Big Rube’s Philly: Dominique Calhoun of Remix Living

Dominique Calhoun and her firm Remix Living are known for luxury interior design. NBA players, former Eagle Malcolm Jenkins (a designer in his own right) and other high-end clients keep this North Philadelphia native thriving. Her path to glamorous success was not a traditional or easy one. We sat down to talk at Remix's headquarters in Globe Dye Works — she's relaunching the space on November 14 — to talk about where she's come from and where she's going.

Dominique told me she's always been "a creative at heart." Design, she says, has always been in her spirit. Her first project was her bedroom. Once her mom was able to afford it, she, Dominique and her sister moved out of their extended family's home and into their own home at 28th and Lehigh.

"That's where it all started," Dominique says. "I had the crazy color walls, and the zigzag lines and all the poster prints, and fashion magazine collages." She attended Parkway Gamma High School and applied to Philadelphia University (now Jefferson University) to study interior design. When she was not admitted, she pivoted and went to University of Maryland Eastern Shore, an HBCU that was close enough to home. There she studied fashion merchandising — learning about textiles, design principles and business management.

Right out of college, Dominique landed a job in retail management. But she soon realized that even though she was on a ladder to corporate success, she didn't want to become a numbers person, which is what much of fashion merchandising is about. So, she pivoted again.

"I bought my house very young; I was 22 years old — a single parent," she says. Back then, Instagram was more organic, and she'd post photos of corners of her house. People gave her positive feedback. Her family would visit and praise her. "It was like they put a battery in my back," she says. "" She decided to return to her original love: designing.

Working from home wasn't feasible. She needed a commercial space to get deliveries, and fell in love with the industrial style of Globe Dye Works in Frankford. Remix Living opened there in 2018.

It wasn't totally seamless. Friends and family didn't always understand what she was doing or why she was doing it. Other designers downplayed her because she didn't have an interior design degree. But she trusted her instincts and overcame her fear. "I'm a risk taker," she says.

Through trial and error and self-determination, Remix became a place where she could express her own design story while developing clients' unique looks.

"One of my best clients to date is retired NFL player Malcolm Jenkins," Dominique says. "What I love so much about Mr. Jenkins is that he's just as creative and vibey as me. When you get that client that has the budget, that has a design eye himself, and trusts the vision — it just was a perfect combination." Remix has designed four properties for the former Eagles safety and captain.

Remix's studios also double as retail spaces where customers can shop for furnishings from catalogs, purchase accessories off the studio floor, and work with a design apprentice on projects. Calhoun understands not everyone can afford her luxury rates, and she cherishes giving opportunities to new talent, especially young Black and Brown women.

Today, her biggest challenge is simply scaling up. Calhoun is on the lookout both for staff who want to grow with her, to put their creativity to work, and for newer, bigger clients, as apartments and development crop up all over the city.

"People need to know about Remix," she says.

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