Homeware Gifts

[KittenCatt]

A family member always gifts my partner and I pieces of artwork, such as paint by numbers and prints.

It’s a lovely gesture, but personally, I’m very selective about what I want displayed at home. Not to sound horrible, but I don’t like any of them. My partner is grateful upon receiving them, but doesn’t know what to do with them as they don’t match our decor. They just get dumped in the office. They just keep accumulating and we have at least ten pieces from her now…

Do we ask not to gift us anymore and sell the ones we have? Do we give them back?

We don’t want to upset, or offend her. What would you do? 😞

Does she ever ask you @KittenCatt What happened to that lovely picture I gave you of Sunset Over Margate Abbatoir ?

I mean , ten works of art takes up quite a bit of space so she must notice that they;re actually not ?

@70salimitnitatarget such a picture would genuinely be right up my street and preferable to the twee shite my MIL gets me, love her 🤣

OP what I do is have it on display for a bit then charity it. Blame OH on moving it somewhere else in the house if asked...

My best friend gifts everyone artwork continuously, except for me because I've told her about some art I want to buy but that I don't have space for even one more tiny picture at home... Hint hint

Definitely drop into conversation that you have been doing a frame rehang at home and are a bit stressed that there isn't enough space for everything and then just move past it in conversation. Potentially bring it up again in another way like this. Hopefully that's enough of a hint.

Nope, never!

I'm notoriously bad at hinting so I'd put it straightforwardly and told her directly I appreciate her art but not really a fan of decorating my place with artworks & wouldn't she be so understanding to stop gifting me those as I'm feeling her works deserve a better owner. However, this kind of talk would have happened only when it's appropriate, i.e. we are discussing some upcoming celebration and talking about gifts! I wouldn't go from 0 to 100 unprompted 😂

My auntie is the same, she travels a lot and she used to give out a lot of trinkets that never found use in our place. We had this talk once, it was very natural and went smoothly because she was asking if we want her to bring us something particular, and she took it lightly. She emails Smartshow 3d slideshows with photos now, which is much easier to digest 😂