Welcome to Curbed's first gift guide, wherein our editors sort through a retail landscape rife with tech, toys, textiles, trinkets, and tchotchkes. This year we're shopping for some rather specific recipients—though we think you'll find the gift selection broadly appealing. Shop on!
Small spaces, micro apartments, and tiny houses: The appetite for diminutive living environments was insatiable in 2015. Moving into a petite apartment doesn't mean buying dollhouse furniture, but it does mean getting smart about organization and finding multifunctional pieces. Here, we're playing the role of wise elder sibling and recommending gifts that will level up any home, plus check the boxes for "small" and "smart."
Key organizer • Wine rack • Incense burner • Cactus planter • Minimalist daybed • Small hide rug • Coat hanger • Wireless speaker • Modular shelving unit
Pyramid key box
by Henrik Ilfeldt for Korridor
$72 at A+R Store
The trick to maintaining sanity in a petite, walled-in box is organization. Bonus: With keys hanging right next to the front door, your bro's S.O. can take turns moving the car during alternate side parking hours.
Fumed oak collapsible wine rack
$150 at Food52
What's more grown-up than a wine rack? (Also known as "keeping wine in the house without guzzling it all.") This one folds up flat making for easy storage when clearing clutter.
Linea incense burner
by Cinnamon Projects
$30 at Tetra
Leave smelling like a gym sock to your apartment-share of ten years ago, and upgrade to incense that smells like a fancy boutique hotel. This teeny brass holder takes up precious little space.
Small Bowl Planter
by Brook&Lyn
$48 at Sight Unseen
Even the tiniest apartment merits green space. In lieu of an expansive terrace (hey, it's good to have #goals), hitch your wagon to the Instagram trend that won't die and go with low-maintenance cacti and succulents. These industrially-made planters are a rigorous, sturdy interpretation of SoCal vibes.
OGK daybed
by Ole Gjerløv-Khudsen
$790 at The Line
Multi-tasking furniture that folds flat and doesn't take up a ton of visual space is paramount for living small. Bonus here: Danish design cred.
Fjun Rug
by Fells/Andes
$395 at American Design Club
A 350-square-foot apartment won't fit a 20-foot-long bear pelt, but it will fit a (cruelty-free—it's made from 100% Peruvian sheared superfine alpaca) rug with petite proportions and a tactile feel.
Ripple coat hanger
by Klemens Schillinger
$40 at Hem
It's time to stop shedding winter layers and throwing them on the nearest futon. Why jam up valuable closet space when you can make use of a wall, especially with a piece that adds sculpture as well as utility?
Tube audio
by Piet Hein Eek
$189 at DWR
Wireless, Bluetooth-connected speakers are par for the course these days, but they make an extra amount of sense for a petite abode that won't accommodate the PA system your bro has been lugging around since college.
Climb shelving unit
by Bashko Trybek for La Chance
$845 at Dwell Store
A zigzagging wire frame supports these light-on-the-eyes (and -walls) modular shelves that can be added on to in the future.
· Holiday Gift Guide [Curbed]
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