Are you looking for a nice gift to give your interior designer, decorator, or someone with a flair for interior designing and decorating? If you answer yes, you must look for something practical and beneficial to the recipient. It must be a gift they will be happy to receive and one they will use as often as possible.
You may think that finding gifts for creative people is difficult because we feel that design-savvy individuals are hard to please. Not quite so. Although they are creative and love stylish and attractive things, if their endless search for the finest interior elements is anything to go by, their tastes are not necessarily on the high side. Interior design professionals especially appreciate items they can use while carrying out their duties.
They will appreciate interior design books and magazine subscriptions that keep them up-to-date with industry trends. They like unique curios and decorative objects they can place on table surfaces and wall shelves in their homes and offices. They find great use for sketchbooks, drawing books, workbooks, and logbooks where they can input and store their interior design project, task, and client details. And for the design-savvy individual, there are colouring books for interiors like kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms, and bedrooms.
When deciding what to gift, it is good to keep an open mind. Consider something purposeful, practical, and pleasant. Gifts like framed artwork, artsy containers, mini-sculptures, and décor accents are great, but so are software programs, flea market finds, books, DIY how-to guides, and personalised mugs.
Affordable Gifts for Professional Interior Designers and Home Design Enthusiasts
Magazine subscriptions
A magazine subscription will make a great gift for any interior design professional, including beginners, students of interior design, and design enthusiasts. The choice publications include House Beautiful, Elle Decor, Better Homes and Gardens, and Country Living.
Workbooks and sketchbooks
Interior design-specific books like notebooks, sketchbooks, yearly planners, and portfolio book journals are excellent gifts for practising designers. Gift recipients can draft floor plans, draw 3D illustrations, doodle and sketch, create design concepts, write descriptive briefs and notes, and document projects in methodically laid-out books.
Grid sketchbooks
Graph and dot grid sketchbooks are excellent to gift interior design students and beginners and are used for developing design concepts, drawing art forms, and sketching craft ideas. Notebooks with gridded pages are also vital for drafting, hand-sketching, plotting, stencilling and pattern-making and are functional gifts for beginners developing their drawing and creative art skills.
Colouring books
Who says colouring books are only for kids?
Gifting relaxation activity books is a great gift idea for design enthusiasts with a feel for beautiful interiors. Colouring beautiful images of living rooms, bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and gardens is a comforting stress relieving experience and a pleasant way to channel professional designers’ creativity towards designing great indoor spaces. These books can also serve as inspirational ideas for interior design students.
Drawing tools and desktop accessories
All designers love drawing tools and desktop accessories. From colourful markers bound in decorative cases to cubed desk clocks that display time at the clap of the hands, gifts like these will bring a smile to an interior designer’s face. Other unique gift ideas are tabletop water features, paperweights, sculptures, and other ornamental keepsake pieces. Knowing the recipient’s hobby (or interest) will help to make an informed choice (as to what is best to gift).
Mechanical and technical gifts
Gift-boxed brass and copper mechanical pencils and brush pens will always be practical gifts for beginner interior designers. Designers draw, draft, write, render, and paint, and having the best types of drawing tools that are unique, stylish and impressive is one thing they all desire. Although the Digital Paint Selector is not necessarily mechanical but digital, it also falls under the category of fabulous gift ideas.
Inspiring or lifestyle books
Many interior designers love to read non-interior-design and motivational books. From books like “At Home with Dogs and Their Designers” which is a good gift for pet-loving designers who share stylish lives with their precious pets, to “Herding Tigers: Be the Leader That Creative People Need”; a book that motivates and teaches how to lead by influence instead of by control.
Interior design software
Technology has allowed interior designers to utilise software programs to create design concepts through 2D and 3D drawing presentations. These drawing software are great gifting ideas to beginner designers especially. Today, using software to create interior design drawings distinguishes professionals from amateurs. Popular software program choices are SketchUp, SmartDraw, RoomSketcher, and 3D Max.
Uncommon Gifts for Interior Designers
- Custom printed wall tapestry.
- Personalized throw pillows.
- Pet furniture.
- Artsy t-shirts.
- 4th dimension wall clocks.
- Sets of creative kitchen knives for chef-wannabe designers.
- Metal wall art.
- Black & white vintage prints.
Further reading:
Interior Design Moodboards and How to Create One for a ProjectHow to Develop an Interior Design Concept – 5 Basic Principles to Follow
How to Write An Interior Design Contract Agreement Document
