WonderWood is a mixture between a shop and a gallery located in the heart of Amsterdam. Here you can discover the wonderworld of wood in design, furniture, art, gadgets and new talents. Every piece of furniture or art object has a story behind. Instore and on this online platform we like to tell you more about the designs, because it’s not just a chair or just a table. Most items made history in design and put their mark on the evolution of furniture design today. This backgound history we are so passionated about we like to share with you so you learn more about the history of design.

Nice to know is each week tourists come to have a look at the centuries-old wooden ceiling in the store. This 450 years old ceiling is still in very good condition as it originates from 1565.

WonderWood has an interesting wide collection of vintage chairs and tabels of the 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s. Nexto our rare originals we also sell re-editions of wellknown design furniture. These reproductions of old designs, we call them the Plywood classics. Imagine wonderful plywood chairs from famous designers and architects. Big names who made history in design; like the Norwegian Hans Brattrud, the French Jean Prouve, the American couple Charles and Ray Eames, and Alvar Alto etc. We also show new design pieces of Dutch designers like Richard Hutten, Aldo Bakker, Jeroen Wand, etc. that fit to our concept. Nexto all of this we also proudly present a selection of wellknown and new artists, such as Jeroen Henneman, Klaas Gubbels, Willem van Malsen, Wietze Jellema and Ton van Kints. This wonderful combintation, with the finishing touch of fun gadgets, makes what WonderWood is about today. An accesible high qualitive international minded gallery store where everyone can buy something or can just visit us to get inspired. So, WonderWood is THE spot in Amsterdam for everyone interested in plywood, design, art and some fun! Enjoy!

     

This is a short story to explain the love for plywood of the founder of WonderWood. Wiet Hekking has worked 30 years in the fashion industry for several international fashion brands. Always on the move to find worldwide new trends and innovative materials. During the many business trips he has seen much different cultures. Creativity, art and design has always been his interest. Through the years he made himself an expert into finding special pieces and rare items. His interest and passion started to grow especially for the 50’s invented 3D Plywood technique. He studied the history of plywood vintage design and had made this his specialism. In the time being his drift grown for collecting rare iconic vintage plywood chairs with a story behind. Mostly original chairs of influencial designers and architects of the fifties. Upon one day he bought his first Plywood Chair of Grete Jalk.

Within a short time, he became a professional collector of rare vintage plywood chairs since 1990. The collection grown so big by his enthusiasm, he decided to open his first store location. A mix between a shop and a gallery to in the heart of Amsterdam. Through the years modern design and art have made the story complete. Collectors, art and design lovers and museums have already found us for 25 years now. Today WonderWood is in the top ten of the best design gallery stores of Holland and are proud to have clients worldwide. We hope through this website we can take you in world of WonderWood and maybe become a passionate collector aswell.

What actually means Plywood and Vintage? Plywood is often confused with multiplex. But that’s wrong. The difference is that Plywood always consists out of layers of birch and multiplex is a cheap material made of layers sawdust. This is an important difference in quality and technique. Besides Plywood first was only about 2D ‘bent’ wood. This is a technique that was invented around the years 40’s and 50’s. Layers of wood with glue are heated up and bent in molds. An extremely difficult crafts technique that is only reserved to highly specialized furniture makers. The well-known designers Charles and Ray Eames duo have invented the 3D bending of plywood. They were asked by the U.S army to design legsplints. These were normally made of heavy metal. With the invention of 3D plywood they could mold wood 3D around body shapes. And the weight is very little so easier to carry. After this famous American Eames design duo has designed plywood furniture which still today belong to the true icons of the design history. Also other designers and architects have designed with this technique. Plywood made it possible to create futuristic and organic shapes out of wood. Which still today is seen as a form of high quality and luxury in design. All these iconic furniture are very important to the design history. So this is not just about secondhand chair, but a design pieces that set the tone for the future of design. Some vintage pieces are so rare to find that they became museum pieces. Therefore a real vintage is the new antiques of today.