Unique Housewares and Gifts

Perfect for curious kids, this kit provides everything needed to teach children to grow flowers, herbs and vegetables right from seed. Each kit contains a grow tray with seed-growing pellets, reusable tea bags, three seed packets and easy-grow instructions.

Alexa Harrison Public Relations Director

Now's a great time to stock up on spices and upgrade your kitchen. This kit contains 24 certified organic and fair trade spices in stylish magnetic jars.

Kit Sudol Director, Audience Development

This stainless steel cocktail set from Cocktail Kingdom contains: one Seamless Mixing Glass, one Hoffman® Barspoon, one Japanese Style Jigger, one set of Koriko® Weighted Shaking Tins, and one Koriko® Hawthorne Strainer.

Sturdy and squat, the Brown Betty teapot is a British classic. This redesigned take is the result of years of research by ceramicist Ian Mcintyre, who reincorporated long-lost features such as a no-drip spout and a locking lid. 

Anne Ewbank Senior Associate Editor, Gastro Obscura

The gravity-defying Story Clock must be seen to be believed. This successful 2017 Kickstarter project features a levitating chrome sphere that orbits a wooden base at the time interval—minutes, hours, or years—of your choice.

This clock uses an ingenious system of geometrical masking to convert the sun’s angle into a digital read-out of the time. Though the math for this sundial was worked out in the 1990s, it took the more recent advent of high-resolution 3D-printers to bring this magical device into being.

Joshua Foer Co-Founder

A wall clock pared down to the essentials. Hang it as-is in your minimalist living room, our surround it with family photos for a different looks entirely.

Every passing minute on this clever clock delivers a slight pattern variation to stop and contemplate.

This sleek, modern sundial has an eco-friendly pedigree. It's made from recycled garden pots.

Depending on your morning mood, this is either the world's smartest or most annoying alarm clock. Regardless, there's no snoozing with Clocky.

Tyler Cole VP, Community

A traditional clock's days are numbered. With this clock, enjoy time as text.

Tyler Cole VP, Community

Whether you're fascinated by the science of cold cathode display, nostalgic for obsolete technology, or just want a cool conversation piece in your living room, the vacuum tube Nixie Clock has you covered.

Tyler Cole VP, Community

If you must begin the day with an alarm, perhaps try the "natural wake-up" provided by this ingenious sunrise-simulating machine.

No, it won’t keep perfect time, but this laser-cut wooden clock is a lot of fun to build. And even more fun to show people

Joshua Foer Co-Founder

In South Africa, the potjie ("pot") is a descendant of the original dutch oven. Slowly cooked in this round, three-legged, cast iron pot, potjiekos (literally "small-pot food") is a dish, somewhat akin to a stew, traditionally containing meat and vegetables. 

Tao Tao Holmes Director of Special Projects, Experiences

In the era of pods, the stovetop coffee machine has become an endangered species. Get this iconic Italian kitchen appliance while you still can.

Time to raise a glass to your favorite city... literally. More than 20 American cities are beautifully etched into these rocks glasses. Cheers!

Samantha Chong Associate Director, Audience Development

Horror. Adventure. Noir. For the first time, your life can actually smell like the genre you wish it was!

Eric Grundhauser Senior Producer

“Get your cactus some pants!” CactiPants offers charming 3D-printed cactus and succulent planters modeled after famous Italian landmarks.

Larissa Hayden

The one problem with the big, beautiful art books that so many of us love is that they're physically difficult to read. This elegant bookstand from Assouline solves that problem in style, holding your books for both reading and display. 

Tyler Cole VP, Community

“Whether exploring abandoned ruins, touring cemeteries of old, or reading the latest Atlas Obscura book on the couch, one must keep warm. What better way than to curl up in a wool blanket from Eighth Generation, the fastest growing Native-owned and operated business in North America? Each design is unique...

"Unexpected, delightful, magical, and utterly cool!" — Sascha West, Vermont

“Beautiful handcrafted bronze oyster as much a piece of sculpture as a bottle opener.” — Susan Leonetti, New York City, New York

The incredible, "unkillable" zamioculcas can regrow just from clippings of its leaves! “[I like] its ability to propagate endlessly.” — Joseph Kidwell, Jacksonville, Florida

The Manhattan leg of the New York City subway system distilled to its essence—each dot represents a station on this elegantly minimalist poster.

If you haven't heard, single-use plastic straws are on their way out. Get ahead of the curve with this elegant and easy-to-clean set of twelve.

A spindly twig that predicts the weather? Think what you will, it's probably just as accurate as your smartphone weather app, or, for that matter, Karen from Mean Girls. Made from "weather-detecting" balsam fir, this elegant 14-inch pseudo-meteorological device curves upwards for clear skies or downwards for rain and snow....

Tao Tao Holmes Director of Special Projects, Experiences

Track your progress towards visiting all 60 of "America's Best Idea" with this attractive poster celebrating the National Parks of the United States.

I know it looks kind of like an alien toilet, but this cup is actually modeled on the bizarre zero gravity–friendly design of cups used on the International Space Station. Drink like an astronaut!

Eric Grundhauser Senior Producer

Give a classic arcade feel to any rocker-style light switch. No electrical wiring (or quarters) needed.

Civilian space tourism isn’t quite ready for blast-off. In the meantime, this poster—which evokes the slew of 1930s-era Works Progress Administration posters that touted America’s national parks—can help armchair astronauts’ imaginations take flight.

Jessica Leigh Hester Senior Editor + Writer

Who hasn't dreamed of discovering a secret, hidden door in a library? If you're particularly handy, you can make those dreams come true. (And if you do, please share photos with us!)

Embrace optometry chic by decorating your walls with this beautiful, vintage style eye chart and hanging kit.

Atlas Obscura is all about unique places and what makes them special, and few things capture that combination like the smell of burning piñon that permeates New Mexico. With these incense bricks you can enjoy the scent of the Southwestern high desert, even if you live in, say, the middle...

Tyler Cole VP, Community

If cooking is a science, shouldn't your oil and vinegar set come from a lab?

Build your own curio cabinet with these persnickety little drawers for all the bits and bobs you pick up during your adventures. 

Eric Grundhauser Senior Producer

How best to embrace the power of the moon without venturing outside? A bedside lamp is a good start. This lunar light allows you to snuggle up beside the moon and appreciate its topography in scaled-down form. Fall asleep beside the Sea of Tranquility and dream of floating amid the...

Ella Morton Contributing Editor

The sea is in quieter moments a source of deep relaxation—the gentle crash of waves at a distance, the occasional soothing rocking, the way light plays off of a rippling surface. Lots of noise machines and white noise apps have an underwater setting, so why not go all the way...

These shot glasses combine two things nerds like me love: history and puns. The Hamilton fever sweeping the nation makes them a perfect gift for this cultural moment, too.

Ariel Azoff Executive Director, Brand Partnerships

A gift that represents sustainability and balance, the EcoSphere is a self-contained, self-sustained ecosystem in a glass globe. Inside, shrimp, algae, and bacteria coexist in a nutrient cycle without the need for additional food, filtering, or anything but light. 

Measure your day in mechanical clacks. Our favorite retro timepiece keeps wasted minutes in check.

Eric Grundhauser Senior Producer