After nearly four decades in the furniture and design business, Claudia Dowling is closing out her Huntington storefront and setting up shop in Northport's historic Thompson Building, an 875-square-foot space she is filling with merchandise that starts at just $20. The move caps a year of squeezed profit margins driven by tariffs and freight costs that have made even a single sofa an expensive proposition to bring through the door.
Claudia Dowling Interiors has leased the Northport space inside the Thompson Building, according to Newsday, which reports the shop sits at the corner of Woodbine and Scudder avenues, its entrance tucked at the end of an alleyway off Scudder. The business, called Within These Walls Home Decor & Design, is owned by Dowling along with her daughter, Jennifer Indence, and business partner Samantha Bendl. “We're trying to make it a lot like a home instead of a store,” Dowling said, describing the vision for the new location.
Dowling, a Centerport-based interior designer, opened her first store in Oyster Bay back in 1988, and the Northport shop marks her ninth brick-and-mortar location after eight prior stores. At the end of 2026 she plans to close her existing Huntington store, a 3,000-square-foot space on New York Avenue, though she intends to keep selling furniture and decor there until the doors shut. In Northport, she will continue taking on design clients while also selling merchandise on the floor.
A Smaller Footprint With a Homier Feel
The new shop is considerably smaller than the Huntington space it is replacing, but Dowling and her team are leaning into that scale rather than fighting it. Decorative items inside Within These Walls start at $20, with pieces like a squirrel, fox and rabbit reading sculpture priced at $26. Dowling has said she's mindful of customers' budgets given how high prices have climbed.
Dowling planned to open the Northport store to foot traffic during the week of October 30 while she awaited a merchandise-selling license, the outlet reported. The business employs six people including Dowling herself, among them three other designers. Indence, Dowling's daughter and business partner, lives in Greenlawn, while Bendl, the other partner, lives in Babylon.
Tariffs and Freight Keep Squeezing the Bottom Line
Cost pressure has shadowed Dowling's business for years. As noted by Newsday, bringing a single sofa into her stores can now cost her between $600 and $700 because of tariff and freight charges, a jump that has pushed furniture prices higher across the board. The strain isn't new: Dowling previously told TBR News Media that the 2019 round of tariffs alone cost her well over 30% of that year's profit, and that freight costs spiked again after the onset of COVID-19, making it hard to turn a profit.
Dowling has also pointed to competition from large retailers such as Amazon, which she says buy in bulk and undercut smaller shops on price, as a factor squeezing independent businesses like hers. “The small business community is in more trouble than ever,” she told the same outlet. She's said the design business overall has grown more competitive since she first started out.
Why a Trained Eye Still Matters, Designers Say
Matthew Swiertz, who leads the interior design program at Maryland Institute College of Art, said professionally trained designers bring something that DIY culture can't fully replace. “Professionally trained interior designers have an understanding of concepts like scale, proportion, materials and how people move through a space,” he said, per a report from Newsday. He added that designers help clients make thoughtful purchasing decisions, and that durable, well-crafted furniture can offer greater long-term value through its durability and lasting appeal.
Swiertz also noted that residential interior design has gained visibility and accessibility thanks to home renovation television shows and products available at varied price points, a shift he said has fueled a growing do-it-yourself design culture even as it has made the industry more crowded. Over her career, Dowling has designed entire residences from blueprints as well as individual sofas and lamps, and her stores have offered high-end textiles and tile, a furniture line, and kitchen and bath fixtures.
A New Anchor for an Overlooked Corner of Northport
Joseph Schmitz, who owns the Thompson Building, said the stretch just south of Main Street in Northport is often overlooked by shoppers passing through. He said Dowling and her team plan to decorate the building for the winter holidays, part of an effort to draw more foot traffic to that end of the village. For Dowling, the Northport move represents both a downsizing and a reset, a chance to keep running a business that began in Oyster Bay nearly 40 years ago under a smaller, more intimate roof.
