New Heywood-Wakefield, like the vintage Modern and Streamline styles of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, is made from solid Northern Yellow Birch. Heywood-Wakefield manufactured many other styles of furniture over the years, and some of those styles were made from maple and other woods, but our new furniture is true to its Mid-Century Modern Birch roots.

To learn more about our furniture's materials and construction, read part one and part two of this interview with our CEO/co-owner/lead builder Tom Belletete.

Yes, it's still Northern Yellow Birch. However, because our finish is clearer and lighter than the original finishes (and hides fewer defects), for many components of our furniture we select lumber of a higher grade than was originally used. For instance, table-top surfaces are constructed from "sap wood", which is lighter and shows fewer dark spots that lower grades of lumber, known as “heartwood."

Birch for Heywood-Wakefield comes from professionally-managed, environmentally responsible forests in the Northeast. Birch is not an endangered species, and is sustainably harvested from these forests

All our Heywood-Wakefield furniture is made in Winchendon, Massachusetts. Our current factory in Winchendon is about 13 miles from the original Heywood-Wakefield factory in Gardner, MA.

New Heywood-Wakefield is offered in three finishes: Amber, Topaz and Onyx.

Amber is our primary finish, shown on most of the pieces in our catalog. We developed our Amber stain to mimic the color of aged Birch wood when the vintage finish is removed, and a clear finish coat is applied. It’s lighter and clearer than the original Wheat or Champagne finishes of vintage Heywood-Wakefield, but tones well with either.

Topaz is a warm medium brown, similar to the color of Fruitwood or Teak. 

Onyx is not a paint. It is a black stain that allows the beauty of the wood grain to show through.

All our finishes are proprietary finishes, specially formulated for industrial application. They require specialized finishing equipment and are not suitable for DIY use.

See our Finish page for examples.

We do not offer any of the original finishes, either on our furniture or in bulk stains, and to our knowledge, there is nowhere to buy wheat and champagne ready-mixed.

No, it is not. Originally Heywood-Wakefield was finished in nitrocellulose lacquer. New Heywood-Wakefield is finished in a pre-catalyzed lacquer, which is many times stronger and much less prone to damage than the vintage finish. Once dry, pre-catatlyzed lacquer is safe for food contact and is water-resistant and photostable.

Yes, many of our pieces are finished this way, to include table tops, tops of bedroom pieces, etc.

Under certain circumstances we can offer Heywood-Wakefield unfinished so that those who wish to match a particular finish may do so. Some restrictions apply.

Please contact us to discuss.

We are frequently asked if our Amber stain is available for sale. As we explained above, it isn’t, but you don't need to use our stain to get your old pieces to match the color of our new ones. In fact, you don’t need any stain at all.

We continue to recommend having your vintage Heywood-Wakefield furniture professionally refinished, and we do offer to speak with your refinishing professional about how to match our furniture. It’s pretty simple; here are the details.

• Once the vintage pieces have been correctly stripped and sanded - the hardest and most important part of any refinishing job - they will look much lighter that they were in the old Wheat or Champagne finishes you removed. At this point, anything applied to them - such as sanding sealer - will cause them to darken down to a mellow amber color, due to the effect UV rays have had on the wood for 60 or 70 years. This basically is our color.
• If an amber sealer (as opposed to “water white” sealer) is used, followed by an amber lacquer or conversion varnish top coat, your old pieces will come very close to the amber color of our furniture. No stain coat of any kind, ours or anyone else’s, is necessary. Two coats of amber sealer, sanded in between, followed by top coat will produce a finish very much like ours.
• Once again, have your professional refinisher call us; we’ve spoken with many of them and we’re happy to help.
  
  By the way, the reason we created our Amber finish is that new wood doesn't act this way; it hasn't had time to be darkened by UV rays and needs a stain coat to achieve the same mellow amber color as refinished vintage pieces. We used refinished vintage pieces as a color guide when we developed the Amber stain.

Biscayne series davenports, chairs and love seats are 100% solid birch frames with spring-interior seat cushions and foam backrests. Biscayne series items have elastic webbing to support the cushions.

Upholstered pieces include the cost of fabrics in our Core Collection.

For other fabrics we offer, please contact us to get a quote based on the price of the fabric and the amount needed for your order.

We also offer the option for you to supply your own fabric. Please contact us for details.

Yes, you are welcome to supply your own fabric if you do not find one in our collection that suits your taste or purpose.

Please contact us for details.

We apologize but we are no longer able to assist with vintage Heywood-Wakefield furniture identification or valuation.

See "Books about Heywood-Wakefield" below for identification guides.

"Heywood-Wakefield Modern Furniture: Identification and Value Guide" by Steven and Roger Rouland is the most frequently quoted source for identification of the Modern and Streamline styles of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s. It contains a price guide that is widely used by collectibles dealers and the general public. It is also the only reference book specifically devoted to Heywood-Wakefield furniture of this period. It contains verbatim reproductions of showroom and salesman’s catalogs from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s, along with some additional research on the company and various designers of the Modern lines. The “Rouland Book” does not contain everything there is to know about Heywood-Wakefield, but it is an excellent source of information.

The Rouland book begins by reprinting a substantial amount of information from an earlier work that may be hard to find, but which contains much information of a general nature about the Company before 1926. This is entitled "A Completed Century: The Story of Heywood-Wakefield", and was actually the company’s 1926 corporate report of its first hundred years* done up as a slim, hardbound volume and distributed to Heywood-Wakefield employees, complete with a personalized greeting card from Levi H. Greenwood, who was president at the time. This book was never released publicly, which is why it may be hard to find. However, a good book search company might be able to turn one up.

Other books on Heywood-Wakefield:

• Heywood-Wakefield, by Harris Gertz (Schiffer Publishing)
• Heywood-Wakefield Blond: Depression to '50s, by Donna S. Baker, Editor (Schiffer Publishing)
• Danish Modern and Beyond: Scandinavian Inspired Furniture from Heywood-Wakefield, by Donna S. Baker, Editor (Schiffer Publishing)
• Antique Wicker: From the Heywood-Wakefield Catalog, by Schiffer Publishing
  

There are also a number of general or special-interest books dealing with furniture manufacturing, decorative styles, the production of wicker and rattan, innovations in manufacturing techniques and related subjects containing references to or passages about Heywood-Wakefield. The Fine Arts section of any good library will contain some of these. Browsing through the indexes to these books will often yield references to Heywood-Wakefield which may provide information on a particular subject of interest. Some of these books, while not directly concerned with Heywood-Wakefield, nevertheless discuss styles and types of furniture made during the same period, which may be of use. For instance, Bent Wood and Metal Furniture, 1850-1946, edited by Derek Ostergard, was produced in conjunction with a show that toured in the early 1990s, and has a wealth of information on mid-century styles and influences.

Another useful group of books are those about designers who were active in the middle of the 20th century, some of whom worked for Heywood-Wakefield at one time or another. These include Gilbert Rohde, Russell Wright, Leo Jiranek, Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, W. Joseph Carr, Ernst Herrman, Alfons Bach, and others, some of whom where not even primarily furniture designers, but had a hand in influencing Heywood-Wakefield styles. Capsule histories of some of these people can be found in The Dictionary of Furniture, by Charles Boyce. This useful book also contains many insightful paragraphs dealing with a wide array of related subjects.

* The Company dated itself from 1826, when Walter Heywood first began making chairs in a shed on his father’s Gardner farm.

We are sorry, but we no longer offer replacement parts for any vintage Heywood-Wakefield. We used to, but it was often difficult or unsuccessful to reproduce parts in a way that fit perfectly with vintage pieces, which often had significant variations in production year-to-year.

To our knowledge, there is no place to get vintage Heywood-Wakefield upholstery fabrics, of the types that are shown in the old catalogs, or as might be found on an individual piece of “found” furniture. Furthermore, the nature of the upholstery fabric business almost certainly guarantees that the companies which made original Heywood-Wakefield fabrics have long since closed or relocated.

We do not reproduce the old fabrics; the fabrics on our website are chosen to reflect the original styles, but are modern fabrics that are in production today, and which meet today’s standards for durability, fire-retardancy, etc.

Besides our fabrics, there are quite a few patterns available that are consistent with styles of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, but be prepared to shop in the high end of this market. The Schumacher Company has museum reproductions of original Joseph Hoffman fabrics and other wonderful “retro” patterns; Kravet has many stylish and interesting patterns that are suitable for older styles of furniture (and are more moderately priced); and such things as Frank Lloyd Wright museum reproductions are available through the Taliessen Foundation. The Los Angeles, California, area has an abundance of upholstery manufacturers and fabric suppliers, and there are thousands of patterns available during the January fabric show in High Point, North Carolina.

There are also a number of vintage fabric sellers in the U.S. who advertise in various places, such as ECHOES MAGAZINE, but vintage fabrics must be carefully inspected for signs of fatigue before committing to expensive re-upholstery jobs, and we generally don’t recommend them for anything but replaceable cushions which can be changed easily and relatively inexpensively.

The Heywood-Wakefield Company was the king of wicker and rattan furniture well into the 20th century, having nearly completely dominated this field in the second half of the 19th. Before the consolidation between Heywood Brothers & Company and the Wakefield Rattan Company, various labels were used and will appear on wicker furniture.

See above - Books about Heywood-Wakefield - for more information. The most comprehensive source for this information is the first part of the book "A Complete Century: The Story of Heywood-Wakefield", much of which appears verbatim in the first part of the “Rouland Book”. Also see Antique Wicker, by Schiffer Publishing.

Please see these sources before contacting us for information on wicker and rattan, as there is not a lot we can add to the discussion that’s not covered there.

The old Heywood-Wakefield company had several lines that could be classified as Colonial or Early American, and from time to time pieces from these groups appear in used furniture stores, estate and garage sales, auctions, thrift stores, etc.

To our knowledge, there is no one doing business exclusively in this type of Heywood-Wakefield, and no market for the styles seems to have established itself. Consequently, collectible values for these styles have not been established either, if in fact there are any. Our best guess is that whatever you paid for an item is what it’s worth, and that it is probably a mistake to buy this furniture with the idea of selling it for a profit. Once again, Rouland devotes a few passages to this subject.

Of course, any well-preserved piece of Heywood-Wakefield Colonial or Early American will have value as good used furniture, and you can approximate the value of an item by comparing it to what is available today. A visit to any higher quality traditional furniture store should provide a basis for comparison. The Stickley Company makes many high-quality pieces in Early American and Colonial Styles, including a Nichols & Stone collection. Perhaps requesting their catalog will provide both a basis for value comparison and a source for furniture that is compatible with Heywood-Wakefield Colonial and Early American, should your goal be to add to furniture you already have.

The old Heywood-Wakefield company manufactured several lines of auditorium and theater seating, much of which seems to be still in use. We are frequently contacted by schools and other organizations looking to buy more of what they have, or to obtain replacement parts, or even to sell theater seating. We do not manufacture this type of product, and we are not aware of any company which manufactures completely interchangeable parts for old Heywood-Wakefield contract seating.

However, current auditorium or theater seating companies may have something that is close, or perhaps they can custom-make what is needed. The AMERICAN FURNITURE MANUFACTURERS’ ASSOCIATION in High Point, NC, (919) 884-5000, should be able to direct interested parties to such manufacturers, and the CHICAGO MERCHANDISE MART’s yearly NEOCON show, perhaps the country’s largest and most complete exhibition of contract and commercial furniture, features American, European and Japanese manufacturers. Interested parties should call or visit the Mart at Mart Plaza, Chicago IL 60654, (312) 527-7600.

Because all of our furniture is made-to-order, we do not accept returns. When you buy a piece of Heywood-Wakefield furniture, you are commissioning us to build it specifically for you. If a piece is damaged during shipping, we will work with the customer and the freight company to reach a satisfying outcome to the best of our abilities.

Please note:
(1) Wood will have natural variations in grain and color; no two pieces are exactly alike, and your piece may differ from those pictured on our website. 
(2) Fabric colors may change slightly from batch to batch; manufacturers sometimes change their sources, dye suppliers, and fabrication techniques. Additionally, fabric colors may appear different depending on your monitor/device and the lighting used in the photography.

To help you make the best decision:
(1) We will happily provide you with wood finish samples and fabric swatches.
(2) We will happily talk to you over the phone or correspond via email. Our contact info is here. Please reach out!

Sorry, but they cannot.

No, they do not. We are happy to customize some products (please ask and we will let you know) but any change costs us significantly more to produce. Therefore we do not offer discounts on any custom pieces.

No, they do not. We already offer these fabrics at below retail price, so we are not able to apply further discounts to them.

The StyleMaster bed in Queen, King and California King sizes can be used either as a regular bed with box spring and mattress or as a platform bed, with no box spring.

The bed ships with the following components:

• One headboard
• One footboard
• Two side rails
• One center support rail
• Two adjustable center support feet
• Four cross slats

The side rails attach to the headboard and footboard by means of a metal clip and can be installed in one of two positions. When installed in the lower position, a box spring may be used, but depending on the depth of the box spring and mattress, the mattress may be higher than the footboard.

If you wish to use the StyleMaster bed as a platform bed, the side rails are installed in the higher position and the Platform Adaptor Kit is used. The PlatformAdaptor Kit consists of an extra dozen solid birch slats, giving a total of 16 (4 are included with the bed). In this configuration there is no need for a box spring.

The Platform Adaptor Kit for new queen and king beds functions with certain parts that are already installed on the side rails of all new queen and king beds.

Original Heywood-Wakefield full or twin beds do not have these parts. The Platform Adaptor Kit for Vintage Heywood-Wakefield beds therefore includes these parts, which are to be installed on your vintage bed, as well as the rest of the platform kit parts.

The difference in cost between the two kits is due to the additional parts included with the Vintage kit.

PLEASE NOTE: Our Vintage Platform Adaptor Kit cannot be used to convert your vintage full bed to a queen or king. We do not manufacture a kit for this purpose.