Webshop of the week Hip and Wood

Every Tuesday I share with you an awesome webshop. Because yes, I am a sucker for online shops. Hip and Wood is a webshop that immediately caught my attention.

We live in a house with a lot of wood and in the accessories in our house I used a lot of wood as well. Well, I just love it.

Fulltimemama loves webshops; Hip and Wood

Hip and Wood is a nice webshop where you can buy a lot of personalized products. Not the products you see everywhere but those handmade products that make life more fun. A webshop that makes me happy, that's really just the right description.

The owner of Hip and Wood is Isabel, a mother of three, who transformed her creativity into this picture of a webshop. She answered my questions with pleasure and she likes to tell you herself about her nice shop.

Hip and Wood

Tell me something about the origin of your webshop.
“I have been an entrepreneur for a long time. Because of the birth of my children and especially because my eldest needed extra care I stopped working temporarily. Enjoying them but also working hard to give the oldest ones a good start.
A while ago I had a very successful webshop in jewelry. This turned out to be bad timing, starting as a hobby and ending up with a 3 to 4 month old baby making jewelry from ’early in the morning until ’late at night didn't really seem to be good for me or my family. I then decided to sell the webshop. And in itself no regrets but it always tickles, I am always tinkering and doing.

My youngest is almost 2 now and I thought the time was right to start doing something for myself again because I need to express my creativity anyway. And also because everyone needs something of themselves and this is my 4th child, this is mine and I can express myself completely and makes me more complete. I think if you're born an entrepreneur it will always stay that way.”

Where does the name Hip and Wood come from?
“Yes I was thinking very hard in terms of English names. So I consulted with a friend about something catchy. She asked “What do you want to sell then?”. “Well, nice products of wood, smaller deco items but not only wood also some other hip things that are totally of the moment.” After some puns I came up with Hip & Wood because THAT is what I sell, simple but catchy.

I designed my logo based on the puppy we just had at the time, who has a very cute heart-shaped spot by his eye and is such a funny animal. Sometimes I joke that I am Hip and Old (that is what people sometimes understand on the phone haha) since I am chronically ill that also applies regularly so that suits me ;)”

What nice things can we shop at your shop?
“Birth signs, text signs, wooden flags and banners, photo on wood products, but also the trendy items of today like the milestone blocks and name blocks. I am also working on putting more textiles on the site, fabric flags with your own print, shirts but also small baby accessories.
Sometimes I think to myself “does this really connect?” and then I think “well it just falls under the heading “Hip”. I only pick things that I really like to have myself or to give as gifts. I also have very nice collaborations and sell products from other webshops (I'm always on the lookout for that) and these collaborations make my webshop even richer I think. And since you cannot make everything yourself because there are not enough hours in the day, this is a perfect way to put more products in your shop.”

Where do you get your inspiration from?
“I am always busy with design and product development, this is sometimes very difficult when you have so much in your head but you can't do everything at once. Sometimes my head is really overflowing and I find nothing more wonderful than just “production work” just clearing my head with making nice stuff. I also cannot sit somewhere quiet normally, my eyes are always drawn to things I like or what I would do differently. My friend from Australia sent a nice picture of her little one with some milestone blocks but I found them a bit boring and very pricey. (I always try to make our products affordable so that everyone can buy something nice from us) Then I made this in the same style as our birthplate.

So your nursery stays in style. I always try to make that connection with wood again, despite the other products in my webshop. Take for example those fun milestone cards, then I make such’s scaffolding wood clipboard to put them down. My head is always spinning overtime!”

Do you have a personal favorite? Something we can't miss?
“Yes I really like our photo blocks, just because I have seen picture frames and canvas. I also made our birth announcement cards on wood, for example, so I can still see and enjoy them every day instead of hiding them away in a book or box.
I also have very cool Woodsilhouettes at home, these are wooden silhouettes of your child (or yourself of course), I also have these in my shop, this is another one’s timeless variation on a normal photo. As you can see I am all about personalization, I like it when something fits you and is made for you. I also do a lot of custom work on request. There is often a whole story attached to it and that is what I really enjoy doing, it gives you that personal connection that I find so important.”

What is your ultimate dream about Hip and Wood?
“My dream? I live very much in the NOW and can really enjoy it when I see nice reactions from customers. I find customer service very important and when you see that it arrives I am very happy and proud!
I am now also working to include some textile products in our assortment with the name Mom Made because my (deceased) mother and I came up with this name and she really was a wonder with the sewing machine maybe I would like to do something more in THERE. Then she lives on in my stuff, that is a nice thought?
I just want to keep dreaming and crafting and make people happy with something I make. I would never want to lose that personal aspect. And this is ideal because I can combine it perfectly (despite some creative thinking sometimes) with my three kids, so basically I'm already just living my dream, cool huh?”