It’s that time of year again…Christmas is upon us and there is much to do. To make your life a little easier and to help you bring a touch of Kit Kemp to your home, we have created the perfect gift guide, so you can get the look. For treats and treasures handpicked by, or designed in our studio, we hope you can find plenty of ideas to give to your loved ones this Christmas.
SPECIAL GIFTS UNDER £50
Stockings
We always decorate our fireplaces at Christmas, a wonderful easy trick is to line your mantelpiece with gorgeous stockings, no matter how old you are!
Head over to Shop Kit Kemp to discover our handmade stockings, created from leftover fabric from our design studio, including this beautiful textural stocking.
Puppets
A great way to make little oddities feel curated, or like a piece of art, is to create collections. In the Drawing Room at Knightsbridge Hotel, we placed a funky collection of miniature mannequins on the fireplace mantel.
Bloomsbury Cookbook
It’s no secret I am a Bloomsbury ‘o-MEGA’ fan. A wonderful and easy way to bring Bloomsbury home with you is through this delightful cookbook. Sink into this beautifully illustrated window into the recipes of the Bloomsbury Group, available from the Charleston Trust. This is a great gift for any fellow Bloomsbury lovers.
To start your collection, we stumbled upon these wonderful little folkloric puppets by Samantha Allen for the Shop Floor Project.
RIKRAK Candle Set
Whilst a room must look good, it must feel good too and that has everything to do with the smell. Why not try all our classic scents with this miniature candle gift set available on Shop Kit Kemp.
Inspired by the puppets of Paul Klee and costumes of British folklore, they are the perfect ‘build your own sets’ and we think they are simply marvellous.
DELIGHTFUL ROOM ACCENTS UNDER £100
Baskets
Our 52 Baskets of Britain installation above the pewter bar at The Whitby Hotel in New York is a marvel of craft.
Start your own basket collection today with this Holga firewood basket from the Conran Shop. Baskets are a wonderful way to accent any home, perfect for storing firewood or hiding away all your magazines.
Whether this basket is a stand alone room accent or the beginning of creating an installation, we think it’s a great addition. Conran has a great selection of different shapes.
‘Lost and Found’ Scarf
This gorgeous scarf in my ‘Lost and Found’ fabric is a cosy favourite.
We like to use them not just to wrap up warm on cold winter days but also as a lovely throw over a chair or sofa. They add a punch to any space or outfit!
Molly Mahon Cushion
Fun printed textiles are a must in our design studio, and a designer we love is Molly Mahon . We’ve used her abundant block prints many times in our spaces.
You can take home this little bolster cushion which makes the perfect gift for anyone who loves colour as much as we do.
Hanging Mobile
Hanging mobiles and kinetic sculptures that softly turn with the passing of the day are a wonderful way to make a space feel dynamic and curated.
We have been lucky enough to work with the artist Daniel Reynolds on several projects. We were the first to commission one of his mobiles.
This mobile from Caravane is the perfect hanging accent to your festive decorative scheme. This constellation mobile will twinkle beautifully over your Christmas dining table, or hang it all year round to add a fun detail to your interior space.
ELEVATE YOUR SPACE FOR UNDER £200
Embroidered Lampshades
This lovely gathered skirt style shade is so delicate atop of a Staffordshire ceramic dog lamp.
We found these fabulous shades by Alice Palmer, our favourite is this Calico embroidered shade with happy suns and twinkling stars.
Sailor’s Farewell’s Napkins
A Christmas table, or even a weeknight dinner needs a little added flair to make an occasion out of any meal. Our ‘Sailor’s Farewell’ embroidered napkins go beautifully with any table setting – we think they’re the gift that keeps on giving, perfect for any occasion and any season.
Jo Waterhouse Prints
I have long coveted the wonderful collages of Jo Waterhouse. Her wonderfully textural, bright and cheerful pieces look beautiful hung in collections. We have used her artworks many times in our design, they never fail to bring a touch of joy to any living space.
Her collage artworks are now available as limited edition prints though our friends at the New Craftsmen.
Antique Charger
A sure fire way to make any space feel special and layered is to fill it with antiques. A wonderful decorating technique is to group together smaller items, like these antique and vintage charger plates.Â
We framed these antique chargers in Perspex to give them a fresh modern twist in The Whitby Bar.
Here at home, they look like an artwork mounted on the wall above my fireplace.
We found this beautiful 18th century antique charger at the wonderful Howe London on Pimlico Road. Make this the year you start a collection of beautiful plates, or else it’s a fabulous stage for this year’s Christmas turkey.
Inside Out Lemon Cushions
Whilst we might be talking about Christmas, a bright and sunny interior is welcome all year round. Our recent refurbishment at The Whitby Hotel in New York featured one of my all time favourite yellow ‘Inside Out’ cushions, available on Shop Kit Kemp.Â
The oversized piping wrapped in a blanket stitch is wonderful detail.
SPECIAL GIFTS UNDER £400
Natasha Hulse Cushions
One of our greatest collaborators has to be the wonderful Natasha Hulse, her work is truly spectacular. Its detail, intricacy and delicacy makes her designs some of the most precious pieces we own. It’s timeless and classic, yet modern and fresh. Here we used Natasha’s work on this fantastical garden headboard in the Terrace Suite at Ham Yard Hotel.
To get this look for less, this beautiful cushion can be found on Natasha’s online shop. We suggest you snap up her elegant work fast!
Fine Cell Work
A gift guide wouldn’t be complete without something special from Fine Cell Work. This stunning lampshade pairs an indigo blue linen fabric from Blithfield’s Chatham Collection with hand-embroidered red details.
Fine Cell Work is a charity and social enterprise which enables prisoners to learn a skill to take with them beyond their sentences. All the embroidered pieces available in their shop are a product of careful and beautifully crafted work by prisoners.Â
Whilst this is a special gift for anyone, the proceeds go towards enriching the lives of the maker and ending the cycle of crime in Britain. This particular shade is created from one of my many collaborations with the charity which I am so passionate about.
The Bureau
Perhaps one of our most prized pieces of furniture is this 17th century Swedish armoire. We treasure this piece so much that we decided to develop a perfect miniature version filled with treasures available on Shop Kit Kemp.
Each drawer, door and opening is filled with gifts from candles, to soaps, notepads, to pillow spray. Not only is it the perfect gift set, it’s a statuesque curiosity for your shelf or sideboard.
