Hollander’s

My wife and I love shopping at Hollander’s. For us, it’s a must every time we pop back into Ann Arbor. So much to see here. Funky wrapping papers, card stock paper & crafting papers, journals, cards and more. Hollander’s carries the unique stuff, interesting gifts and art supplies. It’s not the cheapest, but the quality of both the service and the products is crème of the crop. Too bad the home store on the second floor is now gone. I really liked the selection of kitchen supplies since I’m a foodie who likes to cook.

I live in Arlington, VA and go to Marymount University. My teacher recommended this place because in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) area there are no bookbinding stores that cater to students taking Bookbinding classes. I have to say, fast, efficient and great to responding to e-​mails! I was worried at first since I didn’t receive any tracking information for my supplies. I e-​mailed them and they responded without hassle. Wonderful protection for the paper I ordered, and beautiful sticker of their company logo. My teacher was right in recommending this company. Though pricey with shipping and handling I’d rather prefer quality over bad protection. I’ll definitely be ordering again if I need any bookbinding paper :).

The sale staff is awesome. One showed me his own paints to make a recommendation, while another sales clerk even said that we should check online to see if we could find a better deal. I wish I had followed her advice. Hollander’s is ridiculously expensive and their return policy is very unforgiving. I understand that this is not a WalMart or big box store that can absorb returns but upon barely testing the paint kit it was deemed un-​returnable. Check Amazon first!!!

This place is PACKED with art supplies or every kind imaginable. I could have spent hours in that store and still not seen everything. They are also loaded with fun kids stuff such as coloring books (not the lame Thomas or Dora kind but, UNIQUE coloring books) and color your own cards etc. The employees were super friendly and helpful. They were polite and took the time to answer my one million questions. Thank you Emily :) I whipped out my smart phone while there to price-​check some items on Amazon and I didn’t notice any price gouging but about 0.50-$ 1.00 higher on the items I checked.

Hollander’s just gave me one of those moments that made me wonder why I go out of my way to pay more for less options by shopping locally.
Their Wednesday business hours, posted on their front door, google, and right here on Unilocal (I’m staring at a big green OPEN button on this page), are until 7pm.
I showed up at 6pm and all the doors were locked. I knocked on the glass door until the man inside looked up, yelled something unintelligible, and then just pretended I wasn’t there when I kept knocking.
If you change your business hours then change your damn signs and update your information online. If you can’t service a customer who is trying to do business with you, then don’t be rude about it.
Next stop– friendly neighborhood internet retailer!

Emily from this store is a great help. She is patient, knowledgeable and friendly. I am new to watercolor so Emily is extremely helpful to find the right kind of brushes, palette and board that I need. When I explain the types of brushes I already had, she helps me save money by suggesting which of those brushes from the store that I don’t need to buy. I’m glad I visit this store.

This is my go-​to place for cards. Birthdays, congratulations, thank you cards, etc. I can spend so much time here sorting through the various cards and trying to select the best one. The selection is great and the cards are funny, it makes it so hard to choose!
You pay for the quality here, I guess. It’d cost you about 2x more than your regular card section at the local mart.

Beautiful papers, beautiful beautiful.
We got our wedding invite paper here, and it was hand-​made rice paper with gold flecks.
You can always find the overpriced and artsy fun writing stuffs here, and it is worth a walk through. Just pouring over the various hand made papers, looking through the cards, and the various art supplies can keep you occupied for a while. (then you can go downstairs and have some bi bem bop at Cosmos!)

This place is beautiful. There are a TON of great kitchen items.
If you like to cook and love beautiful things you will spend an hour here. My only complaint is that there aren’t a lot of high end tools. There are high end appliances but it you want a really nice knife, a good garlic press, etc, you may struggle.
The offer demo classes and the service is generally pretty good.

Great products, scary prices.

4 stars for the paper + cards /​/​2 – 3 stars for service /​/​2 stars for the kitchenware
I don’t like Hallmark. And generally I don’t like stationary stores because their cards are made more for suburban moms than… well… anyone else. Except maybe for grammas who don’t kick tush like my babcia did.
Hollanders is pleasantly bereft of most of the awful floral, tasteless revamps of 90s graphics. Their wrapping paper isn’t all new-​agey hippy earth colors either.
Though I usually handmake my cards for friends and family, this Christmas I just said, screw it. Stopped by Hollanders to fill in the holes that were left after DIYpsi’s haul (nice cards there!). Found really tasteful cards from hip sweet colorful ones to classic elegant ones. May look like your average conservative cookie-​cutter gift store from the outside but it offers a lot more on the inside. I however would LOVE if they carried more DIY cards from local artists. Having a local section would be A+.
The housewares upstairs are ok. They stick to a few brands and are either low end or high end, which means there’s no mid range of good quality, but not astronomically expensive stuff. Though they do have fun shapes of cookie cutters and other whimsically shaped and colored variations of kitchen tools. As for me, I get all my cooking needs at Downtown Home & Garden.
I’ve had really mixed experiences with the clerks. Sometimes I come here and I get eyed, stalked, and treated like a thief (really? you just lost yourself a customer). Other times there are clerks that don’t do this to me, but aren’t necessarily friendly either.
My favorite experience was talking to an elderly man who was buying 150 sheets of handmade paper and string. He said that every Christmas he hand-​makes miniature books to send out to people as cards. «I used to write them by hand but now I just use the typewriter.» I want to be on his mailing list!
That’s a wrap (oh god, stop me, they’re getting worse).

Pretty awesome place. Have lived in Ann Arbor for about 4 years and I’ve finally decided to visit. I never knew there could be so many options regarding paper.
I came to get a very unorthodox item wrapped. They did everything for me — get a box, packaging material, wrapping paper, ribbon, and a card. Really helpful and accommodating staff here.
Will frequent this store from now on for everything paper related

Friends who know me know that I love to send cards. Cards with quotes on the front, goofy pictures, etc. Hollander’s is my go-​to spot every change I get back to Ann Arbor, and I stock up. Journals, puzzles, card-​sets — it’s the paper destination of America. Upstairs they have an incredible kitchen selection with fun colors and patterns, but this past trip was the first time I didn’t spend over an hour in just the paper section, and had enough energy to venture up to housewares. I was on shopping-​overload and don’t remember much, but know it was great.
It’s all in the details: Many eco-​friendly options (thank goodness, since I’m promoting PAPER and feel ridiculously un-​green), no sale section (that I could find, and I’m pretty sure I was all over that store), great kids stuff as well as expensive-​fancy-​museum-​type selections. Mmmm, I’m getting paper crazy just thinking about it…

IF PAPER WERE FABRIC I’D WEAR IT
I often do not give a five-​star rating to anyone. Hollanders blew me away with their selection, quality and service.
I just went over there for the first time during Ann Arbor’s Midnight Madness. This was my first trip there and I spent so much time there I think I was in there for 45 minutes to an hour. In a paper store?- seriously I was.
SUMPTUOUS PAPER
You just want to reach out and touch, rub, feel the papers, as some of them look silky and alive (but I kept my hands off so as to not ruin the papers). It’s an explosion of design for the senses. Some of their paper looks like you could take it off the rack and begin sewing with it, it’s that beautiful.
TIP OF THE CARDSTOCK
Paper is just one item at Hollanders though, as they have many gifts, stationaries, cards, journals, etc. to choose from and upstairs is an entirely different store– high-​end housewares.
You will have to walk through many many times to take it all in as they have quite a bit of space compared to many of the small Kerrytown retailer spaces. The selection is vast, so you’ll need time to take it all in. *Hollanders is an experience.* You don’t just dash and grab like you’re at Walgreens, so plan on spending time there and enjoy the experience.
BRING OUT THE ARTIST IN YOU
Even if you’re not an artistic, crafty type of person, one trip to Hollanders might make you want to take up some type of artistic hobby and run with it. The blank card stock and stationary selections also might make you ditch the constant emailing and opt to put pen to paper– takin’ it back to old school.
IN SUMMARY
If you ever saw «The Sound of Music» (who hasn’t?) and gotten all crazed when Julie Andrews sang the line «The Hills are alive with the sound of music…», then you just might go into Hollanders and have the same experience she had– but from paper. I’m not kidding. Try not to spin around too much though since you might knock something over. hee hee
Go see for yourself.

What a beautiful store! Very large and airy with absolutely beautiful paper goods.
I was in a bit of a hurry as I was about to start addressing invitations and just needed a good pen, so I didn’t look around too much. It felt like there were a lot of people working there – I can think of three separate people that I interacted with in my 5 minute visit. All of them were very nice and willing to help, particularly the guy who helped me find the perfect pen color! When I went to check-​out I just *had* to buy these beautiful note cards that were displayed at the register – and I don’t think I’ve ever felt the burning urge to purchase note cards! I was able to buy the box of cards and a really nice pen for less than $ 12 — nice!
I’m only docking a star as they were out of black calligraphy pens, which seems kind of silly. A really beautiful and wonderful store, though, and I look forward to going back!

LOVE Hollander’s. As a paper junkie I could get lost here for hours. Beautiful sheets of paper all over the shop. So many that I would just buy and frame as-​is (in fact I have!), great supplies for paper and book making, and premade stationary sets, postcards, etc. A veritable pulpy wonderland! Competitively priced compared to the other paper shops I’ve been to (including Paper Source in Chicago) and with a bigger inventory. Beautiful selection of imported papers from Asia to Egypt. Old timey looking designs to more modern styles. Great website to work with and order from. Tried to find some paper I bought in store online to show to my friend in another state and had no trouble locating it to show her. Love everything about it!
Also LOVE the home and kitchen store they’ve expanded to. Oh good Lord, it’s awesome! In addition to being a paper junkie I’m also a kitchen goods junkie and I never leave the shop without some sort of wonderful doohickey to make my life easier in the kitchen. I’m sure Alton Brown with his «never buy a one use kitchen gadget» policy would be appalled but I don’t care. I love my soft boiled egg top slicer!
Really, REALLY love this shop and can’t wait to get back to get more.

website/​online order review only.
Hollander’s is amazing. Their website is well-​organized and features great pictures of their extensive paper collection. Prices are comparable to brick and mortar paper shops I’ve patronized. The best part is they give you a $ 10 shipping credit for orders of $ 100 or more, which really brings down the shipping cost.
I placed an order for about 20 sheets of decorative paper and sample bookcloth last week. The package arrived today and everything was all in one piece.
I wish I lived in Ann Arbor because I’d be living at Hollander’s. Please consider opening a branch in Northern California!

This is strictly based on the customer service I recently received here.
If you read my previous review, I was elated that Hollander’s was so easy to work with. From my most recent trip there, they have greatly failed. However, I still believe they have great items– in fact, I had a bunch in hand, but after this run-​in, I placed every last one of them back where I got them. I did NOT make a purchase.
While planning the wedding, I spoke with someone claiming to be a manager (female) in August regarding the letterpress invitations. I was told (referencing my notes I took on Hollanders) that I should mail them a sample of my already purchased cardstock and create my template on Word or Publisher and email it in PDF file to them. I had been told on the phone by this same woman, that they have accommodated others who had their own cardstock, but that they would just have to approve my particular one.
I drive all the way to AA before work in the afternoon, and I run the situation by a guy behind the counter. A girl snaps back before he or I have time to blink, that they will not do it because it’s not their stationery. I went on to explain further that I had been told otherwise. Then another young guy steps in and says that he will find out for me, and takes my cardstock sheets upstairs, only to return and say that no, they cannot do it. I started questioning why and he gave me some lame answers about that they could not «warranty» that it will turn out. He then continued to say that he thinks everything would be just fine, but that they couldn’t do it because of the way they have their pricing is based on the fact that you purchase their stationery. Okay, so I made it simpler: and offered to pay more, pay the difference, pay the cost of the paper, but use my own. Still no.
I overheard that the manager, Tom, was in a meeting upstairs… and then when I called the store and asked to speak with him, the same young guy told me HE was the manager. Dude, I recognize your voice. Pathetic.
Honestly, you could have the most amazing product out there, the one and only in its kind, but if you treat your customers like shit, you’ll eventually fail. And I still have my record of what your company told me before.

Paper heaven!
I am just fascinated with stationary, paper products. They have everything from Egyptian wood paper to traditional Japanese silk paper, fun monkey paper, envelopes, thank you cards, and helpful gadgets to create your own masterpiece. They even offer classes! Which I am very interested in taking. Considering I will be making my own wedding invitations. They even have a letter press! Sweet!

I am a fanatic about stationery and all things paper, so I just loved this store. While most of Kerrytown Markets was bustling on a recently weekday around noon, Hollander was a cooler, quieter oasis in this shopping complex.
Hollanders is actually quite a bit bigger on the inside than I’d judged from the outside. It has several rooms worth of paper goods, from blank books to «print your own stationery» station to gift cards. They also offer a small selection of paints and colored pencils and other art supplies. The basement space is dedicated to a series of events and workshops scheduled every month. They range from bookbinding to calligraphy.
The selection of merchandise is out of the ordinary and very cool. Without a little discipline, I easily could have spent an entire week’s salary on things for myself and gifts for friends.