What to Give at a Housewarming: 7 Considered Gifts From Makers We Trust

The best housewarming gifts do not compete with the furniture or get stored in a drawer. They earn a place on the table, the shelf, or the kitchen cabinet, and they hold that place for years. The gifts that do this best share a common quality: they come from a named maker, made by hand, with a process worth knowing. This list is ours. Seven things we carry, from makers we can account for, at prices that span from a first gesture to a proper statement.

In this guide

• A candle made from sumac wax in Japan
• A hand-blown glass from Paris
• The glass people ask about
• Hardware that will outlast the kitchen it goes into
• A room-filling candle from a Los Angeles garden
• A candle that arrived from Estonia twelve days ago
• A basket woven in Bulawayo
• Frequently asked questions

A candle made from sumac wax in Japan

Daiyo is a collective name for craftspeople working out of Takashima, Japan, using a candle-making tradition that predates paraffin by centuries. These warosoku candles are made from sumac wax, pressed from the fruit of the haze tree, a plant native to Japan and used in candle craft for over 600 years. Each candle is hand-dipped and built in layers, resulting in a form that burns cleaner and longer than most modern alternatives. The wick is made from washi paper and rush grass, twisted by hand.

For a new home, this is a candle that teaches the person who receives it something they did not know before they opened it. That is a good gift.

Daiyo / Takashima, Japan

Sumac Wax Candles

Traditional warosoku made from 100% plant-based sumac wax. Hand-dipped in Takashima, each one burns cleaner and longer than any paraffin candle you own.

$32 CADShop Now →

A hand-blown glass from Paris

In 2009, Sebastien Nobile loaded four hand-blown vases onto a bicycle and rode them to flower shops across Paris until they sold. That was the beginning of La Soufflerie. The studio now works out of the 11th arrondissement, using 100% recycled glass and a process that has not changed much: a glassblower, a gather of molten material, and breath. Each piece carries slight variations in weight and form that no machine would produce and no factory would permit.

The Rock Glass in Framboise is our most reordered La Soufflerie piece. The shape is inspired by natural stone: soft, irregular contours that feel right in the hand. The colour comes from natural pigments within the glass and will not fade. Four of these on a new table is a very good start to a home.

La Soufflerie / Paris

Rock Glass in Framboise

Hand-blown from recycled glass in Paris. Soft stone-like contours, deep raspberry tone, slight variation in every piece. Dishwasher safe.

$45 CADShop Now →

The glass people ask about

Also from La Soufflerie, and also hand-blown from recycled glass in Paris. The Alien Glass has a rounded bowl and applied side forms that read somewhere between handles and sculpture. The shape is compact and slightly exaggerated: an everyday drinking glass with a presence that earns a second look. If the Rock Glass is for the person who wants something quietly beautiful, the Alien Glass is for the person who wants something that will prompt a question.

La Soufflerie / Paris

Alien Glass

Hand-blown from recycled glass, with applied side forms that give it a sculptural edge. For water, wine, or a simple pour. Everyday use, considered form.

$55 CADShop Now →

Hardware that will outlast the kitchen it goes into

A cabinet knob is not usually thought of as a gift. It should be. Hardware is one of the few objects in a home that gets touched multiple times a day, every day, for as long as the cabinet stands. Builder-grade hardware is almost always an afterthought: a stamped zinc pull chosen for price, not feel. Replacing it with something handmade is a quiet but lasting upgrade.

Maha Alavi is a Toronto-based industrial designer. Her CERCLE series takes geometry as its starting point: the Knob Small is a sphere reduced to its essentials, cast in solid bronze or brass and hand-finished. It comes in 11 finishes. Installing one on a kitchen cabinet or a bathroom vanity does not read as a renovation. It reads as care.

Maha Alavi / Toronto

CERCLE Knob Small

Cast in solid bronze or brass, hand-finished. 11 finishes. Designed in Toronto, built to last well beyond the cabinet it goes on. The quietest upgrade a drawer can get.

From $65 CADShop Now →

A room-filling candle from a Los Angeles garden

Flamingo Estate started as a two-acre garden in Los Angeles and turned its produce and botanicals into a home goods line. The Heirloom Tomato candle is their most requested scent and the one we restock most consistently. The notes are tomato vine, holy basil, and black pepper: herbal, bright, and immediately specific. It does not smell like a candle category. It smells like a place.

At $89 it sits at a comfortable gift price, and it holds its own on a shelf without a basket around it.

Flamingo Estate / Los Angeles

Heirloom Tomato Candle

Notes of tomato vine, holy basil, and black pepper. Herbal and alive. Our most consistently restocked Flamingo Estate candle.

$89 CADShop Now →

A candle that arrived from Estonia twelve days ago

Harriet Allure is a small Estonian candle house. The Tartu candle is named for Estonia's second city, a university town surrounded by forest. The scent is earthy and herbal: basil, rosemary, and the particular quality of woodland air in a northern climate. It is quieter than the Flamingo Estate candle and more interior. For someone who finds strong room scents overpowering, this is the right choice.

We received the first delivery this month. There are a very limited quantity left.

Harriet Allure / Estonia

Tartu Scented Candle

Earthy, herbal, and grounded in the forests of southern Estonia. Basil and rosemary, softly complex. New to us this month.

$116 CADShop Now →

A basket woven in Bulawayo

The Ndebele artisans in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe have been weaving with ilala palm for generations. Ilala is indigenous to the region, non-invasive, and harvested in ways that leave the plant intact. The Bulawayo Gourd Basket is hand-woven into an organic, bulb-like form, its shape and weave varying slightly from piece to piece. No two are the same.

At $265 for the Large, this is the longest-lasting gift on this list. It is the kind of object that moves with a person from home to home and gets better as it ages. For a new home, that continuity means something.

Ndebele Artisans / Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Bulawayo Gourd Basket

Hand-woven from ilala palm by Ndebele artisans in Bulawayo. Organic gourd form, no two the same. Currently available in Large.

$265 CAD (Large)Shop Now →

If you want to understand why these pieces cost what they cost, we wrote about that separately: Why Handmade Home Goods Cost More, and Why That Is Actually the Point.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good housewarming gift?

A good housewarming gift earns a permanent place in the home. The most reliable way to ensure that is to choose something handmade by a named maker, built from quality materials, with a story the recipient can tell. Generic items tend to get replaced. Objects with a provenance tend to stay.

How much should you spend on a housewarming gift?

There is no fixed rule, but $40 to $100 covers most situations comfortably. A hand-blown glass or a quality candle in that range is a considered gift without being excessive. For a close friend or a significant occasion, $150 to $300 is reasonable. A basket or a piece of handmade hardware at that price will genuinely be used for years.

What is a unique housewarming gift?

Unique does not have to mean bespoke or personalised. It means choosing something the recipient would not have found themselves: a warosoku candle from a Japanese craft tradition, a hand-blown glass from a Paris studio with fewer than five glassblowers left in the city, or a basket woven by artisans in Bulawayo. The story attached to an object is what makes it singular.

Are candles a good housewarming gift?

Yes, with a caveat. A mass-produced candle in a generic scent is a low-effort choice. A candle made by hand from plant-based wax, from a maker with a genuine process, is a very different thing. The Daiyo warosoku candles and the Flamingo Estate range on this list are both worth giving because they are both worth explaining. That is the distinction.

Where can I buy considered housewarming gifts in Toronto?

Mararamiro carries a curated selection of handmade and design-led home goods at 2090 Dundas Street West in Roncesvalles, open Tuesday through Sunday. Everything on this list is also available online at mararamiro.com, with shipping across Canada and to the US.