Christmas Gift Guide V: The Sitting Room

So we come to the sitting room. Perhaps the easiest room to buy for as it’s the room that is for relaxing and entertainment and fun. Leaving aside furniture, although you can, of course, buy a new reading or relaxing chair for the love of your life, we can start with the smaller items based around the things that go on in here.

A box set of DVDs – yes I know those young people think DVDs are frightfully passé (you can ignore them or get them a subscription to netflix)  – or a book or a set of. One year I bought The Mad Husband a leatherbound copy of his favourite book,Brideshead Revisited by Bill Amberg ( the leather I mean not the author) I’m not sure he still does them but you can get them here.

Once you start this one it’s easy. A rug or a throw to curl up in while reading. A bottle of fabulous whisky, or wine, or some really good tea. The mugs and glasses to go with it. Then there will need to be snacks. A tray to put it all on. Some headphones to drown out the noise of the rest of the family. A great cushion that only that person can use. Do you have an open fire – what filling a log basket with about some matches,  pretty firelighters, a pair of slippers from the ethical store Aerende  (who can make any colour and size you want) and a pile of books together with a box of chocolates.

Pushing the boat out a little further – a reading lamp? A leather glasses case? Some coasters to rest that drink on. You can even buy a little coffee table to set it all up on.

A couple of years ago, when we realised the teenagers would rather be with their friends than us on a Saturday afternoon, we instigated decadent Saturdays. This involves drinking wine at 3pm and either watching a film or playing cards. You can buy fabulous sets of cards or backgammon sets, all of which look great on the coffee table and once again add the drink of choice, and perhaps a notebook so you can keep score.

Many companies now offer a subscription service so you can send a bunch of flowers every week or month – just buy a vase to put under the tree. I remember about 15 years ago trying to arrange with my local garden centre to deliver my mother a new plant for the garden every month. Their heads nearly exploded with the idea and it was going to cost so many hundreds of pounds I gave up. I should have gone into business clearly. Don’t forget a magazine subscription too – just add a magazine rack to unwrap on the day. And there’s a never-ending supply of new coffee table books to buy – including the new one by, ahem, yours truly which is now available for pre-order. and comes out in March….more on that after Christmas.

The key is to think of the activity and then work out what is needed to make it more fun/relaxing/luxurious. So games and drinks or snacks, reading and cosy accessories, tv and cushions and more drinks and snacks. You can always add the smaller homewares such as pictures for the wall (try Art & Hue for pop art and Rise Art to talk to curators who will help you choose , reading lights and vases and bring it all together that way.

And here endeth the Christmas Gift Guides, I hope they have helped and I hope you have found some inspiration on these pages. Next week we’re going to have a look at storage, which may, in turn, spark further ideas and, at the very least, give you some clues about where to put everything.