As you shop for birthday gifts and holiday presents this year, you may be hoping to spend your dollars locally. Maybe you want to shop so locally, you don’t even want to leave your immediate neighborhood. To help you out, we will be sharing our shopping guides for Seattle’s many neighborhoods. Let’s kick things off with Ballard: Seattle’s northern neighborhood known for the Golden Gardens beaches, the National Nordic Museum, many breweries, and a wealth of charming boutiques and stores.
Looking for a gift for the bookworm in your life? See our guide to the best indie bookstores in Seattle. Shopping for a music lover? We compiled the best record stores in Seattle as well.
Here are our favorite shops in Ballard:
1. Baleen
Baleen is a Seattle jewelry store that hand-crafts almost every piece in-house. When you step into their cute little shop in Ballard, you may get so distracted by all the other curated goods for sale (from stylish socks to scented candles) that you forget about the jewelry. That would be a shame, because their modern and minimalist jewelry pieces are also shockingly affordable.
2. Fair Trade Winds
Fair Trade Winds is a family-run business that operates on the principles of fair trade and sells fair trade gifts and products. They have a 2022 gift guide up on their website right now to help you out with your gift shopping. One really cool feature of their gift guide is that it allows you to filter products by cause, i.e. “Empower Women” or “Gifts that Give Back.”
3. Prism
Prism is an independent boutique that thoughtfully curates clothing, home decor, and gifts. They also have a 2022 gift guide on their website, on which you’ll find everything from an absolutely giant satin scrunchie for your most stylish friend to a mushroom hunting knife for your outdoorsy brother.
4. ROOT
ROOT is a plant shop and specialty coffee bar in Ballard that stocks a selection of handmade and small-batch products for sale. In addition to plants and coffee you can shop for items such as handmade Japanese planters, single-origin chocolate, minimalist to-go tumblers, and local artwork.
5. Woodland Mod
Woodland Mod is a boutique that specializes in Scandinavian-inspired goods (which makes it fit in perfectly in the historically Nordic neighborhood of Ballard), Japanese-style products, and generally minimalist, design-forward pieces. It only just opened in July 2021 but it feels like Woodland Mod has been in Ballard for many years. You’ll find quirky lamps, handcrafted ceramics, luxurious skincare, chic children’s toys, and paper incense shaped like leaves, just to name a few options.
Bonus: Ballard Farmers Market
Don’t forget to also check out the year-round Ballard Farmers Market every Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., rain or shine. You’ll find over 100 local vendors selling crafts, body products, and handmade goods in addition to grocery and food items.