In 2019, we bought a rundown house that nearly broke us. Five years later, the last boards from that place are finding new life in our handmade pieces — a reminder that every failure is a chance to build something beautiful.
Returning to our roots: how one handmade weekend became the heartbeat of Hemlock & Heather. A few years ago, I started making small wooden candy corn out of leftover scraps from the shop. It wasn’t part of a plan or a new product launch. I just wanted to make something. That’s always been the engine at the heart of Hemlock & Heather: creation for its own sake. The joy of shaping something real with your hands. The satisfaction of seeing an idea take form — not because it’ll sell, but because it meanssomething. Before there were logos, followers, or retail displays, there was just a garage, a few borrowed tools, and a rainy weekend. The Headboard and the Quilt...
Beginnings Hemlock & Heather had existed for about a month in August 2012 when Kelley and I dreamt this headboard up. This piece came about because Kelley had a family quilt that was falling apart, and she had the idea to recreate the pattern in wood. One weekend while she was away, I went into the garage and started trying to bring it to life. I used some reclaimed beaded oak that was given to me by a remodeler back when I was working in the building industry. I spent all weekend in the garage working on that headboard. The star pattern consisted of 96 parallelograms that had to be individually cut and laid in place. But I loved the...
To celebrate 9 years in business, we thought it would be fun (interesting?) to take a look back at some of our past designs, discuss how they came about, and maybe drag a few of them out of the vault—for a limited time, of course! These were the very first pieces of ours that weren’t strictly one-of-a-kinds. In 2016, in order to build the 28’ Waterloo we designed and built for West Elm Austin, we had to find a wood supplier. We knew we weren’t gonna scrounge that much wood. So we found a little local company called This Old Wood. Securing a reliable source for wood (a specific type with a reasonably consistent patina) changed things dramatically for our...
