The design process, inspiration and the future of Heywood-Wakefield: Part 2 of 3 of an interview with Heywood-Wakefield co-owner, Tom Belletete

^ Tom and his son, Joe, in their Winchendon, MA shop in front of the programming station for their Biesse CNC router.

Tom Belletete is a 3rd generation Massachusetts woodworker, furniture designer, electrical engineer and, since 2022, the CEO and co-owner  of Heywood-Wakefield.  William Doyle-Capitman, Heywood-Wakefield’s Director of Marketing & Sales, interviewed Tom in February, 2025.  In this second part of the interview, we discuss how Tom got involved with Heywood-Wakefield, his process for creating new designs and reintroducing old ones, the furniture designers that inspire him and his ambitions for the future of Heywood-Wakefield.

The first part of the interview, in which Tom discusses the construction, engineering and materials of Heywood-Wakefield furniture, can be found here.

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William: Tell me how you got involved with Heywood-Wakefield.

Tom: In the 2000’s, a company called F.W. Lombard was building furniture for Heywood-Wakefield.  They are an old company, founded in Ashburnham, MA in 1898.  They closed their facilities somewhere around 2011. They shut down their whole shop, had an auction, and sold everything off.  Leonard Riforgiato, the former President of Heywood-Wakefield, was at the auction to purchase the patterns and see whether there were other companies around that could build his furniture.   I met Leonard there and he came to the shop and gave us a sample of the Stylemaster bed. He left it with us overnight.  We programmed the shapes into our CNC router and when Leonard returned the next morning, we ran the first sample through the router in front of him.  F. W. Lombard had been cutting all their parts by hand using forms and jigs and the output wasn’t always consistent.  We ran the pieces through the router and they came off much more finished and more accurately than what Lombard had been producing.  It required way less clean-up work to get the right shape.  Leonard was really impressed. 

So by February 2012, we had become the sole maker of Heywood-Wakefield’s furniture.  There was a learning curve to figuring out how to produce all of the designs faithfully.  Over the years with F.W. Lombard, the fabrication had actually drifted from the original designs.  When Lombard started, they typically got an original Heywood-Wakefield piece and back-engineered it to make it look exactly the same, but over time they took some shortcuts and the shapes started looking different. Leonard didn’t want that, so we did a reset and started from scratch.  We found vintage pieces, took precise measurements which we stored in the computer, and made sure that our new pieces were identical to the original design.

 

^ Tom taking measurements of an in-progress custom Kohinoor desk.

William: Gotcha. And then fast forward to the 2020s—what happened then?

Tom: When COVID started, business really exploded.  People were stuck at home and the demand for furniture spiked.  At the same time, Leonard was thinking about retiring.  We were in a good position and made the decision to buy his equity and become co-owners of Heywood-Wakefield along with Leonard’s business partner, Andrew Capitman, with whom he’d originally relaunched the company in 1992.  So that’s what we did.  Coming into the business as a partner certainly gave me more ownership of projects.  Leonard had the point of view that the modern Heywood-Wakefield company should focus only on building the furniture that was designed in the 40’s and 50’s.  He wasn’t keen on making new things, but that was something I was really interested in.  I thought that was a big opportunity.

William: So speaking of doing new things, you recently designed the first new pieces since the original Heywood-Wakefield went out of business: the Cosmo TV stand and the Cosmo coffee table. Are there other new pieces that you have designed?

Tom: Actually, yes.  The Cosmo pieces weren’t the first.  The very first new design I did was back in 2014 when we introduced the M 154 A-HS Bar/Counter Stool.   Obviously, it’s based on the Heywood-Wakefield’s iconic M 154 A “Dog Biscuit” chair. It uses the same crown [the backrest with the distinctive “dog biscuit” cutout] and the same hoop [the horseshoe-shaped piece that attaches under the back and sides of the seat] , but the structure is modified significantly to give it the barstool height.  I added four stretchers between the legs for strength and modified the curves of the backrest and back legs.  This design started as a custom order for a restaurant that wanted a bar stool stool so we focused a lot on stability - we didn’t want tipsy people falling off or knocking over the chair!

^ The M 154 A-HS Bar Stool; a custom order that became part of the regular collection.

 

We’ve launched other new pieces that were modifications on existing designs, like the M 589 G Compact Dining Table in 2021.  We essentially made a smaller version of the M 789 G 8-Seat Dining Table  but we introduced a self-storing insert.  We were trying to cater more toward small-space living where people might not have the space to store an extra table insert.  It fits underneath the table between the runners with felt-wrapped supports to keep it from getting scratched.  

 

^ The leaf of the M 589 G Compact Dining Table stores between the extension supports.

Many of our beds are new as well, like our StyleMaster Elite and Kohinoor Elite beds. The head boards and feet are the same as the StyleMaster and Kohinoor beds, but the footboards are much lower, exposing the mattress, and of course, we now offer them in Eastern and California King, which wasn't a thing when they were originally built in the mid-20th century.

But in terms of wholly original designs, there have been several recently.  One of these is the M 955 G Console Table which we introduced in 2022.   It’s got the essential bones of Heywood-Wakefield - the smooth curved edges of the table top and sides.  The legs are similar to the center leg we use on some of the larger tables.  The genesis of this piece was also a customer request.  They were looking for a compact, narrow table to fit behind a sofa, and at that point, we had nothing that fit that bill.  She was originally looking at the M 905 G Cocktail Table, so we took that idea and morphed it—we changed the dimensions and turned it into a sofa table.  We changed the legs, the overall size, and the way the legs are attached but kept the style of the table top and the full-width drawer.  I thought it was a great-looking piece, and it filled a gap in what we offered, so we made a second one and showed it to Leonard [Riforgiato, former President of Heywood-Wakefield]. He liked it and we decided to add it to the collection.

^ The M 955 G Console Table is one of Tom's original designs.

William: Before I ask you some more questions about your new designs and reintroduced pieces, are there furniture designers, styles, or brands that you are especially drawn to? 

Tom: As far as the Heywood-Wakefield universe, I’m a fan of Gilbert Rohde’s work for the company.  I like a lot of his designs.  When you see his work, you know it’s his—lots of curves, lots of bends.  Many of his pieces were made from steam-bent wood.  Like most of Heywood-Wakefield’s designs, Rohde’s stuff was simple; very clean, but elegant.  It wasn’t ornate or overdone.  The form was just beautiful.  Everything just flowed nicely.

I also really like Leo Jiranek’s work, especially his Airflow group and the Rio set - they're simple, and they really have that Art Deco feel.  These were from before World War II and before most of our current collection was designed.

William: What about designers outside of Heywood-Wakefield?

Tom: This is completely on the opposite end of the Mid-Century design spectrum, but I’ve always liked Paul McCobb.  He was a designer in the '40s and '50s, local to Massachusetts.  His furniture is almost the opposite of Heywood-Wakefield—very straight, very minimalist, very simple.  Small, slender legs. Skinny drawers.  McCobb designed a very successful line of office furniture and another line of residential furniture, and a lot of it was manufactured right here in Winchendon, just a few miles from my house.  I used to walk by the factory every day on my way to school.  His designs drew a lot from Shaker furniture, where the design is very simplistic and the joinery is often exposed and really celebrated.  That style is very tapered and lightweight - the opposite of clunky.  Not ornate at all but very elegant.

But influences can come from anywhere.  Overall, I tend to lean toward clean lines, simple forms—rather than things with excessive trim, fancy carvings, or a lot of unnecessary embellishments.

William: Tell me more about the most recent pieces—the M 2410 Cosmo Table and M 2411 Cosmo TV Stand. What were you trying to achieve? What was your process?

 

^ Tom and Joe testing different leg placements for the M 2411 Cosmo TV Stand.

Tom: I think about the use case and the context a piece will fit into.  For the TV stand, we were trying to achieve a low, super-stable table that wasn’t as deep as our coffee tables.   In terms of context, the biggest factor was that modern TVs don’t require deep stands anymore because the TVs are all flat screens.  We were able to make it much narrower while keeping it stable—no one wants a 60-inch TV falling over because the stand is too small.  We also needed an attractive way to store the hardware - the cable boxes and cables and such - that kept them accessible but off the table top.  So we added the large openings below the top.  The Coffee Table has a similar design, though smaller.  A smooth top with large openings to easily store books.

In terms of my design process, once I have some of the dimensions established, I typically start with a specific element of a design that I really like then build up from there.  For the Cosmo group, the starting point was the leg. The leg is essentially the same one we were using on the M 306 G Revolving Cocktail Table.  The leg has such a classic shape - so definitive of the mid-century style. So I started there and then thought about what shapes would work with it. That’s how it evolved into the coffee and TV tables. The design keeps in the spirit of Heywood-Wakefield, with flush tops, rounded edges, and that soft, sculptural look.  

And again, as a manufacturer, I always have to think about shipping. We have to be cognizant of weight and size thresholds so that, whenever possible, we can reduce rates. We also try to keep packed dimensions within the size of our existing cartons to avoid having to buy new packaging. Lastly, we also think a lot about how a customer put it together once it arrives. Whenever possible, we ship assembled, but since that's not always possible, we've put a lot of effort into making assembly easy and the components and fasteners that hold pieces together really robust.

So the process is more than just aesthetics—it’s also about manufacturability, shipping, the experience of the customer unpacking it and overall efficiency.

William: You also relaunched a number of vintage pieces in the Fall of 2024 - the M 795 Coffee Table, the M 992 End Table, the M 993 Lamp Table, the M 166 Drop Leaf Table, the M 1593 Neo Dining Chair and the C 3753 Surfboard End Table.  What was the process of bringing back the old pieces?  How do you do that when you don’t have the original forms or drawings, which - I’m not sure if people know this - we don’t have access to because they were either sold or thrown out when Heywood-Wakefield closed in the 80’s?

Tom:  Whenever we can, we buy a vintage piece and work from there.  For the M 166 drop-leaf table, we actually got lucky and were able to find an original one nearby. We’d been looking for that table because it’s a really cool piece, and it fits well into our focus on furniture that works well in small spaces.  Your dad [co-owner Andrew Capitman] actually pushed for it.  He mentioned multiple times that he had one in his New York City apartment and that it was a terrific table, especially for an apartment because it stored very small and expanded to several different sizes.  

 

^ The M 166 Drop Leaf Table is 60" long when extended but only 14" when fully closed.

Having an original piece to work from makes it easy, but of all the relaunched pieces you mentioned, that was the only one where we had an actual sample to base it on. The rest of them - the surfboard table, the coffee and end tables, the Neo chair - were all strictly reverse-engineered from photographs.  A catalog might tell us that a coffee table was 44 by 20 inches, so we start with those basic measurements and then analyze the photos to fill in the details.  We've been working with Heywood-Wakefield long enough to recognize patterns in their designs. They tended to work in whole numbers—two-inch radii, quarter-inch increments rather than odd fractions like 13/16ths - and that creates a certain consistency in their designs that makes it a bit simpler to reproduce. 

 

 

^ The first prototype of the M 993 Lamp Table, built from just photos and deep knowledge of Heywood-Wakefield design patterns.

The M 1593 Neo Dining Chair was the biggest challenge.  It had a limited production run [1958-59] and there are very few existing photos.  We had to work backwards from the images we could find, plus some old catalogs with line drawings that Deb [Belletete, Tom’s wife who leads fulfillment and customer service for Heywood-Wakefield] had. Even then, we noticed variations in different photos.  It seems that Heywood-Wakefield was experimenting with the shape of the chair, especially the crown [the backrest], during that brief production run. And some of those variations, we didn’t like.  The version in the Rouland book [Steve & Roger Rouland’s “Heywood-Wakefield Modern Furniture”] is what we based our first prototype on, but the crown shape just didn’t look right to us.  So we made tweaks based on other versions we saw and refined the proportions to make it feel more harmonious with the rest of the chair. That was one of the rare cases where we took some creative license rather than strictly copying the original.

 

^ Four Neo chairs, two M 793 G Lamp Tables and an M 926 Desk waiting for finishing.

William: It’s interesting that the original Heywood-Wakefield company would tweak designs from year to year. I think some people have this idea that Heywood-Wakefield’s past designs are set in stone, but from what you’re saying, the old company was constantly evolving designs for aesthetic, practical, and manufacturing reasons. Is that right?

Tom: Absolutely. The Neo chair is an example of the shape being tweaked for, I think, aesthetic reasons, but often it was the engineering that evolved, sometimes with an impact on the shape.  A great example of that is the M 197 G Butterfly Dining Table.  Leonard told me a story about how when Heywood-Wakefield first started selling that table in 1948, the leaves that swing up on the ends were originally supported by a metal bracket. But when they started shipping them, customers were complaining that the mechanism would suddenly fail, causing the leaf to drop—sometimes with dinner on top of it.  Apparently, one of the managers went to [Heywood-Wakefield designer] Joe Carr and explained the problem. Joe just grabbed a piece of paper and sketched out a simple fix—the curved wooden support wings that pivot out from underneath, which became the signature feature of the table, which they started calling the “Butterfly table.”  It was a solution to a design flaw, but it ended up being iconic.

 

^ The quarter-circle "butterfly" extension supporting the leaf of an M 197 G table

You also see a lot of design recycling when you look through old catalogs. Heywood-Wakefield would take an existing piece and modify things like the handles or the base. A good example is the Encore group—some of the pieces we make have the signature oval feet at the bottom, but they also produced the same items with a more traditional base, featuring an apron and tapered legs.

William: Before we move on from relaunching vintage pieces—why did you bring back the M 795 Coffee Table, the M 992 End Table and M 993 Lamp Table, the Neo chair, and the C 3753 Surfboard End Table?

Tom: The M 993 Lamp Table was a customer request.  We liked it and thought it could be a good addition to our collection, and in part because we liked it so much, we decided to introduce some other complementary pieces [the M 992 End Table and the M 795 Coffee Table] which have the same leg shape and the skirt shape.  So we essentially created a mini-collection.   That’s why we pay attention to what people ask for. If there’s enough interest, and we have to do the engineering work anyway, it makes sense to put that effort into expanding our product line.  Of course, we can’t build every request, but if the piece works aesthetically and we can manufacture it efficiently, we do consider it.

The Neo chair was a little different.  We wanted to introduce something that stood apart from our other chairs. If you look through the historic catalogue of Heywood-Wakefield chairs made in the late 40’s and 50’s, a lot of them only have minor variations—maybe a different cutout in the backrest, a slightly altered crown—but they’re very similar. If a customer likes one of them, they’ll probably like all of them.  The Neo chair was more of a departure. It still has a Heywood-Wakefield feel, but it draws more from the Danish or Scandinavian style of mid-century chairs, which, I think, is much more typical of people’s ideas of what an MCM chair looks like.  When you look at new mid-century style chairs designed and produced today, maybe from AllModern or West Elm, what you see is the Scandinavian style.  You don’t see pieces that riff on our aesthetic, and in a way, that’s good, because when you see a Heywood-Wakefield piece, you know it’s a Heywood-Wakefield piece.  Anyway, we wanted the Neo chair to appeal to people who might not normally consider Heywood-Wakefield. It’s a way to tap into a different aesthetic while still staying true to our roots.

William: What do you think explains Heywood-Wakefield’s cult status among furniture collectors?

Tom: I think it’s a combination of a few things. First, the design itself. The furniture has this timeless, classic look that just works. It doesn’t feel outdated, even decades later. It’s not like early American or colonial furniture that can look out of place in a modern setting. Heywood-Wakefield pieces fit into all sorts of spaces—old New England homes, city apartments, contemporary spaces—without looking out of place. That versatility is a big part of why people love it.

The second reason is the nostalgia factor.  A lot of people grew up with this furniture. Their parents or grandparents had a Heywood-Wakefield dining set, and they remember sitting around the table for family dinners or holidays. That emotional connection makes people want to bring it back into their own homes. It’s comforting to them.

The third part of the appeal is a combination of a lot of it having been produced and the construction quality being really good, being built to last, so a large percentage has survived in decent condition.  So it’s not like there are only a handful of pieces out there, selling for outrageous prices. You can start collecting Heywood-Wakefield without spending a fortune, and then grow your collection over time. That accessibility makes it appealing to collectors.

William: Where do you want the company to be in five years?  What excites you?

Tom: I like the idea of expanding what Heywood-Wakefield means.  I want us to keep producing the classics but continuing to create new things.  That said, we also have to keep in mind that we probably don’t want to have a hundred different pieces [we currently offer 56 different pieces].  We have to continuously monitor what’s resonating with people and selling.  I can see us retiring some of our current pieces that don’t sell as well or are difficult to make or ship.

 

In terms of new products, I’m interested in some new categories, like lighting.  Heywood-Wakefield made a few lamps but it seems they were more like samples - not something they actually commercialized.  Lighting is interesting because it’s really complementary to a lot of our iconic products - tables and nightstands and desks.

I’m also interested in doing more with upholstery.  All of our upholstery used to be done in North Carolina, but we’ve either moved it in-house - Deb is an expert with textiles and she does the upholstery for our dining chairs - or moved it to craftspeople near us in Massachusetts.  As we’ve been doing more upholstery on chair seats I’ve been thinking about how we could expand into that a bit more, maybe by focusing on things were cushions are an accessory rather than fully integrated like our Biscayne series [of a chair, a loveseat, and a davenport]. 

William: I know that the next new thing we’re doing is offering some of our living room tables in walnut.  Tell me about that.

Tom: I’m excited about the introduction of walnut.  It’s probably the most iconic wood for mid-century furniture.  The fact that we have traditionally built only in Northern Yellow Birch (with some maple and ash on other lines) makes our stuff sort of an acquired taste.  I think walnut is going to be really interesting - it’s an experiment, aesthetically and in terms of market demand. Some purists will say “What are you doing? This isn’t real Heywood-Wakefield!”  But maybe there will be a lot more people who love it and ask, Can I get a bed made in that? Can I get a dresser in walnut? 

^ The "mini collection" of the M 795 Coffee Table, M 992 End Table and M 993 Lamp Table, built in walnut for the first time ever.

Again, we don’t have to just build vintage designs, but when we design something new, I do think it’s important to maintain that Heywood-Wakefield aesthetic. Not slavishly recreating every detail, but keeping that feel, that continuity.  Obviously, building an iconic piece in a new wood creates both continuity and novelty.  The Cosmo group is a perfect example of this—it fits right alongside the other pieces we manufacture, even though it never existed in Heywood-Wakefield’s original catalog. It belongs.

 

^ The Cosmo TV Stand and Coffee Table in the background, along with the Biscayne Collection Club Chair and M 992 End Table with Shelf.

William: So, speaking of continuity, what do you think some of the fundamental Heywood-Wakefield aesthetic or construction elements are?  How would you define those elements that make our furniture distinct?

Tom: I think for the general consumer, it's mostly about aesthetics. Most people probably aren’t aware or don’t care about how it’s constructed. They either like the look of it or they don’t.  That said, because of the name and reputation, they expect whatever they buy to be as strong and durable as the originals.  I think the superficial layer of the aesthetics is just that the furniture is distinctive; when you see it, you just know it’s Heywood-Wakefield.  But beyond that, I’d say it has to do with the softness of the overall look. The flowing lines. The way things transition smoothly from one element to the next.  When a furniture maker cuts a curve around the edge of a board, you use a quarter-round router bit.  When that cut is rough, you can see a distinct line where that curve starts and the flat part begins.  A lot of companies leave that line visible. They’ll sand it but they don’t bother to refine it - it’s clear where the curve of an edge ends and the flatness of the surface starts. But one of the things we learned early on is that in Heywood-Wakefield furniture, that transition is so smooth.  It’s seamless. You don’t see a clear distinction of where the curve starts. It just flows.  It’s a little detail most people wouldn’t consciously notice, but they feel it when they touch it, or they notice it on a subconscious level. It’s a lot of extra work—blending a flat surface into a curve instead of just leaving a sharp transition—but it’s what makes the difference.  It’s very organic.  The edges should feel like a seamless waterfall. There’s no hard transition between the flat and the curve. That’s part of what makes it feel like Heywood-Wakefield.  That fluidity and softness is part of the aesthetic. 

 

^ Heywood-Wakefield craftsman, James, sanding the edges of a drawer face to create a seamless transition between flat and curved.

But this focus on curving movement is kind of a double-edged sword.  If you look around at other companies selling mid-century modern furniture—like Room & Board, for example—a lot of their pieces have a very different look. Even though Heywood-Wakefield is widely recognized as iconic mid-century modern furniture, it’s not necessarily what you see being replicated in mid-century furniture design today.  So while the Neo chair was an attempt to tap into that broader mid-century aesthetic, we still didn’t stray too far. We’re a very specific taste within mid-century modern. That might limit our appeal to the general market, but it also deepens our appeal to those who really appreciate our work. I'm happy to play in that space. I want to focus on our design legacy, our construction excellence and the fact that we’re made in America. If we can connect with people who value that, and sell to enough of them to sustain the business, then I'm happy.