Just as accessories are what take an outfit from average to great, your homeware can turn any room from acceptable to chic. It’s about what you put in a space that brings it to life, after all, so it’s worth thinking carefully about the kind of vibe you want, whether it’s a cosy interior with plenty of texture, a minimalist space with plenty of neutral pieces, or something super relaxed and retro with plenty of colour and vintage designs.
Thankfully, just as we’ve found many of the best online furniture stores out there and the best furniture sales, too, there are also some ultra-chic homeware brands that are well worth your perusal. We often think of furniture stores as somewhere focused on those large items like the best sofas, the best dining tables and the best bed sheets and bed frames, but homeware brands instead are more about your home as a whole, with all of the accessories and design features that you need to finish the job. When thinking about your shopping, start with your furniture, and then think about smaller homeware pieces next that can work with your design style, whether it be soft furnishings from the best bedding brands, throws, or items like the best dinnerware, scented candles, or vases.
Whether you’re after something more vintage-inspired and retro or want a trend-led contemporary home, we’ve found the best Soho Home furniture and the best of brands like John Lewis and Anthropologie to get you started. At the end of the day, the style of homeware you choose comes down to how your home looks (whether you’re in a modern new-build or a mid-century flat), and how you personally want the interior design to feel. Get a Pinterest board up and running to see what kind of things you like and then start browsing our favourite homeware brands below to see what works.
The best homeware stores at a glance…
What is sold in a homeware store?
Homeware stores are pretty similar to the places we’d also consider a furniture store, however, we’d say homeware stores tend to feel slightly broader and more focused on your space as a whole (including more home decor, soft furnishings and accessories), than those very large-piece focused furniture stores. You’ll normally find everything from sofas and dining tables to rugs, lamps, plant pots, kitchenware and even drinking glasses at most of the stores we’ve listed below.
How do we pick and test homeware stores?
All of GQ’s interiors guides are written by our in-house team of contributing testers and experts, and are edited by Daphne Bugler, British GQ’s Senior Commerce Writer, who has been working at GQ for the past four years, and has written extensively about interiors since 2020. The team regularly talks to experts in a variety of interiors categories to better understand the products we write about and what we should be looking for.
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