I am THRILLED to introduce our very first retail shop! Pinch me because I am still blown away by it:) Here is the backstory: 

I’m always looking for the next thing, brainstorming or trying to elevate the haywoodmade brand. At the beginning of 2020 I was looking for a studio space after working out of our family room since starting haywoodmade in 2017. I knew all the pros and cons of working from home and it was time to take the next step. Or so I thought…

Enter March 2020 when I found a great space a 5 minute walk from our house. When the pandemic hit right before I put pen to paper on the lease, I couldn’t be sure where the world would be on the other side of this (that still feels up in the air) and I was about to have our third baby. I couldn’t take the risk and knew an opportunity would present itself when the time was right.

Early this spring, I was making my daily walk through the neighborhood where I would grab a salad and coffee in the same strip of Irving Park Road where the pre-pandemic storefront was. I was waiting for my coffee outside and there was my “almost” landlord. He was taking someone else for a tour of the available spaces on the block and didn’t hesitate to pull me into the one that he thought would be perfect for me. Turns out, it pretty much was! The only thing was that it was about 6 months ahead of when I planned to start looking for a space again. 

I’m a firm believer in my gut. I’m a firm believer in when the timing is right, it’s right. I’m also a planner. After a lot of deliberation, I decided to pull the trigger and make it happen. We moved into the studio space in the middle of June at the same time that I hired a Design Assistant. Historically, I tend to do everything all at once in life and this was not exception.

the shop

While the shop seems like an obvious name, it has a deeper meaning for me.  I grew up in a small Indiana town where both my dad and grandpa had workshops. My dad’s shop is mostly mechanic and houses his excavation equipment. My grandpa’s is more carpentry focused with a popular train addition that has been on PBS and attracts buses of people from all over. At any given moment growing up while not on a job-site, that’s where you could find my grandpa, dad and eventually my brothers. It would go a little something like this if you were trying to find one of them: 

“Where’s dad?” 

“the shop.”

“Where does grandpa keep the rake?”

“In the shop.”

As a nod to my hometown and where I learned to work with my hands by watching the things they were building, the shop is their namesake. 

the goods

The things we will carry in the shop will be highly curated. It will be a place where you can grab a gift for someone or purchase something to elevate your own home. Goods like locally made candles, cut glassware from my hometown, vintage rugs, textiles, and apothecary items. Things that I use in my own home and have given as gifts for years that are always met with, “Where did you get this?!” Things that tell a story. Things that you won’t find in a big box retailer because they are sourced directly from the small business makers themselves.