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Denver-based home-furnishing designer, manufacturer, and seller Sixpenny is making waves in the furniture industry in more ways than one: Co-founders and industry veterans Jon Allen and Kevin Lehrer have done away with the traditional furniture retail model, replacing wholesalers and distributors with a direct-to-consumer approach that delivers stylish, high-quality furnishings at a double-take-inducing price.
Instead of selling their furnishings in brick-and-mortar stores, they’re keeping overhead low by selling it online—and, starting this month, in a traveling series of pop-up shops called RoadSHOPs, where customers can spend some quality time with Allen’s original designs before they buy.
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The first RoadSHOP launched in Cherry Creek North on November 1 and will be open daily until December 31, 2017. Here, you can touch, sit on, and snap selfies with furnishings from each of Sixpenny’s three collections: Foundry (streamlined, industrial designs); Archive (slick, midcentury-modern-inspired forms); and Nest (that vintage, boho/farmhouse look).
Sixpenny currently offers furnishings for living and dining rooms, and each piece features high-quality details like kiln-dried hardwood frames, soft-close drawers, and blanket-wrapped cushion construction (that means seats feel soft and comfy, but spring right back when you get up), and a muted palette of natural fabrics including buttery leathers, softer-than-usual linens, and rich cotton velvets.
Unlike most pop-up shops, the RoadSHOP is less about shopping and more about experiencing a manifestation of the brand, says Allen, who hopes visitors will sit and sip a cup of coffee in the morning, meet friends for a glass of wine at the nightly Sip & Shop events, or attend an onsite educational workshop. Lehrer and Allen will often be around to answer questions about their furnishings (when does that happen?), and if you like what you see, you can go home and order it online—it’ll ship to you for free. A shopping experience that’s as comfortable as the furniture? That’s a business model we’re hoping will catch on.
The Sixpenny RoadSHOP, located at 2771 E. First Avenue in Cherry Creek, is open daily through December 31, 2017. Stay tuned to sixpenny.com for information about future RoadSHOPS.