Beautiful leather bound note pad (ideally one that can be refilled) like Smythsons only cheaper 😄 Waaaaay cheaper!

[tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz]

Looking for a beautiful notepad for an extremely difficult to buy for DH. Will actually be for his 50th birthday not Christmas but figured posting here may get more traffic.

Smythson ones are beautiful but extremely expensive and unrealistic that he’d fork out for refill pads after.

I’ve not yet looked at Filofax as thought maybe they are a bit old hat now? But interested to hear others experiences. Not interested in Papier as while lovely that’s where I buy our functional family planners from so it doesn’t feel special enough.

Looking at both A4 and A5 sizes. Bonus points if UK company/made too as this is important to him.

Thanks!

i ordered recently from here. You can order samples of the various colours on offer too

https://www.undercoveruk.com/

My local tk maxx always have papier, filofax, moleskine and osprey notebooks very cheaply!

Something like this OP?

I got my DH a personalised Aspinal one last year and it’s beautiful , I got him a couple of refills at the same time

While that is indeed lovely it needs to be “cleaner “ with less detail, not too faffy to use as it’ll mostly be used for work.

Midori traveller’s notebook. Lots of different inserts, age really well. If you buy the midori refills (jp books used to stock them) watch the quality of the paper - you get different thicknesses: one is light to decrease weight but bleeds through for fountain pens, the other is really great thick quality. You can get different planner inserts depending on how you like your diary. Still love mine but it’s become bit of a casualty of having three different calendars.

So wanted to update as you have all been so lovely with suggestions …
In the end I’ve done a total u turn - I decided that while in theory it’s a lovely idea I wasn’t sure for the ones I really liked, how easy it would be for him to buy refills at a decent price going forward so worried it may end up collecting dust at some stage.
So I’ve found some much more budget friendly nice pads (Jekyl and Hide, made in Cumbria with recycled materials including paper coffee cups … a nod to his love of coffee and like of UK made where possible ) and going to treat him to a Mont Blanc personalised pen instead as anecdotal research tells me an ink cartridge lasts ages. Figured this would be an easy to carry around gift that he absolutely wouldn’t buy himself. And asked to justify the cost of refills.
Thanks again for all your ideas tho - MN is such a fab place at times!!

PS if anyone is looking at Aspinal they currently have 12.75% on Top Cashback