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How to wrap a present: our style director's comprehensive guide
Sarah Hogan1/10Flat with a flourish
A paper gift, such as a voucher, can be hard to present with panache. Surplus office stationery offers fun presentation possibilities. Alternatively, decorate envelopes with rubber stamps or vintage postage stamps, or bands of toning ribbon.
- ‘Confidential (1970s)’ envelopes, £4 each; ‘Archive’ folders (sand, olive), £6 each; ‘Scallop (1950s)’ seals, £4 for 20; ‘Gold’ seals, £4 for 5; ‘Cat’ 1973 Danish stamps, £4.50 for 5; all from Present & Correct.
- ‘Peach’ envelopes, £4 for 10; ‘Classic’ roller-ball pen, £12; all from Papier.
- Printing blocks, ‘Dash’ and ‘Four Dots’, £4.86 each; and ‘Hoop’ and ‘Large Spot’, £3.76 each; ‘Tuxedo Black’ and ‘Summer Sky’ ink blocks, by Memento, £4.50 each; all from Cambridge Imprint.
- Grosgrain ribbons (pink, red), from £2 a metre; velvet cord (pink), £1.70 a metre; all from VV Rouleaux
Sarah Hogan2/10Scrunch and bind
You can use up leftover rolls of wallpaper or wallpaper sample sheets as a strong and beautifully decorative alternative to traditional wrapping paper. However, wallpaper can be stiff and harder to work with than wrapping paper, so scrunch and unscrunch it in order to soften it up (it will survive amazingly well). Then wrap it tightly around awkwardly bulky presents to celebrate – rather than hide – their shape.
- Wallpapers (from top step): ‘China Tea’ (blue), ‘Trousseau’ (berry) and ‘Floral Ogee’ (blue), all by Daydress, all £138 a 10-metre roll, from Dado.
- Waxed cotton cord, £15.75 a 25-metre roll, from MacCulloch & Wallis.
- Label cards (blue), £6.50 for 40, from Present & Correct
Sarah Hogan3/10Fun and games
Old board games (especially ones in which a missing piece or torn card renders the game useless) are a treasure trove for fun embellishment. Cut up bingo cards or sticky notes to create sets of geometric gift tags, or use brightly coloured counters to jazz up paper-wrapped gifts.
- Spotty wrapping paper (orange, green), £3 a sheet, from The Conran Shop.
- 'Plain Colour Roll Wrap’ paper (grey), £3.49 a 2-metre roll, from Giftwrap UK.
- Green kraft paper, £8 a 10-metre roll, from John Lewis. Colourful jute twine (orangetwist, pinktwist, greentwist), £4.25 a spool, from Nutscene.
- ‘Color Bingo (1970s)’ game cards, £4 each; ‘Geometry Stickies’, £4.50 a block; all from Present & Correct.
- ‘Leaves’ gold-plated and chrome-plated metal scissors for paper, £20, from Choosing Keeping.
- ‘Curve’ ballpoint pen, £12, from Papier
Sarah Hogan4/10Line your pockets
Use wrapping paper to create a layer of pockets into which you can tuck dried flowers or a gift card – this is ideal for a book. Visit YouTube for step-by-step instructions.
- Brown kraft wrapping paper, £5 a 10-metre roll, from John Lewis.
- Colourful jute twine (henna, olivetwist), £4.25 a spool, from Nutscene.
- Edible dried flowers, chrysanthemum and jasmine, both £6 a packet; and kale, £8 a packet; from Scribble & Daub.
- ‘Letterpress Border’ cards (brown), £6.50 for 50, from Present & Correct
5/10Flora and fauna
Covent Garden stationery specialist Choosing Keeping offers a highly covetable selection of thoughtfully researched – and always beautiful – fine stationery and paper goods in its appealing store and online. These include both new and hand-picked vintage items.
- Italian decorative wrapping paper, from £3.50 a sheet; and ‘Blue Floral’ small paper gift bag, £7.50; Swiss satin ribbons (ivory, mint water), from£16 a 25-metre spool; ‘Rose’ and ‘Angel’ enclosure labels, £5 for 5; ‘Bird’ stickers, £8.50 for 10; ‘Cat Couple’ engraved Christmas card,£6.50; ‘Leaves’ gold-plated and chrome-plated metal scissors for paper,£20; all from Choosing Keeping.
- Background, gold kraft paper, £8 a 10-metre roll, from John Lewis
Sarah Hogan6/10Cool as folk
The north London-based shop Folka commissions traditional craft items from across Eastern Europe, especially Poland, including hand-made wooden toys, papercut decorations and straw pieces. It also sells lovely stationery.
Gold crepe paper, by Cartotecnica Rossi, £8.50 a roll; coloured crepe paper, £8 a roll; paper cornflower, by Alicja, £4; ‘Wycinanka’ papercut rooster gift tag, £7; ‘Wycinanka’ papercut lady and gentleman gift tags, £9 each; straw bundle, £12 for a bouquet; straw star, £4; straw angel, £8; ric-rac ribbon (gold), £7.50 for a bundle; blue satin ribbon, £7.50 for set of 6 ribbons; ‘Pink Flora’ wrapping paper (used as background), £3 a sheet; all from Folka
Sarah Hogan7/10Office management
Present & Correct sells carefully curated, modernist stationery at its east London shop and online. It also sources an unrivalled collection of vintage office ephemera.
- ‘Chart (1970s)’ chart paper (mint), £28.50 a roll; and (brown), £24.50 a roll; vintage graph paper, £8.50 for 6 sheets; ‘Ruler’ stickers, £3 for 5; library card and pocket, £1; ‘Graph’ sticky notes, £4.25 a block; and ‘Geometry Stickies’, £4.50 a block; ‘Graph Tapes’ (red/blue, green), £6 a roll; ‘Shape’ steel scissors (triangle green), £22.50; all from Present & Correct.
- Double satin ribbon (crow), 60p a metre, from VV Rouleaux.
- Background, brown kraft paper, £5 a 10-metre roll, from John Lewis
Sarah Hogan8/10Festivals, fiestas and news flashes
Look out for vintage ephemera you can use for wrapping – such as old French newspapers, copies of the Beano and Monopoly money. Try companies like RE, which has a store in Northumberland and also sells its dazzling selection of fun recycled and rare pieces online.
- Envelope made of newspaper, from a selection, from The Old Cotton Reel at Etsy.
- ‘Stalogy’ masking dots, £4.50 for pack of 3; Post-it page markers, £5.49 for pack of 5; and ‘Energy’ Post-it coloured sticky notes, £14.29 for pack of 6; all from Cult Pens.
- ‘Mosaic Bright’ washi tape, £2.95 a roll, from MT Masking Tape.
- ‘Sacred Heart’ newspaper decoration, £15.50; coloured jute twine, £1.50 a roll; both from RE.
- Background, ‘Plain Colour Roll Wrap’ paper, £3.49 a 2-metre roll, from Giftwrap UK
Sarah Hogan9/10Vintage vibes
It is easy to buy vintage postcards and ephemera online (try Etsy), and at markets and car-boot sales. Then use them as a basis for choosing paper and ribbon for a coordinated bag of gifts. From black-and-white photography to graphic design, there is a starting point for any taste. We found a set of vintage clan tartan postcards, which have a fun, shortbread-tin vibe, and then picked bright papers and ribbons to match.
- Vintage tartan postcards, £5 each, from Cavalier Postcards at Etsy.
- Recycled double-satin 38mm ribbon (ink, scarlet, tangerine), £4.25 a 5-metre roll; 25mm ribbon (sunflower), £3.75 a 5-metre roll; and 15mm ribbon (green), £3.25 a 5-metre roll; all from John Lewis.
- ‘Plain Colour Roll Wrap’ paper (red, yellow, lilac, dark blue, dark green, grey), £3.49 a 2-metre roll, from Giftwrap UK.
- Narrow tartan woven ribbon, £1.85 a metre, from VV Rouleaux
Sarah Hogan10/10Cottoning on
Unbleached cotton – or calico – is cheap when bought in quantity and is easy to decorate using acrylic paint or leftover emulsion. The easiest way to wrap a present with fabric is to place the item in the middle of a square piece at a 45-degree angle, then fold the fabric around the gift and tie the ends together with a knot. Here, unbleached cotton painted with zebra stripes has been secured with horn pins.
- Lightweight calico cotton, £3.50 a metre, from Dalston Mill Fabrics; with bespoke zebra stripe pattern, painted by Annie Millar.
- Large horn safety pins, £19 each, from Beyond Measure.
