Unique home products and gift ideas from UncommonGoods

Have you come across UncommonGoods?

UncommonGoods are a US company based in Brooklyn, New York. They specialise in selling handcrafted gifts and uniquely designed products that are “created in harmony with the environment, without harm to animals or people.”

They stock a great range of products, including items for the home and garden, for dining and entertaining and gift ideas for men, women and kids. As their name suggests, you’ll find items here that you won’t necessarily see elsewhere, which is great when you’re looking for gift ideas. Most of the products are created in the USA and up to one third of their collection includes products using recycled or upcycled materials.

From our point of view, they’re a really good find as their website has ideas for the home that are unusual and unique. And at a time when we’re in particularly looking for Christmas gift ideas, it’s definitely useful to know about (click here for shopping inspiration).

Amongst the products that instantly caught our eye was the Cheese & Crackers Serving Board.

This board is fantastic and a great idea. Who serves cheese without crackers? Not us, for sure! It’s one of those snacks that instantly feels wrong without the other.

The board reflects this idea with a large ampersand (& shape) carved into it. The lines of the & are deep and designed to be used to serve crackers from. As you fill it up with crackers of all shapes and sizes, the ampersand shapes becomes more apparent. Here’s ours in action:

The board is made in Vermont from North American maple, with a teak oil finish, and it’s a good large size. There’s plenty of room around the ampersand for you to pop on your choice of cheeses, chutney, grapes or apples. It’s a good excuse to put out plenty of biscuits and, next time, we’ll be making the most of it with a varied selection of crackers.

When you bring out this board of cheese and crackers at the end of a meal, we’re sure it will be a talking point. It’s a lovely home-related gift and, given the style, design and quality of the piece, it’s well priced at £36.48.

The Unzipped Glass Zipper Bag is another of our top picks from UncommonGoods.

It’s a bit of a novelty item, in that it’s a glass object cleverly designed to mimic an open zip lock plastic bag. But there are plenty of ways you can use it too, so it’s much more than just a piece of art.

We love the idea of having this as a contemporary sweet bowl – wouldn’t it look great on a desk? Or you could serve chocolates in at Christmas, or fill it with nuts or other nibbles.

We think it looks good used on display in a living room too. Try filling it with some seasonal items, like pine cones, or  a collection of brightly coloured glass marbles.

At just £12.54, it’s an ideal gift for a hard to buy for recipient (dare we say it, like some men). Fill it with their favourite sweets or chocolates, and you could be onto a winner.

If you’re concerned about ordering from a company based in the US when you’re in the UK, then you’ve nothing to worry about. In our case, our order was placed on a Friday afternoon and the parcel arrived the following Wednesday morning. Pretty speedy, we think. We were impressed by the packaging inside and out too:

…..and loved the little unusual shaped cardboard pieces that were included inside the box:

Overall, UncommonGoods is a great find. They’ve got loads of unusual and uniquely designed products for the home and have given us plenty of ideas to put on our wish list. Plus, they’re a good source for women’s and men’s present ideas too – why not have a browse of what’s available.

(UK product prices correct at time of publishing).

 

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