Holiday Home Décor Gift Guide

If you have a friend or relative who recently moved into a new home in the Chicagoland area – or maybe you’re looking to treat yourself with a little something for your own home – the holidays are a great time to shop for a nice home décor gift. To make your search a bit easier, we have compiled a list of Chicago-area businesses where you might find the perfect item for the plant lover, vintage fanatic, art connoisseur, or remote worker in your life.

Gifts for the Plant Lover

Plants “bring literal life to homes and spaces,” says Kaitlin Buckley, shop manager at The Sill in the Southport Corridor.

Andy Robledo, founder of Plants Delivered Chicago, agrees, adding that plants can make the perfect gift because “you can always look back at every year to admire the gift you received from someone with a fondness that a pair of socks, a bottle of wine or a scarf just can’t do.”

At Plants Delivered, best-sellers include ZZ plants, snake plants, and bird-of-paradise, while Buckley said The Sill tries to stay well-stocked with Peperomia green and ZZ plants.

The Sill is also expecting new holiday colors for its planters.

For the plant novice, Plants Delivered Chicago offers plant design consults that can be conducted by email/text/FaceTime or in person. “We walk through the space or review photos of where plants are desired. We make recommendations based on the conditions and customer skill level, and then make recommendations based on what will work best but also allowing space for clients to have some choices along the way,” Robledo said.

The Sill also takes pride in educating its customers, as staff will “inquire about their lifestyle, where they want to put the plant, if they have any pets,” Buckley said. “The answers will provide us with the information to make better suggestions for them specifically and which plants will do best in their homes. We also provide care cards before they leave so they have all the information they need to be a great plant parent!”

The Sill sells monthly subscription boxes that are “curated based on your needs and sent to you every month, 3 months or 6 months,” Buckley said. “It’s a fun way to keep plants in your home and your life and also makes for a great gift for the plant person in your life!”

Gift for the Vintage Fanatic

At Secret Treasures in Evanston, store owner Dawn Okamoto and Director of Operations Henry James are busy getting the store ready for the holidays.

Decorating with vintage items has risen in popularity over the last several years, perhaps due to younger people being more environmentally conscious or due to economic reasons.

Secret Treasures’ 24/7 online store is a good place to check out some of the available home décor items and other vintage items. Note that the online store only includes a portion of the store’s stock.

Gift certificates are also available for purchase.

At Jayson Home in Lincoln Park, the vintage items for sale range from wine jars and tableware to chandeliers, dining tables, and framed art. Devin Kirk, the store’s Chief Creative Officer, travels 4-5 times a year to buy vintage. Leveraging his contacts in Belgium, France, Italy, and Morocco, Kirk finds items everywhere from flea markets and warehouses to the backs of trucks.

“I’m lucky that our customers have really extraordinary taste so we can really push the limit and buy things that are a bit out there because our customers are brave. They have large spaces, and they don’t want what everyone else has,” he said.

If vintage furniture is on your gift list, here is what is hot and gaining popularity at Jayson Home:

“We’re doing really well with Brutalist oak antiques we’re finding here in Belgium that we strip to the raw wood,” Kirk said. “They feel really fresh and somehow modern but have a quality, singularity and heft you can’t find out there being made new. For what’s trending, I’m happy to see fringe gaining popularity! We love this look on Napoleon III French upholstered furniture. It’s very chic when done right.”

Gifts for the Art Connoisseur

At Neighborly in Lincoln Square, the artwork for sale “ranges from screen prints, to letterpress prints, to high quality giclée reproductions of original artwork,” store owner Jenny Beorkrem said, “The style of artwork is often mid-century modern inspired, as are many of the goods at Neighborly, although we try to carry a little something for all tastes.”

Neighborly carries artwork from about 40 to 50 different artists. All pieces are sourced from independent artists whether it is artwork, a gift, a small home good like a coffee mug or wine glass, or a Chicago-themed item, Beorkrem said.

Following Thanksgiving, Neighborly has a gift card scavenger hunt on Black Friday, a sale on Small Business Saturday (and Sunday), and an opportunity to win a Chicago-themed gift pack on Cyber Monday.

Gifts for Your Work-From-Home Friend

While more employers are pushing for workers to return to the office, there are many who continue to work remotely. There is no shortage of items available that could help improve their at-home work space. Material Possessions in Winnetka is “always looking for new desk accessories, bookends, clocks, notepads, comfy chairs and lamps that can change a space from a borrowed corner of a spare room into a comfortable functioning work space,” store co-owner Jessica McDermott said.

Two of Material Possessions’ most popular items for those who work from home are the leatherbound notepads and reversible leather desk blotters “that can be used to make everything from your kitchen table to your coffee table into a work station,” McDermott said.

If office furniture is on your gift list, Compel Office Furniture and Rework Office Furniture in Forest Park have a number of new and pre-owned options. “Compel is an in-stock, new furniture manufacturer,”  Dave Karnes, President of Compel and Rework said, “Rework sells new and preowned. Almost all the inventory in our showroom in Forest Park is preowned or second-generation furniture, though. We have a decommission team that works all over the country – they source our preowned furniture.”

You can find a number of Herman Miller Aeron and Steelcase Leap chairs as well as height adjustable desk options in the showroom.  If you are more budget conscious this gift giving season, there are cable management options to help clean up a home office, monitor arms for less than $50, and a do-it-yourself section when you can choose legs and bases and build your own desk.

“The quality and craftsmanship that goes into so much of the furniture that we have in our showroom can also add a design element to any environment and make a definite statement,” Karnes said. “Buying our preowned furniture isn’t just about getting a deal it’s about doing the right thing for the environment and getting a great piece of furniture.”