ABOUT THE COMPANY
BDDW is known for highly-crafted, American-made, heirloom quality furniture and objects designed exclusively by artist Tyler Hays. Our products are made in our own Pennsylvania workshop by some of the most talented artists, artisans and engineers in the world. BDDW's work comes with a lifetime guarantee.*
ABOUT TYLER HAYS
Tyler Hays (b. 1968) is an American artist, born and raised in rural Northeastern Oregon. Throughout his life, he has worked creatively and professionally in a wide array of mediums—painting, food, music, art, furniture, ceramics fashion, etc—with a through-line focus on material science and engineering. He often says the true unifying subject of his work is finding the lines between things. “The harder you look the more similar every thing becomes.” Much of the art, for Hays, is the alchemy of finding these connections.
Hays grew up with a strong desire to make everything in his universe from scratch. This foundational impulse started very young—sewing and cooking, taking apart his toys—and followed him to art school, where he mixed his own paints and made his paint brushes from scratch with hand pounded silver ferrules. His interests and fluencies are surprisingly expansive yet always centered around the same soup-to-nuts compulsion and fetish-level research into the deconstruction of objects down to their elements.
While painting continues to be his primary and most consistent medium, Hays has become best known for BDDW, a 25 year deep-dive obsession centered around his unique, refined-yet-playful design aesthetic and penchant for exploring the limits of craft. The company itself is often as intriguing as the products it sells with head scratching segues into a citywide archery club or developing an internal auction platform to sell its products.
Though BDDW has grown, with showrooms now in New York, London and Los Angeles, every bit of our work is still designed and engineered by Hays and made under his direct oversight in our Philadelphia studios.
ABOUT THE AUCTIONS
Tyler Hays attended his first auction with his dad when he was 10 years old. He scored a Lincoln welder for $25 and so began his life long fascination with auctions.
As a young artist in the 90s, Hays was intrigued by the traditionally rigid relationship between artist, gallery and customer and by the randomness of assigning value to a piece of art. He developed a curve to establish the peak and natural values of his work that would descend over the course of his gallery shows. By the last day he would enthusiastically sell his paintings for zero dollars. His fascination with the work-value-sale equation became a part of the art itself.
Hays never quit obsessing over auctions: both as an avid user (for machinery and antiques, mostly) and as a concept in his professional endeavors. After founding BDDW, he began to host live auctions in his showroom with humorous, theatrical themes. Hays himself would play the auctioneer, often dressed up as a character, and sold prototypes, one-offs and vintage BDDW pieces to the highest bidder. These fun, memorable events became a fixture of the company, as well as a key component of its financial success.
Today, BDDW holds monthly auctions that are accessible through our very own auction platform (sign up here), where screaming deals can be found alongside medium and shitty deals on a range of select BDDW items: an eclectic mix of one-offs, prototypes, misfit floor models, and brand-new pieces. Our auctions are the only way to access our archival, collectible works, holiday puzzle batches and auction-only pieces.
*BDDW guarantees the structural integrity of our work under normal use forever. Our “living” finishes (naturally tanned leather, bronze and wood) are meant to change, patina and develop character over time. For structural repairs, customers are responsible for all transportation costs to and from the workshop. BDDW reserves the right to choose to repair, replace or offer store credit in exchange for the work.