The Story of House of Postcards — Born from a Love of Postcards
Once upon a time...
When Gosia was still living in Warsaw, she had a small collection of FDCs — First Day Covers. In 2012, she moved to Wrocław to live with her husband, who was still her fiancé at the time. It marked an entirely new chapter in their lives.
Piotr, also known as Chomiczek, Gosia’s husband and a collector himself, encouraged her to continue developing and expanding her collection of covers.
It was 2014, and Facebook was already home to many groups dedicated to philately, collecting and various hobbies. In one of these groups, Gosia came across a mention of Postcrossing. As human curiosity would have it, she began searching for more information.
What exactly was Postcrossing?
After visiting the website, she quickly discovered that it was a worldwide postcard exchange. It sounded interesting enough to give it a try.
And so began the first trip into the city in search of postcards. After all, she needed something to send. She chose postcards featuring views of Wrocław.
For her first exchange, she drew five addresses... and the postcards began their journey around the world.
Sending and receiving postcards can be incredibly addictive. Unfortunately, at that time there were not many shops in Poland catering specifically to postcrossers, and interesting postcards were often difficult to find.
Piotr, also known as Chomiczek, decided that if Postcrossing brought Gosia so much joy, perhaps they should do something about it.
That was when the idea first appeared:
Let’s open our own shop!
At first, there was only an idea.
There was no business plan, no large warehouse and no thousands of products.
There was simply an enormous passion for postcards and the belief that somewhere out there were people just like us — people searching for unique cards for Postcrossing, for their collections or to send to someone special.
With the help of a friend, we managed to launch the online shop. However, one very important question remained:
What were we going to sell? The answer came naturally.
Gosia had always loved photography. During holidays, travels and mountain adventures, she took hundreds of photographs. Among them were pictures of the Tatra Mountains, which became the inspiration for the very first original House of Postcards collection.
The photographs were prepared for printing by Janusz — our dad — who gave the postcards their final visual form.
And that is how our first collection was created...
It consisted of just 12 postcard designs.
Today, that may not sound like much, but for us it was an enormous step. Each postcard was a small dream come true. Each one proved that it was possible to create something of our own.
We quickly discovered that creating a good postcard requires much more than a beautiful photograph. The paper, colours, finish and print quality are all extremely important.
Our first experiences with printing companies were not always perfect, but we did not want to compromise.
Fortune smiled on us during the Wrocław Good Books Fair, where we met a representative of the printing company we still work with today. This partnership allowed us to create postcards exactly as we would want to receive them in our own mailboxes.
We wanted people to be able to find postcards from all over Poland in one place — not only postcards from the largest cities.
We dreamed that everyone would be able to find a card featuring their hometown, their favourite mountains, the seaside or a small town that would be almost impossible to find in popular shops.
And so the search for publishers and artists began.
One of the first publishers we worked with was DDK Edition, and our cooperation continues to this day.
That was only the beginning.
Over time, our selection grew, and so did the number of people discovering our postcards.
In the beginning, the whole of House of Postcards fitted inside an apartment.
The postcards gradually took over more shelves, then cupboards and eventually cardboard boxes. At some point, the apartment began to look more like a warehouse than a home.
It was a sign that the time had come to take another step.
We rented commercial premises.
For a small family business, it was an enormous decision.
From that moment on, Gosia prepared the orders in the shop, while Piotr packed them with extraordinary care.
Those of you who have been with us for many years may remember our characteristic stamp:
“Your order was packed by Chomik.”
That was how Piotr signed his work and he truly was a master at it.
Every parcel was carefully protected as though he were sending it to his closest friend.
In 2022, Piotr suggested that Kasia — Gosia’s sister — should join House of Postcards.
This became another turning point in the company’s development.
Sharing responsibilities became easier, and new ideas and fresh energy appeared. Even more heart was poured into every project.
We can proudly say that House of Postcards is, above all, a family.
It is a place built not by chance, but by people who genuinely love what they do.
At that time, we did not yet know that the most difficult chapter of our story was still ahead of us.
Unfortunately, life sometimes writes stories that no one would ever wish to experience.
Piotr became seriously ill. For two months, our everyday lives looked completely different. Work was intertwined with repeated journeys to the hospital. Hope was mixed with overwhelming fear.
On 12 August 2023, our lives came to a standstill.
Piotr passed away.
It is difficult to describe the emptiness left behind by someone so exceptional — someone who had helped to build House of Postcards from its very first day.
For a long time, it seemed that nothing would ever be the same again.
And indeed...It was not.
But we also came to understand something very important.
The most beautiful way to honour Piotr’s memory would be to continue developing the place we had created together — a place he would be proud of.
Since then, many things have changed, but one thing has remained the same:
Our love of postcards.
Today, House of Postcards offers thousands of designs that reach collectors, postcrossers and lovers of traditional correspondence all over the world.
It brings us enormous joy to work with people who, just like us, put their hearts into everything they create.
Our collections feature, among others:
photographs by Gosia Hołowaty, the owner of House of Postcards,
wonderfully atmospheric illustrations by Martyna Wołowicz,
photographs by Sop3lek,
photographs by Łukasz Ptaszyński,
photographs, original illustrations and designs created by RunKate,
as well as postcards from publishers such as Kamera, Anelo, DDK, Pan Dragon, Gliniana Kura and many others.
Every new project is the result of many hours of work, conversations and searching for inspiration.
We do not want to create ordinary postcards.
We want to create postcards that people will keep for years — postcards that will make someone smile.
“Born from a Love of Postcards”
This is not simply our slogan.
It is the way we think about House of Postcards every single day.
Every new illustration, photograph and design. Every carefully packed parcel.
All of it exists because we genuinely love Postcrossing, sending postcards and the joy that a small piece of paper can bring.
We know that somewhere on the other side of the world, someone will open their mailbox and smile because of a postcard they chose from our shop.
There could be no more beautiful motivation for our work.
Thank you for being part of this story.
If you have been with us for many years — THANK YOU!
If you have only just discovered House of Postcards — WELCOME to our family!
We hope our postcards will accompany you during your travels, Postcrossing exchanges, collecting adventures and all those special moments that a postcard can help you remember.
We believe that even in a world filled with screens, a single handwritten postcard can bring a bigger smile than hundreds of messages sent with just one click.
And that is exactly why we continue doing what we do every day.
We create from a love of postcards. ❤️