Building an intentional art collection: A conversation with The Disco Loft

Sidney sits at her dining room table in front of her gallery wall.

Photo courtesy of Sidney Hui

Sidney Hui, known to many as The Disco Loft, curates a second hand market at The LINE hotel in Adams Morgan and co-organizes The Happy Daze clothing swap, a free clothing swap attended by hundreds of people in the community, typically taking place at Malcolm X park. In addition to her secondhand fashion business, she is known for her incredibly funky apartment, decorated with colorful artwork and secondhand finds. Among the pieces in her signature gallery wall is an original screenprint by Rose, purchased at the 2024 Umbrella Art Fair. We are connecting with Sidney to get her thoughts on sourcing unique artwork for her spaces, building your personal style, and more. 

Tell us a little bit about The Disco Loft, the ethos behind your second hand clothing and decor business. How did it get started?

The Disco Loft is an extension of myself. I’ve thrifted my whole life, but this business really started in 2020 when so many of us were working from home. While spending more time at home I was forced to face the fact that I had collected so much throughout my life. I'm also into sustainability and try to buy secondhand when possible. And I just ended up with more thrifted decor items than could reasonably fit in my apartment, and a friend had the great idea to try selling it. 

So many people would tell me, “You always find the most amazing, unique things. I never have any luck at the thrift store - I don’t know what to look for.” Some even asked if I could thrift for them. At the time, I didn’t really know how to turn that into anything, but it made me realize I’d gotten into thrifting at exactly the right moment, when more and more people were becoming interested in it.

The Disco Loft is a business, but it is also for the community - I want everything to be inclusive and affordable and sustainable. I try to keep my prices on the lower end. I understand that some people don't have cars can't get to the thrift store.

When it comes to sourcing artwork or other decor items, what are you most drawn to?

I am definitely drawn to colorful and textured pieces. I’ve been collecting pieces here and there for a long time, and didn’t know it would all come together so cohesively. I'm also someone who would rather get something than not get something - taking a chance on a piece and if it’s ultimately not the right fit for my space, gifting it to someone else or it becomes inventory for my business. That’s often how I source for The Disco Loft - is it something that I would pick out for my own home.

I've been collecting for so long, and last year I finally put it all together to create the gallery wall that appears in so many of my Instagram posts.

Tell me more - what motivated you to finally arrange the wall?

Gallery wall centering Rose’s screen print, CDMX Hang.

For the longest time, my artwork was just crowding my space, all these piles of stuff everywhere and something needed to change. Actually, Rose's piece was really integral in that it kind of inspired me to finally arrange all the artwork I had collected over several years. I saw Rose's piece at the Umbrella Art Fair. I hadn't bought too much original artwork before this. Something that actually drew me to the piece I chose was the bright blue frame it was displayed in - a lot of the other artwork was displayed pretty plainly, and I liked the visual interest that came with a fun, bright blue frame. I walked up to Rose’s piece and sort of fell in love with it - I loved the colors and the abstract nature of it, and it was in my budget! I was really excited that this would be the piece that would tie my whole wall together.

People are often intimidated by the process of arranging and hanging artwork. How did you approach it? 

I laid everything out on the floor to see how it fit together, and then I hired a TaskRabbit to handle the actual hanging. It was one of those things that had been sitting on my to-do list for a while: organize everything, see if it works cohesively, and then bring someone in to help execute it. But once I did it, it was really fun, and it came together much more cohesively than I expected.

I didn’t have a clear vision going in. I treated it like Tetris - moving pieces around, seeing what worked. Even while things were being hung, we made adjustments in real time. It came together much more cohesively than I expected.

Do you have any advice for people that are kind of looking to start their own art collection, or maybe newer art collectors?

Take it slow. I've had friends tell me that they are moving to a new space and they

want to do a gallery and source the pieces to set it up. For me, it’s been really worth it to source pieces that spoke to me bit by bit and then put it all together as opposed to trying to pick everything out at once and rush the process.

I am a maximalist, so luckily, things kind of go together because everything is colorful. But I do think that if you take the time and you select pieces that you're drawn to or that are meaningful to you, that will help you create a more cohesive space and presentation. It can also be great to use a few core pieces to anchor the composition - in my case, Rose’s screenprint is sort of the star of my gallery wall. Then I intentionally sourced pieces that would complement the colors in the piece, as well as the bright blue frame.

Giclée prints are a great, affordable way to complement original artwork. I’ve found amazing prints on Etsy by searching by color. I’ve also made some pieces myself - sometimes I’ll find a free frame and create something simple just to fill it.

Anything else that you want to add that we didn't get to about your business or decorating your space?

If you don't have the space to lay everything out on the floor, using an app like canva, photoshop, or procreate could be helpful - you can take photos of each of the art pieces you have as well as the wall they are going to be mounted on and play around with the composition!

If anyone does want advice on what would look best, I am always happy to give it. It’s not something I am offering right now in an official capacity, but I love to help decorate spaces, so people can always feel free to send me a note on Instagram if they would like some input. The Disco Loft is here for the community, and I am definitely eager to connect with others who are interested in art, sustainability, and design. ✮