New Shop Buildout
Welcome to the new HHT!
We're excited to have recently moved from our townhouse garage into a larger commercial space that perfectly fits our growing needs! What started as four walls and a single overhead light is being transformed into the ideal shop, complete with a custom-designed clean pour environment and more.
Take a look at what we've been up to!
Our Happy Home Shop
Behind the HHT curtain
Our original garage shop was cozy and convenient at home, but we didn’t show it off much since it was pretty cramped and not as photogenic as we'd have liked.
Once we’d moved some things to the new space and made room to breathe, we were excited to finally share where we’ve poured every single toy over the past four years. Have a look! You can barely make out the packaging & ship station is under the stack of inventory totes at the beginning of the video. Too much tote Tetris!
It served us well in the beginning, but we reached a point where it was holding back our growth and we knew it was time to make a change.
Let's get building!
It all started with big boxes, shiny materials, and some long, hard days of work!
Once we got the space cleaned up and ready to build, we started by laying down the plastic floor that the shop structure would be built on. After that was in place, we could begin construction on wall panels and seeing how everything would come together.
It's taking shape!
The back wall was a good place to start, but once that was assembled we had to make some decisions on how we were going to approach the rest of the build. The extruded aluminum pieces fit together like a large erector set, but it gets a bit complicated at this scale, especially when we're making big decisions like drilling holes and notching the acrylic sheets. No undo button here!
We were feeling pretty good about how things were coming along, but it started getting tricky once the panels began to come together.
Lights, fan, action!
We didn't build this clean pouring environment just because it looks cool! As you might know, platinum silicone has a bit of a static charge that makes it a magnet for dust and airborne particles. Before they're cured, a single speck can turn a perfect pour into a "flop" toy that takes extra work to sell at a discount and keeps prices higher across the board.
That’s where our ceiling-mounted air filtration comes in! It constantly introduces filtered air that pushes dust down to the floor and out the spaces along the bottom, most importantly keeping it away from our pours. And it's not just for pouring—we’ll use this space for everything from drying and quality checks to packaging and photos.
While the occasional flop is unavoidable, this setup will keep things running more smoothly, allowing us to cut down on flops and improve efficiency. The result? Better prices on quality, body-safe toys—our mission in action!
Moving day!
In just a few short weeks, the structure was fully assembled and it was time to move everything from the garage to the new space!
At home, the shop had been using shelving and storage we’d bought long before HHT even existed—space we were more than ready to reclaim for personal use. With that all staying behind and inventory temporarily left while construction dust settled, everything else fit easily into a single trip with a small U-Haul.
We quickly unpacked and got our production line up and running to get working on an order for our friends at Seattle’s Doghouse Leathers!
Step inside!
Here’s a first look just after we moved the tables and a few supplies into the new space. As you can see, there’s plenty of room that we're eager to fill with new work surfaces, equipment, and shelving.
The black plastic floor—made from the same material as our silicone buckets—is a big upgrade from concrete. Any dust (and trust us, the move stirred up plenty!) is easy to spot so we know it's time to vacuum. We’re planning to put as much of the new equipment on casters as possible to make keeping the shop clean a breeze!
Our first pours!
We don’t always record a time-lapse when we pour toys, but for our first production run in the new space?? You bet we did! It felt so familiar but also so foreign to pour toys in a different space for the first time ever!
Check it out and see our new clean pour environment in action!
The buildout continues
With the production space up and running, we turned our attention to shelving! Admittedly not as sexy as the clean pour environment, but we're nearly just as excited about it. With all the inventory and remaining odds and ends finally out of the garage and into the new space, we’re ready to truly settle in and get organized.
We’ve got a large unit for mold and pour supplies within the production area, one for silicone storage, a few for inventory—and still so much more to set up!
We’ll keep updating this page as we go, so check back to see our progress!
Before we go,
THANK YOU to everyone who's supported our small shop over the past four years, we truly couldn't have done this without every last one of you! HHT is investing every penny that we've saved into this project and we can't wait for this next chapter of making your Happy Holes EVEN HAPPIER!
-xo, Erik & Emmett
(and now, back to work we go!)
