Meet David Kowalski of West Midtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Kowalski

Hi David, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started out buying and selling antiques back in 2012 on a very small level and very part time. Once I started as a vendor with a few online sites like One Kings Lane, Gilt, Chairish etc was when I decided to go full time with it. I opened up a storefront in Westside Provisions a few years later and have been there since. We started making candles about 5 years ago, really just to make the store smell good. I have always believed that a good retail experience engages multiple senses so I always wanted my store to look good, smell good and sound good which is why I always had candles burning in the shop before we started making our own. I really just wanted to make them to burn in the shop but once we got our first few wholesale accounts and started selling through a lot in the shop, I realized this was the next step in the business. Our first major wholesale account was Crate & Barrel nationwide and we have been cranking them out ever since. We are now in about 150 stores nationwide with Whole Foods and Ballard being our largest accounts currently. In early 2021 we started a partnership with City of Refuge (https://thisisbrickandmortar.com/pages/city-of-refuge) which is where I am pouring most of my energy these days. We started a job programs in partnership with City of Refuge where we hire on to our payroll, women who are coming out crisis (homelessness, domestic abuse, trafficking) and teach them how to pour and package our candles. We are proud to say that all of our candles are now produced out of City of Refuge!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I would say the journey has been relatively smooth with quite a few bumps but nothing major. I’ve always felt that nobody is self made and through life there is always someone who came alongside you, no matter how insignificant they may seem. I have been fortunate to have really great employees and really great people along my journey who have helped me get to where I am today. Of course there have been struggles along the way but none that have been so major to make me reconsider what I am doing. For example the city of Atlanta has always been an incredibly difficult system to navigate as a small business but Tim Keane (our former planning commissioner and a great loss to our city when he left) was incredibly hands on when I needed help. Or when I was navigating a lease, Kristen Morris with Jamestown was incredibly helpful and a wonderful advocate.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I wear a lot of hats in my job. I own a retail store (vintage and antique home goods that I do all the buying for), I run a candle line, I do some interior design work and run a jobs program. I would say most people know us from our candle line although I have always thought of us as a vintage store that sells candles but often I hear that we are a candle store that sells vintage. The thing I am most proud of is probably our jobs program at City of Refuge (https://thisisbrickandmortar.com/pages/city-of-refuge). To come alongside women who are coming out of some of the most horrific situations and to create a safe space for them to come and work and gain experience and a paycheck is incredibly rewarding.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
That the name Brick+Mortar came before any meaning behind the name. When I set out to just do vintage and was trying to come up with a name, Brick+Mortar kept coming up just because I thought the name sounded like my aesthetic in a weird way. It doesnt make a lot of sense to people but it made sense to me. But once I started expanding into design work and our candle line and our jobs program, it all made sense because the name represented my idea of “place” which is essentially what Brick+Mortar means. My hope is that everything we do now represents a sense of place to our customers. Through design, through our home fragrances, through our job programs, my hope is that each of these things can bring a sense of belonging and place.

Pricing:

• Our candles are $18 and $28
• Vintage ranges from $2.50 for a postcard to a chair that is $35k.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thisisbrickandmortar.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisisbrickandmortar/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisisbrickandmortar

Image Credits
Kate Belle Photography