Housewarming Gift Ideas: Art Prints for a New Home

How to choose a print for someone else's home

Moving day leaves most people with plenty of mugs and very little on the walls, which is why art works so well as a gift for a new home. The trick is to choose for the person, not for a house you have not seen yet.

• Start with what they love. The coffee they order, the holidays they talk about, the plants on their windowsill. A coffee obsessive or someone who goes to Italy every summer is easy to buy for.
• Think about their old place. If it was full of plants and warm wood, a botanical or an earthy abstract will move house with them. If it was white walls and clean lines, go calm and simple.
• Keep it flexible. A print that would work in a kitchen, a hallway or a bedroom lets them decide where it goes.

For a first home gift, something that marks the moment matters as much as the style. A personalised street name poster, or a print with a date that means something to them, is made with the names, dates or places you choose and becomes a keepsake. Browse our personalised prints or the full housewarming gifts collection.

For the kitchen: coffee and cocktail lovers

The kitchen is often the first room to come together in a new home, and it usually has the emptiest walls. Café and drinks prints suit it well and are easy to choose, because you only need to know what they like to drink.

• Coffee lovers: an espresso print for the wall above the coffee machine or the breakfast table. See our gifts for coffee lovers.
• Cocktail lovers: a spritz, negroni or limoncello print for the drinks shelf or a dining corner. Two prints from the same series look planned, so a pair makes a generous gift. Browse gifts for cocktail lovers.
• Italy fans: sunny Amalfi café scenes or a simple CIAO typography print bring a holiday feeling to a plain kitchen wall.

For calm, neutral homes

If their style is soft and pared back, look at Japanese-inspired and wabi sabi art: earthy abstracts in cream, sand and terracotta, quiet ink landscapes, a single dragonfly or butterfly. These sit happily against white, beige or grey walls, so they are a safe choice when you have not seen the new place yet.

A lucky cat print is a favourite housewarming idea in this style. The beckoning cat is a traditional Japanese symbol of good fortune, which makes it a fitting gift for a new start, and it is cheerful enough for a kitchen or a hallway.

For bold, colourful homes

For friends who love colour and character, go brighter. Bauhaus shapes in mustard, red and black suit modern flats. Vintage-style flower studies with sunflowers or poppies suit period homes and cottages. Lively Mexican market scenes, or a dramatic Japanese tiger or panther, give a hallway or open-plan room a focal point.

Bold prints are easier to give than they look. Pick one colour you know they like, from their sofa, their clothes or their front door, and choose a print where that colour leads.

Which size to give

For a housewarming gift, smaller is usually smarter. An A4 or A3 print is easy to wrap, easy to carry to a party, and fits a shelf, a kitchen wall or a hallway without anyone rethinking a room. A4 prints from our main range are £16. Our A sizes fit standard off-the-shelf frames.

Choose an A2 print or larger only if you know the wall it is going on, such as a gap above a new sofa or a long hallway. If you are not sure of their style or their walls, a digital gift card lets them choose from about 2,800 prints once they have settled in.

Every print is made to order on museum-grade matte paper and delivered worldwide. If you are planning a Christmas housewarming, order early.