Journal 1 | The Journey

Chris here, Founder of Hemming & Wills, for our very first Journal post. Welcome! It may be your first visit to H&W, so I always think it’s good to put a bit more meat on the bones, so to speak, so I want to share my story behind bringing H&W to life….

The seeds

The origins of Hemming & Wills go way back. When growing up, I always had an interest and passion for home interiors – we moved pretty often so may be that had something to do with it. I was sometimes asked for advice by my parents – I’ve always had an eye for the nicer things!

I’ve also always had an entrepreneurial curiosity and been interested in business too. At university, I started a small mobile phone business (I say business, it was more a side thing really) and then more recently I’ve been running my own IT consultancy, along with a couple of ‘pop-up’ e-commerce websites.

I’ve done the ‘9-5’ (often much later!) for many years too, including several years in retail, but it never really cut it for me – I’m sure I wasn’t always the best employee, constantly wanting to be doing things in my own right and grumbling (my other half was definitely getting bored of it!)!

The dawning

I can’t believe I’m fast approaching 40! So that combined with a real frustration over a lack of passion for my IT career and the ‘9-5’ grind together with my ever-stronger entrepreneurial learnings, got me thinking!

And they say, somethings are right under your nose, right?! Well, over the past few years I’ve experienced a fair amount of pain, both when renting places and then being lucky enough to buy a place – I really struggled to find more unique furniture and furnishings that were contemporary, design led yet affordable (the Northerner in me always looks for good value!). I was getting really bored of all the same old stuff from that big out of town yellow and blue brand we’d typically end up at with the masses on a Saturday! Yet I could never bring myself (or afford!) to spend hundreds or even thousands on designer furniture brands.

Horror!

On top of all this, I’ve been horrified at a couple of big things. Firstly, all the single use plastic waste we create (for more on this, see our other Journal post) and then poor customer service/poor quality products from other online brands, that seem really ‘faceless’. Having worked at Selfridges as well as many other large retailers, I have great insight into providing a great customer experience.

Taking a stand

So as the saying goes ‘if you want something done properly, do it yourself’ together with a lot of soul searching and combining passion and pain, I knew I had to do something! And so, here it is, Hemming & Wills (after much blood, sweat and tear at times!).

We have a simple mission to create Happiness at Home for all of our customers through great, affordable design-led home products including sustainable options and honest, exceptional personal service, which you really value.

You can learn more about H&W and our Mission & Vision.

Thanks for reading and joining us on this journey!

Best wishes,

Chris