Hero image: Villa Bologna
Faegar Shop
Sloppy Swedish Cushion, £275
Faegar Shop, whose bricks and mortar premises are in Connaught Village, specialises in pieces inspired by the English countryside. Call us perverse, then, for choosing its collection of Swedish cushions, but we think their relaxed sensibility would see them completely at home in our version of the British aesthetic (which is to say, suitably undone). Shop here.
Bloomsbury Revisisted
Vase Lampshade, from £95
The world – or certain sub-sections of it – has gone mad for hand-painted lampshades in recent times (see: Alvaro Picardo, lampshade painter in chief). But the Bloomsbury Set were at it decades before anyone else and theirs are still the best (the confidence of the brushstrokes! The freedom of expression!). Jane Howard and Jane McCall, the Sussex-based friends behind Bloomsbury Revisited, make the best dupes (up there with Cressida Bell’s, actual Bloomsbury progeny) we’ve seen. And we especially adore the Vase lampshade, inspired by Duncan Grant and overflowing with wildflowers. (And if you like this, you should know that they also do wallpaper). Shop here.
Villa Bologna
Red Angel Tea Light, £40
Handmade and painted in Malta, we love these angels, whose halos glow by the flicker of a tealight. The perfect little figures to dot down the Christmas table or on a festooned mantelpiece. Shop here.
Toast
Patchwork Christmas Stocking, £48
Toast dropping its Christmas collection always feels like a festive event. Its 2025 crop of baubles and beauties does not disappoint, and we particularly love its quilted geometric stocking that echoes many of its lovely, much coveted bedspreads. Even if we were to find a lump of coal at the bottom of ours, we’d still consider ourselves very lucky indeed. Shop here.
Lily Allen’s West End Girl
We’re hardly unique in this, but we can’t let a list of our current favourite things go by without mention of the return of Lily Allen as pop maven. She’s had a hit podcast (Miss Me with Miquita Oliver, now with Jordan Stephens in the co-presenting role), she’s nailed a run as Hedda Gabler – and now she’s returned to her roots, this time with West End Girl, an unflinching postmortem on her marriage to David Harbour. Its pairing of savage lyrics with the sweetest melodies? Transcendent.
Helygen Hay
Felted Collar, £120
On one of our many meanders through the treasurescape otherwise known as Etsy, we were delighted to stumble across HelygenHay, an über-talented new maker whose Hebridean wool collars would make just about the cosiest and yet glam additions to one’s winter wardrobe. Meticulously and lovingly handmade, they are both gorgeous and very well priced indeed. Shop here.
Liv & Dom
Organic Cotton Tea Towel, £14
We love Liv & Dom’s beautiful ceramics (as do many others, judging by the way in which they are often sold out). But for a more affordable hit of their illustrative beauty, we really like their cotton tea towels and the fact that you can choose from nudes in wine glasses to the sweetest pasta people, though we do, perhaps, love the tomatoes most of all. Shop here.
Maude Made
Botanical Tiles, £12 each
Maude is a ‘maker, decorator, stitcher and painter’. We could not love her creations more, whether she’s turning her painterly hand to children’s books, clothes, photos or, indeed, tiles. Her botanical collection is such a joy, we’re mentally redecorating our bathroom as we type. Shop here.
IKEA
Mavinn, £99
Ikea is, of course, our go-to for brilliant basics. But we love it when the flatpack colossus turns its hand to the decorative, as with the jute Mavinn rug, which we think looks infinitely more expensive than it is, and makes for the perfect way to layer in pops of colour to a room. Shop here.
Down Cemetery Road
Have you, like us, greedily binged the latest series of Slow Horses? Are you now keenly feeling the Jackson Lamb-shaped hole that its left in your life? Well, no need, because another edge-of-seat Mick Herron thriller, Down Cemetery Road, has hit Apple TV, with the same brilliant team behind the production. And what’s more, it stars the excellent Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson – and what begins with the disappearance of a child soon leads to the revelation of a huge government cover-up. Perfect for winter nights in.
Crisis
Fair Isle Wool Jumper Decoration (2 pack), £14
It feels apposite that, when gathering our decorations for next month’s hall-decking, we should choose a few that actively do good. These sweet Fair Isle jumpers for hanging on the tree are sustainable, and proceeds go to the homelessness charity. A win all-round. Shop here.
