This Is Why Your Home Needs Its Own Merch

There’s a reason that little branded matchbook is still sitting on your coffee table. While the matches might be useful, the cover brings back memories of a romantic dinner, a birthday celebration, or a bar where you stayed for one more drink. Now imagine having the same thing, only branded for your home.

A deck of playing cards featuring your family name. Custom cocktail napkins for your dinner table. A set of coasters named after your unofficial home bar.

Introducing house merch.

By customizing everyday objects, house merch gives people a little something to make their homes feel more memorable and unique. Some become souvenirs for guests, while others stay right at home, adding personality to everyday spaces. This trend has been taking off on social media, where people are showing off their home-branded details that bring a personal touch to hosting.

It’s definitely a fun concept, especially if your “boutique hotel” is on the smaller side. But behind these playful designs lies a familiar idea: The places we love deserve little reminders—and your home should definitely be one of them.

Patricia Hamilton/Getty Images

A Hotel Tradition, Reimagined

Long before designing house merch became all the rage on TikTok, hotels and restaurants branded products that guests could easily take with them.

Matchbooks were ideal for this purpose. According to The Bowling Green State University Libraries, Joshua Pusey patented the matchbook in 1892 and shortly after, businesses started using its cover as ad space. These small items were perfect for bringing a business’s name into hotel rooms, restaurants, and customers’ pockets.

LODGING, the official publication of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, describes how matchbooks often carried information about reservation numbers and lists of amenities. Holiday Inn, for example, advertised benefits like an ice machine, televisions, and a pool on its matchbooks. Not only was the matchbook useful for the guest at the moment, but it could also advertise the establishment afterwards.

“It’s nice to hold a physical object and feel transported to an experience that could have happened weeks or even years ago,” Sean Wilkinson, principal and creative director at hospitality branding studio Might & Main studio in Maine, told The Independent in 2022.

House merch brings that idea home. A coaster from a friend’s dinner party sitting on your desk. A postcard might make it onto the fridge. The evening is over, but a little piece of it has become part of the everyday scenery.

Keep Something at Home, Too

Not all house merch has to be a giveaway item. You could have personalized playing cards for the coffee table. Embroidered napkins for every weekend. Monogrammed soaps that will give your bathroom some hotel personality. The connection to your home is what makes the idea interesting. Think beyond stamping initials onto everything: What do people associate with being at your place?

You can borrow a lesson from hospitality designers. For The Independent, Wilkinson described designing keepsakes relating to the property’s interior. For the Adelphi Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York, his team got inspiration for coasters thanks to the building’s navy fabrics and patterned wallpaper.

For an at-home approach, consider matching your cocktail napkins to your kitchen cabinets, or repeating the same illustration across a menu and coasters.

Thomas J. Story

Check This Before Ordering

If you choose to buy, start with one product and the smallest quantity available. Read descriptions thoroughly: Ready-made matchbooks, labels for matchboxes, and downloadable templates all involve different amounts of work. Check if the designer will help bring your vision to life, whether you’ll get a sample, and how much time production takes after approval.

Consider the total cost, including delivery and customization, not only its base price. If you’re planning to use a product repeatedly, check care instructions. Also, don’t include a specific date if you expect to use the item year-round.

Whether it’s a deck of cards or matchbooks friends can take home, the appeal lies in their connection to you. Start with a small detail that feels like you, and let it become a part of your home.

Get the House Merch Look

Ready for some custom merchandise for your home? These products will bring some uniqueness to your game nights, dinner parties, and everyday spaces in your house.

For Life at Home

For Hosting and Entertaining

For Little Keepsakes

For Making Your Own

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