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

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.

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

How could you not want a clock shaped like a shark with a fish in its mouth for a pendulum?

Lex Berko Senior Editor

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

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

Bring out a porrón at your next dinner party for a wonderful display of wine-drinking might. In Spanish tradition, the glass pitcher is filled with wine or cider, lifted near (but never touching) the drinker's mouth, and quickly tipped to start pouring as they extend their arm away. As seen on...

Jordan Schultz Director of Marketing & Audience

I recently had the phenomenal opportunity to staff Atlas Obscura's Death Valley astronomy and night photography trip alongside Tyler Nordgren, an incredibly talented astronomer and artist. Tyler has not only spent years working with the National Park Service on public science and astronomy education—including writing a book on the subject—but...

Tao Tao Holmes Director of Special Projects, Experiences

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.

Calamityware offers classic porcelain in throughly modern patterns. This plate featuring a streaking Sasquatch is just one of many playful examples.

Want to try making your own essential oil? Give it a go with this copper still set. Even if your concoction doesn't quite work, it's a wonderful piece of decoration.

Tao Tao Holmes Director of Special Projects, Experiences

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

“I'm passionate about books, and love the idea of this movement. I've been thinking getting one set up for over a year, but when the founder of the Free Little Library movement passed away this Fall, I thought I shouldn't wait any longer. I want to have mine painted and...

“If I had this bed, I could pretend I was a wizard at Hogwarts and a kid in dormitory school, which would be like every day is a sleepover, but with magic! It would be a wonderful escape every time I came into my room.” — Lynn, Canada

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

This salt lamp provides a beautiful dreamlike glow that helps you wind down and drift off to sleep feeling relaxed. I’ve gifted one to practically all of my girlfriends. If I were Oprah, it would definitely be one of my favorite things.

Sheila Baker Designer

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.

Keep track of your travels with as much or as little precision as you choose.

Madeleine Kenyon Audience Development Fellow

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...

Even the blackest of thumbs can find joy with the “Rose of Jericho,” a hibernating ball of dried leaves that can remain dormant for years as it waits for the right bit of moisture to spring back to life.

Blake Olmstead Head of Design

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