All products are independently selected by our editors. If you purchase something, we may earn a commission.
Light up my Life
Chosen by Michaela Nilsson, senior designer
There are few things more Valentine’s-friendly than a candlelit dinner. If you’re like me – a little bit indecisive – and find it hard to settle on tea lights, classic long tapers or a waxen block, you’ll be pleased to hear there is no need to. The ‘Collage’ candle-holder from Skultuna, designed by Folkform, includes them all to create a landscape of candle typologies.
Cos Play
Chosen by David Lipton, decoration associate
Salad may be the most all-encompassing of culinary constructions. It can comfortably accommodate everything from a herbaceous mélange to the gelatinous American concoction known as Ambrosia – or as the song had it, ‘Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise’. From carnal to courtly, love has just as many surprising applications. Defining it has bamboozled poets, priests and princes for centuries; ‘whatever that means’, our current king once responded when asked whether he was ‘in love’. But that was during his salad days. Thus, these bizarre servers, replete with mysterious depictions of what might be a fair princess or an angle on the Annunciation, could be ideal for toasting the many meanings of true love this Valentine’s Day.
Pleasuring Spoon
Chosen by Alice Inggs, digital editor
As well as casting protection over courtly love, Valentine is the patron saint of beekeepers. This handsome silver honeypot, pierced with a quarrel-shaped spoon, is a fitting gift for the apple of one’s eye. After all, if one thinks of all those Shakespearean slips of the arrow, there’s no doubt that William Tell has the upper hand on Cupid when it comes to hitting the mark.
Light my Fire
Chosen by Elly Parsons, digital director
Spice things up with this handwoven cashmere blanket from the Zurich-based Frenckenberger. It reminds me of those stand-out 90s T-shirts teenage boys would wear to the school disco. Ah, memories. Your modern-day loved one will be kept genuinely warm too, as you’ll be snuggling up under fibres plucked from the soft undercoat hair of Inner Mongolian goats. Romance is not dead.
The Look of Love
Chosen by Rose Eaglesfield, decoration assistant
Lovers’ tokens have been a feature of romantic exchange since time immemorial. Whether lockets of hair, tiny enamel portraits or, in this case, a single eye in ceramic, they have been the means by which loved ones keep each other close. This take on a jewellery trend of the late 18th and early 19th century is framed in a scalloped plate, which recalls the goddess of love and her shell-like chariot – a suitably time-honoured gift for your Valentine’s feast table. Eyes, after all, are famously windows to the soul.
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Waiting on You
Gareth Wyn Davies, deputy chief sub-editor
Could there be anything sweeter or more lovely on Valentine’s Day than breakfast in bed? Yes! Breakfast in bed served on this très mignon tray. It’s certainly a keeper, regardless of whether or not the person bearing it is.
Love Triangle
Chosen by Mary Guy, audience development co-ordinator
This Valentine’s Day, whether you’re making a romantic dinner for two or cooking up a feast for friends and family, this three-sided trivet set from David Mellor will support any culinary endeavour. Indeed, one cannot love well if one has not dined well, to paraphrase Virginia Woolf.
To Have and to Mould
Chosen by Ginny Davies, designer
Outdo the Valentine’s cliché, and make giving chocolate a bit less obvious (and easy) by shaping it yourself, with these vintage French moulds. But if all that tempering, casting and safe ‘demoulding’ sounds like a little too much effort, the gorgeously engraved slabs are gift enough in themselves. Nineteen-fifties steel fish shapes might not be traditionally synonymous with romance, but will definitely be a one-of-a-kind chocolatey tribute to your love; certain shellfish are said to be an aphrodisiac, after all.
Inlay Lady Inlay
Chosen by Ariadne Fletcher, editorial associate
When it comes to presents, I am more inclined towards the realm of experience, and Addison Ross has just the ticket when it comes to immortalising your perfect day out – a picture-perfect frame. This year I am evoking the Valentine’s amour with this red wooden veneer frame with mother-of-pearl marquetry inlay.
Joy Stride
Chosen by Leyla Spratley, junior sub-editor
Planning a city break for the Feast of Saint Valentine? You could do worse than Paris’s 14th arrondissement, filled as it is with little boulangeries and charming village-y neighbourhoods – plus the echoes of various titans of 20th-century art and architecture. On this route, mapped out by architectural writer Stefi Orazi, you and your beau (or belle) can break away from giggling over a shared tarte tatin and traipse over to the lodgings of Tamara de Lempicka, Man Ray and the like, and marvel at villas by Modernist masters from Le Corbusier to the Perret brothers. After all, during a festival so suffused by the mawkish, why not Make It New?
Sweetie Pie
Chosen by Emily Tobin, editor
Apparently a pork pie was the breakfast of choice for DH Lawrence, a novelist known for his scandalous depictions of sex and pleasure. So what better way to declare your affection this Valentine’s Day than with a personalised pie for two?
Wax Romantic
Chosen by Ivan Shaw, visuals editor
What better way to surprise your Valentine than with a queen, specifically Queen Charlotte? Crowned in 1761, after her marriage to George III, Charlotte was a music lover and an amateur botanist, when she was not occupied with the raising of her 15 children. An ocean away, the capitol of North Carolina is named after this illustrious queen, and its premier art institution, the Mint Museum, features Alan Ramsay’s regal 1762 portrait of Her Majesty. The painting inspired Ruth Runberg to commission this regal candle, timed to coincide with the launch of her curiosities shop in 2018. Each one is coloured, poured, then detailed by hand using the highest-quality artisanal wax.
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Sex on a Stalk
Chosen by Damian Thompson, chief sub-editor
A symbol of virginity since the Renaissance, cherries (forgive me) ‘pop’ with erotic significance – and not just in the paintings of Massys and Montagna. You’ll also spy the soft fruit in Beyoncé’s ‘Blow’ video and as a suggestive logo for Pacha, the Ibiza nightclub. Perhaps their rich red colour inevitably recalls that hoariest of love symbols: the heart. Speaking of which, why don’t you and your squeeze celebrate the 14th by mixing an old-fashioned, a tequila sunrise or a classic manhattan? Any of these stiffeners will require maraschino cherries. Luxardo makes all-natural, almost black drupes steeped in bittersweet syrup that are a million miles away from the insipid, day-glo cocktail cherries you find on most supermarket shelves. Now run by the sixth generation of this Italian family, the firm is acclaimed for its liqueurs, and this recipe has been refined over a century of small-batch production. A second bite seems inevitable.
More tempting shopping stories from The World of Interiors
- The World of Interiors Bookshop: Books selected, read and loved by our editors
- Sweet Dreams: candy-coloured bedding
- Design-led stationery: a selection of gold-star worthy desk staples
- Solving the case: luggage and oddments for the discerning traveller
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