The Craft Behind the Harrods Collection: Toys

Words by Grace Cain

In a fairytale-esque workshop in Poland’s Beskidy Mountains, Wooden Story creates handcrafted toys, now including a collection made exclusively for Harrods. We meet Gosia and Wiesiek Borowy, the third generation of this family-run carpentry business, to witness the magic behind the craft. 

Gosia Borowy calls it the Halny, a fierce mountain wind that howls through Poland’s Beskidy range a few times a year. As it blows the evening of our arrival, the trees seem to wail in unison, scrabbling at the windows with long fingernails.  

The greeting only adds to the sense of wonder the following morning, as we walk from Gosia’s picturesque family home through a sunshine-stained garden towards the Wooden Story workshop. With hens pecking erratic paths around the house, a quietly watchful family dog and the vast, forest-coated mountain beyond, it feels like stepping inside a painting.  

“There is something special about being here; the mountains influence our hearts,” Gosia tells us. “Being surrounded with the wood, the fresh air, the wind as we have today – it awakens the imagination. So, I think it’s very important that our pieces are created here in the Beskidy Mountains.” 

And the stories of the landscape and the family and the company are all irrevocably intertwined. Gosia and Wiesiek are the third generation to run the carpentry business, which Wiesiek’s grandfather started back in 1969.  

Wiesiek struggles to pinpoint the exact moment that he began to learn the skills required to run the workshop as he does today. “It was so natural to him, like breathing air,” Gosia explains, translating her husband’s thoughts. “He spent every day with his father and grandfather, absorbing their knowledge.”  

Today, Wiesiek knows everything there is to know about wood – the qualities of each species, how much water is in them, how they will react to certain environments. And after 34 years together, Gosia says she has developed the same passion. “When I came to this family it opened new doors in my mind,” she says. “I think it’s impossible not to love wood. And I think you just have this, like a singer has talent for singing.” 

Wiesiek wakes up every day at 5am to make the (incredibly short) commute to his workshop so that he can start work within the hour. On most days, he will then happily continue late into the evening. Each morning, he enjoys a coffee break with his team, many of whom have been with Wooden Story for over 20 years and feel more like family than employees. 

Of course, some of them actually are family. Justyna Budek, the eldest of the Borowy’s three children, represents the fourth generation of Wooden Story. Having studied architecture, she is now closely involved with all different aspects of the brand – as you’d perhaps expect from someone who works for their family company.  

“I love the mountains, the smell of the wood, the amazing people here, and working with my father. It’s not only work, it’s in our veins – our natural way of living. It’s hard to imagine doing anything else.” 

Justyna estimates around 20 stages go into making a miniature wooden Harrods bus In the first workshop, amid dust and noise, her father and his team feed raw planks of wood (all FSC certified and sourced in Poland) into a saw, slicing them into smaller pieces to be planed and sanded smooth.  

These are then cut into the desired shape and once again sanded and chamfered, to ensure no sharp edges. In a second quieter workshop, Wiesiek and his team joke and chat as they carefully polish each individual wheel and every tiny window. Occasionally, Justyna’s four-year-old daughter, Antosia, joins her grandfather at the bench. 

“She loves being here and working with my father,” Justyna smiles. “He shows her how certain elements and pieces are made, so she has fun.” Does Justyna think she’ll run the place some day? “Maybe,” she shrugs. “I don’t want to force her. I think the best we can do is show her that we love doing this, and maybe she will love it too.”  

Once all the elements of the toys are perfectly shaped and smooth, they move into a third workshop for finishing touches. We observe as someone sweeps red paint across the main body of every bus, carefully colouring the windows with a smaller brush. In a second, smaller room, the ‘Harrods’ moniker is screen-printed deftly and precisely onto the miniature vehicle, first the white frame and then the black letters.  

Once dry, Wiesiek pairs wheels of a similar colour, accounting for natural differences in the grain, glues them into place, rolling the bus back and forth to check it drives smoothly.  

Finally, the toys are packed upstairs in a room that can only be compared to a vintage illustration of a Santa’s workshop. Shelves overflow with wooden blocks, while smiling Green Men, painted racing cars and noughts and crosses wait to be checked and boxed for their journey to Harrods.  

“Of course, our processes could be replaced by machines,” says Justyna. “But then you wouldn’t have the value of the heart that someone puts into this work. When you buy a toy made by us, you buy a toy made by people who have their own families, who love being here, who are part of a team. You’re not only buying a good quality piece – you’re buying the story of our family.” 

Gosia agrees. “For sure, I think the people who have contact with our toys feel a little bit of our hearts. And this collaboration with Harrods is something that makes us very proud – we are two companies with old traditions, and the same love for quality.” 

“I think what Harrods and Wooden Story have in common is that history that is passed from generation to generation,” Justyna continues. “And these toys are something you can pass through the generations of your own family. We have friends who have kept our designs for years, and the wood changes and becomes more beautiful with time. I imagine keeping the toys my daughter plays with now, so she can pass them to her own children in the future – and I think this is beautiful too.”