FIPS HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE DAY 7: DESIGN GURUS

Every day this week, Amanda, FIPS writer and creator the douchey gift blog You're Welcome will be providing you with gift suggestions that you can buy right here in Park Slope.  Today's edition is for the impeccable Design Guru in your life.

While you’re still sitting on the old, stained futon you had in college, this friend buys a leather couch from Restoration Hardware.  Where you have a Billy Bookcase from Ikea, she has a handsome cherry wood credenza. In short, this friend has spent more money on throw pillows than you did on your entire living room set.  And while it may be daunting to try and pick something out for someone with such impeccable taste, if you think small, you might be able to get something she can appreciate and incorporate into her scheme.

1. Wrap Magazine ($18, Cog & Pearl, 190 5th Ave at Sackett St, 718-623-8200): People who get gifts from you are lucky if they receive them wrapped in old newspapers—usually you just throw the item in an old grocery bag and call it a day.  But this Design Guru wants everything to be beautiful, from the toilet brush she has in her bathroom to the wrapping paper she uses on gifts.  Pick up a copy of Wrap Magazine for her and the purpose will be two-fold: 1.) she'll have a beautifully designed magazine featuring the work of up-and-coming illustrators she can drool over and 2.) she can use the pages as wrapping paper after she finishes reading it.  Bonus points for you: most Design Gurus adore things that are functional. 

2. Jonathan Adler Ornaments ($24, Scaredy Kat, 232 Fifth Ave, between Carroll and President Sts, 718-623-1839): You may decorate your apartment with shades of a white trash Christmas (you know, colored lights, cheap tinsel and fake snow strewn about, light-up Santas—the works), but this Design Guru has a whole theme to her Christmas decor.  Classy, controlled, and stark, stark white.  These Jonathan Adler Ornaments are a combination of playful and classy, and they come in a variety of different animals.  Her dreams of a white Christmas?  You just made them come true.        

3. [SPONSORED] Repeat Printing for Wallpaper + Fabric Class ($375, Gowanus Print Lab): You can barely be counted on to hang up a picture that's in a frame, but this Design Guru spends her weekends making her own curtains and fashioning a side table lamp out of items she found at the flea market.  Help her add a new skill to her arsenal of decor knowledge with this class at Gowanus Print Lab that teaches attendees how to make their own handmade wallpaper and fabric.  The four-week class covers the ins and outs of printing in repeat, ultimately leaving your Design Guru with her own roll of custom wallpaper or fabric.  FIPS Holiday Deal: Mention FIPS through 2/29 and you'll receive 20% off of Winter Classes and Studio Passes.  Visit gowanusprintlab.com or call 718-788-3930 for more details.

4. Marimekko Umbrella ($40, Goldy & Mac, 219 5th Ave between Union and President Sts, 718-230-5603):  Did you know that on average, New Yorkers spend nearly 10% of their yearly salaries buying those dumbass $5 umbrellas from those vendors that appear out of thin air the minute it starts to rain?  Okay, that's a fake statistic, but doesn't it feel like every time you turn around, you're buying a new shitty umbrella?  Help this Design Guru get out of this vicious cycle with this Marimekko Umbrella—it'll do the job and look stylish.    

5. Park Slope: A Photographic Retrospective ($40, Bob & Judi’s Coolectibles, 217 5th Ave between President and Union Sts, 718-638-5770): There are very few things more important to a Design Guru than coffee table books.  Coffee table books are supposed to be big and beautiful and virtually unreadable.  They also always say something about their owner.  For example, I have a coffee table book from artist Robert Rauschenberg.  It's the truth that he's one of my favorite artists, but it also says, "Hey, look at me, I'm a smug dbag."  Help this Design Guru show her Park Slope pride with this Photographic Retrospective of the neighborhood.  Hopefully, it has photos of Jackie's Fifth Amendment back when it's 1970s decor was considered modern.  I'd LOVE to see that.   

6. [ONLINE] Park Slope, Yo! Tote ($20, FIPS Online Store): You live in New York, which means that you are almost always carrying around your possessions on your back like a pack mule.  This is why a good tote bag is considered an amazing gift by any and all New Yorkers.  This "Park Slope, Yo!" tote will be perfect for her to tote around all of her heavy design magazines or her frivolous purchases from Crate & Barrel.

Shout out to Erica, who helped pick out the items for this one.  She is one of the best home design divas you'll find—check out her Time Out New York featured pad here, and her interior design blahg blog here: Design Blahg.  Anddddd... for way more gift suggestions paired with jerky commentary, check out Amanda's site, You're Welcome.