Gifts Under $150

What $150 Buys at High St.

At $150, you can pay for the parts that last: solid brass, full-grain leather, hand-finished terracotta, good wax, and books with enough scale for a coffee table. Barware, home decor, books, and candles make particularly good use of the budget.

Barware Is the Safest Bet in This Price Range

If you don’t know someone well, buy something they’ll pour from. At this level, the materials carry the gift: full-grain leather, break-resistant glass, solid brass, and gold-plated finishes.

Look for leather-wrapped rocks glasses with brass rivets and visible stitching. They can be monogrammed with up to three letters, an easy way to make a good object feel personal.

A Clayton & Crume flask pairs break-resistant glass with a solid brass cap, while a five-piece cocktail set supplies two shakers, a jigger, a bar spoon, and a strainer. Art Deco ribbed coupes come six to a set, which takes care of a couple who entertain.

Home Decor Gifts That Earn Their Place

The gifts that stay in a home are usually the ones with a job. A solid brass door knocker cast as a horse’s head, finished with an antiqued patina, belongs on the front door for years.

High-fired terracotta pots and saucers from Danish maker Bergs Potter give a fiddle-leaf fig or kitchen herb a proper home. For someone with local ties, Clayton & Crume’s Ohio Circle Coasters are cut from full-grain leather, while the Kentucky Circle Coasters from the 50 State Collection offer the same regional connection across the river.

The embroidered Cincinnati Tea Towel traces the city from the Roebling Suspension Bridge to Great American Ball Park, making it an easy hostess or housewarming gift.

Books and Candles When Taste Is Hard to Read

Books and candles give you plenty to work with under $150. Design and art books bring scale to a coffee table while saying something about the giver’s eye. Massimo Listri’s Taschen volume on European cabinets of curiosities is the one we reach for most.

With candles, the house behind the fragrance counts. High St. stocks Trudon, which has made candles in France since the 17th century, alongside Tatine, known for hand-poured wax and distinctive vessels.

Browse our barware collection, candles and room scents, or books and stationery to see the full selection.

Matching the Gift to the Occasion

The occasion tells you how personal, practical, or unusual the gift can be. A first house calls for flexibility, while a milestone leaves more room for weight and character.

Housewarming and New Home Gifts

There is one rule for gifts for the home: don’t hand someone another decision. A new house already carries a hundred open questions about what goes where, so the strongest choices can slot in almost anywhere.

A terracotta pot, taper candles, coasters, or a good bar tool makes an easy start. Save wall art, large ceramics, and strong colors until you have seen the rooms. Those are the gifts most likely to end up in a closet.

Our guide to housewarming gifts that don’t get regifted has more ideas for choosing something they’ll keep.

Hostess Gifts, Thank-You Gifts, and Small Milestones

Good hostess gifts can be opened at the door and used that night. Candles, matches in a handsome box, a carafe, or a set of glasses all fit the brief. The same logic works for the neighbor who watched the dog or the colleague who covered your week.

For a milestone birthday or promotion, choose something with more weight. Leather barware, a heavy brass object, or a large-format book gives the occasion its due. Every in-store purchase goes home in a branded bag with branded tissue paper, so the gift is ready to hand over.

Real Estate Closing Gifts and Unique Gifts

Closing gifts mark the handover of a new home, so they should feel personal while remaining easy to place. Monogrammed leather rocks glasses are the clearest fit on this page, adding a personal mark discreetly. A leather-wrapped flask suits a client who travels, while the cocktail set works for a family planning to entertain.

When the obvious categories fail, unique gifts take over. The curiosities case is where we send shoppers looking for something unexpected. That might be a resin monkey skull with its anatomical details rendered carefully or Massimo Listri’s Cabinet of Curiosities, a Taschen volume documenting historical Wunderkammern across Europe. We keep them stocked for exactly these people.

Come See It on the Floor

High St. is at 1401 Reading Rd in Cincinnati. We are open Monday and Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The shop is closed Tuesday. Check our store hours and directions before heading over, especially around holidays.

Come in and tell us who you’re buying for, and a retail associate will pull a few options while you browse. For bigger projects, there is also our interior design studio.