For more than a decade, Dwell with Dignity has hawked heavily discounted luxury furniture and home accessories at Thrift Studio, its monthlong temporary shop. The popular event draws plenty of love from the city’s interior design world and anyone looking for a good deal. Each year, Thrift Studio picks a handful of local designers and showrooms, like Peacock Alley and Javier Burkle, to set up staged room “vignettes” with the donated furnishings. (See the full list of designers here.) Think Rooms To Go, but much, much nicer.
When I walked into Thrift Studio’s preview party last week, I was hit with cool air and the buzzy din of excited shoppers, plus a pajamaed DJ blasting music atop a bunkbed in a children’s bedroom vignette. It was packed. I wandered the vignettes, ogling the beautiful wallpapers, headboards, and club chairs. I wondered if I should toss out my own Rooms To Go side tables for something here—the deals were, indeed, great. But just about anytime I approached a table or bookcase or backgammon board, I saw big, bright “sold” tag.
All the money from Thrift Studio goes directly back to Dwell with Dignity, which provides thoughtfully designed living spaces to families in need. “To us, that’s the ultimate goal,” Dwell with Dignity executive director Ashley Sharp says. “That we can provide one-of-kind items to people on demand and to know every single dollar that you have goes back to serving a family in need.”
At the party, I chatted with Sharp about how Thrift Studio works, what the best deals were, and the new Social Impact Marketplace, where local nonprofits can come into the pop-up shop on Saturdays and sell their wares.
This party is crazy. Can you tell me about the community reaction to this year’s Thrift Studio?
I think Thrift Studio is needed now more than ever, right? We talk about the supply chain issues and how everything’s backed up and you can’t get anything. But what if you could come to one place and get a unique item immediately, but also know that it’s going back for a social good?
How many people typically shop Thrift Studio?
The opening day alone is about 500 people. And then any given day, we can have up to 100 people and we run for a month. You will see a lot of repeat shoppers, because they know that those deals are coming through. And so, we really can see anywhere between 1,000 to 3,000 unique shoppers, and our goal is to keep growing that and introducing people to this mission.
How did you pick the nonprofits?
These are nonprofits that were actually also part of the Social Innovation Accelerator—so it’s great—and then other nonprofits that we partner with. We have The Worthy Co. that does jewelry out of Fort Worth. And they run The Net and work with victims of sexual trafficking. We really love working with them. My Possibilities was one of my mentors, and I’ve worked with them forever. And so we’re thrilled because they have Soap Hope and it’s for individuals with disabilities. So, they get to come sell soap. Howdy Homemade is the same—it’s individuals with Down syndrome. They’re gonna come serve ice cream, which is the best ice cream on Earth. We wanted to pick people who aligned with our goals and values and then also those who we knew were already out there on the community and wanting to get greater presence.
What is your ultimate goal for Thrift Studio?
My goal for our studio is to have a permanent space where we have monthly pop ups on the weekends and then we do an eight-week run. I think that that would be my dream. Right now, we only do four weeks, which, as soon as people hear about it, we’re closed. So, we’re kind of like the State Fair right now. But if we’re able to have a permanent space, and then we could do warehouse sales, [because] we’re always sitting on inventory, we’re able to get the name out there. And then do a blowout once a year or so.
