earrings / Kara Yoo Celeste earrings / Kara Yoo Maeva necklace / Molecula jewelry
An interesting brooch $20-$114: You know I love a brooch.
Taxco modernist brooch / Chunky bullseye brooch / Vintage Taxco half face brooch / Metal hand brooch / Silk chrysanthemum brooch / Stainless steel minimalist brooch / Brutalist sunburst brooch / Venerable Beads creature beads XIV
A cute hair accessory $11-$30
Pea Lauer vintage candy mold hair pins / Oval hair barettes / Oversized organza scrunchie
Picks from last year:
Personalized Calder style brooch / Bywayof necklaces / Wolf Circus charms
DECOR
A vase with flowers in it $43-$67: For a gracious host.
Mid century mod aluminum vase / Glass ruffled vase / Ferm Living Dedali vase
A gorgeous bowl $53-$62: For fruit or keys.
A nice lamp $60: Tiny lamps make a house feel like a home. I love putting my small lamps in the middle of my dining table to make me feel like I’m dining at a restaurant.
A framed photo in an interesting frame $31-$72: I think framed photos or mementos are a sweet sentimental gift to give, why not make the frame nice too.
Wood picture frame / Rustic picture frame / Evolution Store Framed monarch butterfly
Jewelry cases (for travel and for home) $23-$95: One of those gifts that feels kind of lame to give but I bet it has a 100% use rate. So useful!
Vintage onyx jewelry box / Vintage wood burl jewelry box / Vintage burl trinket box / Quince leather jewelry box / Areaware cache box / Mark & Graham monogrammed travel jewelry case / Customizable portable wood jewelry box
Random stuff $20-$33: Stuff they can put in their home that is as decorative as it is utilitarian.
Picks from last year:
That’s it! Thank you so much for reading <3
Bonus: More holiday guides, gift and non-gift
Glenn Mae’s Trash Panic Guide to Holiday Hosting
izabela raczkowski’s handmade holiday gift guide
Kara Haupt’s gift guide for a chic picky woman
Katie Stone’s guide to the art of giving gifts
In case you missed it:
See you next time. You can expect this newsletter in your inbox on the first and third Monday of the month.
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The Etsy brand team’s favorite gift guide 🧡
Been looking for a little incense house - just purchased la casa! Thank you for this list! 🙏🏾