The best homewares stores in Melbourne

If you're looking to decorate your home with ethical and cruelty-free décor that's also easy on the eye, then pop into Fazeek's flagship store in the quiet Fitzroy North village. The candles come in fresh and earthy fragrances and after you've used them up, you can use the striking rippled glass for beverages or to house small plants. The soaps come in striking terrazzo designs that are created by sprinkling natural clay soap chips throughout a soap base, and you can display them in your bathroom on Fazeek's curvy resin soap dishes. For glassware, Fazeek offers a range of vases, carafes and glasses in statement colours like amber, light pink and royal blue. 

Mr Kitly opened in 2010, but you’d be forgiven for failing to notice this Sydney Road boutique from the street. Mr Kitly is the creation of Melburnian Bree Claffey, who wanted to reflect the Japanese sensibility of simple beauty and functional design in her own homewares and gift shop. Once you’ve found the narrow staircase nestled between $2 shops, you’ll step into a room filled with plants. In the room facing the street, you’ll find a carefully curated selection of ceramics, utensils and artworks.

This Collingwood shop is a great store for weird randomness – the sort of one-off finds that make great presents. There are the straight and gay confirmation couples to put atop cakes; a magazine from Berlin called Mono.Kultur that interviews one person (for instance, Tilda Swinton) per issue; solar-powered rainbow makers, a nose soap dispenser that squirts soap out of one nostril; David Shrigley’s ‘cocaine’ and ‘heroin’ salt and pepper shakers; a Gummy Bear air freshener… really, there's an endless array of goodies that would mark your card as an excellent gift giver.

Originally opened over a decade ago by husband and wife Meg and Zenta Tanaka, Cibi translates to ‘little one’ from Japanese. The meticulously curated collection of clothes, artisanal homewares, stationery, books and specialty Japanese ingredients offers a glimpse into the alleyway boutiques of Tokyo. There's also Cibi’s own merchandise, which includes a cookbook, house-made pantry staples (like the miso from your breakfast) and a tote bag that’s long been a fixture on shoulders in Collingwood. 

This South Melbourne store has been importing high-quality tableware and homewares from Japan for over 25 years. They deal directly with the makers, so there’s no middlemen or excessive packaging, which means they’re able to keep the prices low. Designs are functional, durable and high quality: you can get bowls for under $8, plates and saucers under $15 as well as sake and tea sets, glassware, incense, bath salts, door curtains and more for wallet-friendly prices.

You can order items for home delivery through the website.

Lightly's products aim to enrich the lives of their customers by combining utilitarian design with artisanal production. You'll find a wide variety of homeware products in-store, but some of the most popular items are the glossy painted planters and trays and the hand-blown coloured drinking classes. 

It's usually the first place we go to buy gifts, but we generally leave with five other things we didn't anticipate buying (last time it was milk bottles sporting the Jolly Roger). With an eclectic mix of homewares, jewellery and objects of desire, it's also particularly handy if you want to give an Aussie inspired and made gift without a hint of cringe. 

Apartment need a bit of a spruce? Head to the peachy-hued Lounge Lovers in Fitzroy, Richmond and Preston. Lounge Lovers is a Sydney based retailer of designer sofas, sofa beds, and dining and living room furniture. The designs are fresh and the quality is top grade – think of it like a step above Ikea, but not as wallet churning as the high-end stuff.

Let's be upfront about this: it's pretty exxy in here, so we like to regard it as shopping for the eyes, but if you're a trust fund baby you should get there as a matter of urgency. Fave picks include the wild geometric print towels and the apothecary candles (more skulls and crossbones), neither of which would break the bank. Otherwise, keep an eye out for warehouse sales.

If the thought of beige homewares from Country Road makes you want to stab yourself, chances are that Wunderkammer'll float your boat. We spend hours poring over the scientific paraphernalia, skeletons, butterflies and maps.

After a few location changes, Lost and Found has settled into their new home in Fitzroy. In many ways, a trip to Lost and Found is like an inadvertent visit to the Lost Dogs Home; it's packed with precious little things hoping for a warm, loving home. Maybe you weren’t expecting to leave with a fuzzy orange armchair, but you really didn’t have a choice, did you?

Founded by Terri Winter and her husband Bernd in 2001, Top 3 by Design is located in Richmond, along with a great online shop. Just as the name suggests, the store stocks up to only three items in any one category, assuring you of the utmost in design quality and ingenuity.

Founded in 1994, Mud combines handmade processes, clean lines, gorgeous colour palettes and functionality in their line of products. The end result is homewares that have both a minimalist aesthetic and an artisan finish. While the business was originally founded in Sydney and the products are made there, they have a location in Fitzroy on Gertrude Street. 

Designer Christine Lafian grew up in Indonesia and was inspired by all of the colours and patterns she saw there growing up. She wanted to bring the ethereal artwork of tribal cultures into the modern household and spent some time traveling throughout her homeland to source inspiration from small villages along the coast and founded Suku where she was able to pair traditional pattern work with bold, colourful design choices. At Suku, you'll find printed linens and cushions, textured vases and colourful candles, among other things.