Forget the necessities. Ignore the so-called 'must-haves'. We're here to celebrate the things in life which have no possible logical justification, yet which will make your life just that little bit sweeter.
A bedside lamp to make your room lighter. And also your wallet.
See this lamp? It’s very pretty. Beautiful even. Interior designer Vanessa Macdonald picked it out in this week’s Country Life as the sort of thing to pick out to turn your bedroom into a real sanctuary. But before you get overly excited. we’re just going to issue a slight caveat: the lamp is £1,900. And that doesn’t include the shade, which is another £804. You have been warned.
Don’t just lounge around the house. Lounge around the house in style
‘What’s this?’ we hear you cry. ‘£170 for a smartly-tailored jacket? That hardly seems exorbitant or inessential.’ That may well be your first reaction, dear reader, but look closer – for this is no jacket, but instead a cardigan. And £170 for a good old-fashioned cardie seems, well, somewhat over the top for a garment mostly used for sitting on the sofa and perhaps the odd spot of gardening. That said, it’s 100% merino wool, and thus is very soft, very warm and ought to keep that nicely-tailored shape for a good long time.
‘Jack’ cardigan – £170 from bluemint.com
Knife to see you, to see you, knife
We’ve all been there. You’re gazing around your beautiful kitchen, admiring all the shiny surfaces, gleaming objects and perfect décor, when your knife block comes in to view. Sure, a bamboo block is nice; but surely far nicer to see the finely crafted blades themselves? And then you simply can’t rest easy until you’ve found a way to make the most of your Japanese stainless steel cookware. For weeks on end you toss and turn at night, dreaming deliriously of a solution. Surely somebody, somewhere has thought of one?
Calm yourself, for the answer is here: a Furi knife block which keeps those beautifully-made blades on display while also stopping you from slicing your fingers open while fishing them out of a drawer. You can gaze around your kitchen in safety, and sleep like a baby at night.
N.B. If your kitchen is piled high with unopened junk mail, empty wine bottles and plastered with encrusted baked beans, it might not have quite the same effect.
Furi Pro six-piece knife block set – £139.50 from hartsofstur.com
Be the toast of the kitchen table
Unless you have an Aga – in which case your toasting needs are taken care of for life – you’ll be needing a toaster. And while you don’t ‘need’ one modelled on a VW Campervan, it’s just so, so much more fun than the usual models you’ll find in Robert Dyas. And not actually that much pricier either.
VW Campervan toaster – £49.99 from thefowndry.com
Rid yourself of all sorts of inessentials (to fund the collection of more)
For fans of the inessential, this is a bit of a godsend – particularly if your house has been declared ‘full’ by a grumpy spouse. Cudoni specialise in selling the finer things online, and will give you up to 70% of the net sale price – not bad considering that they’ll collect for free, sort out all the costs and do the fiddly bits like posting things and dealing with buyers. The only proviso? They won’t take any old bric a brac: there’s a slightly terrifying list of high-end brands on the website which, they assure users, is ‘not exhaustive’.
If you bought everything on the list today, you'd have spent absolutely nothing – and may even have made a profit – depending how much you'd managed to sell via the last of our suggestions. No need to thanks us...
The absolutely inessential, utterly indulgent and entirely marvellous weekend shopping list
Check in weekly to see the latest additions to our list – to look at, laugh at and to (occasionally) treat
Credit: from PRs
The utterly inessential shopping list: An iPad/Alexa hybrid, a wire reindeer and a £145 air freshener
At this time of year more than any other, rampant consumerism is an inescapable fact of life. So don't fight
The utterly royal shopping list, from beautiful winter flowers to hand-made suits that defy disposable culture
For one week only we've transformed our regular utterly inessential shopping list into an utterly royal shopping list, to coincide
Credit: TIM SCOTT
The utterly inessential shopping list: A gold Ferrari, your very own private island and a stunning timepiece to watch
Forget about the big things. You can keep the necessities. Don't tell us about the must-haves. Alexandra Fraser takes a
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Brockfield Hall, the great Yorkshire house that's gone from Regency mansion to modern family homeBrockfield Hall in North Yorkshire is the family home of Charlie Wood and Hatta Byng, editor of House & Garden, who have transformed it since they came here in 2020, winning multiple awards in the process. John Martin Robinson reports on the restoration project that revived this compact Regency house as a modern family home. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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Barbour’s heritage jackets get a floral makeover courtesy of ErdemUtilitarian outwear has taken the fashion world by storm and now Britain's world-famous wax jackets are getting in on the act, inspired by some of our greatest countryside icons.
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Seven perfect Christmas gifts for people who just love beautiful, functional thingsWilliam Morris famously said to have nothing in your house that you don't know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. These things do their best to hit both targets.
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Christmas gift ideas for menFrom fathers to brothers to lovers, we run through some smart ideas for Christmas presents for the men in your life.
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Perfect Father’s Day gifts for dads who deserve itThere are many ways to show your dad that you love and appreciate him. There's breakfast in bed, an offer to mow the lawn, a big hug and the offer of the last biscuit. Or you could just buy him something that he definitely doesn't need, but we're pretty sure he'll want.
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The Utterly Inessential Wimbledon Shopping ListWe've rounded up all the utterly inessential products — posh tennis gear, in other words — that you absolutely do not need to enjoy Wimbledon, but would probably fancy having anyway.
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The Utterly Inessential Mother's Day list: 16 gifts guaranteed to either surprise or delightIs your mum the sort who's happiest with what she knows — or one who loves a surprise?
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The Utterly Inessential Shopping List: Supercharged home Wi-Fi, smart headphones and a mobile phone literally anyone can useOur Utterly Inessential Shopping List returns with some technology that is far cleverer than we are.
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The best weekend bags and finest holdalls that (rather a lot of) money can buyGoing somewhere nice? You might be soon, so here's Hetty Lintell with her pick of the finest holdalls and best weekend bags you can buy.
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Best smart speakers for non-techie people: What to expect, what you'll love and what doesn't workSmart speakers are no longer the preserve of tech geeks and millennials — these handy speakers are, and (as we'll discover) particularly handy for those living in the countryside. We've looked at some of the main contenders to see which one comes out on top: Google Nest Audio, Amazon Echo Studio, the Apple HomePod Mini, and the Audio Pro G10.
