Michaels partners with Jonathan Adler to give its home decor section an upgrade

The partnership is the latest in a series of programs and initiatives by Michaels as it capitalizes on opportunities left open by defunct competitors like Joann and Party City. In 2025, Michaels launched The Party Shop section at its stores, featuring a balloon bar. This spring, the company began selling fresh florals to complement its cards and balloons businesses. So far, the strategy has paid off, as Michaels continues to grow even after taking a hit from the various tariffs announced last year.

As a whole, the home sector is facing a number of headwinds right now. These include a decline in home ownership, higher manufacturing costs and an overall drop in disposable income among consumers. In turn, furniture and homeware brands are trying to adapt. However, Michaels says its strategy is focused on assortments that help customers refresh their homes in a relatively affordable way. For instance, it’s offering seasonal dinnerware and patio accessories that can be used to spruce up gatherings and celebrations. 

That is where the Jonathan Adler X Michaels collection comes in, said Stacey Shively, chief merchandising officer at Michaels. “Right now, in our world, we talk a ton about the Joann and the Party City businesses,” she said. But Michaels wants to strike a balance in how it tries to go after the customers those retailers left behind.

“We want our home decor to stay under the celebration umbrella,” Shively said. That means that if a customer is celebrating spring or a graduation party, they can purchase a few items from Michaels to refresh their home in a limited way. “That really differentiates us from other retailers,” she said. “So, for example, we won’t go after furniture in a big way because that doesn’t necessarily fit with the DNA of where we’re going.” 

In this interview with Modern Retail, Shively broke down the retailer’s approach to homeware and decor. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

In your recent direction to diversify your offerings, where does the Jonathan Adler collaboration fit into this strategy?  

“Something that many people don’t realize is that we have had decor for a long time. It makes up about 25% of our assortment, including seasonal decor. 

As we were evolving our assortments and learning from our customers what they’re looking for, the Jonathan collaboration ended up being the perfect marriage because he has a deep love for Michaels and everything DIY. The collaboration was also appealing for Jonathan, who is a creator through pottery and his other art, and is bringing that beautiful aesthetic to our assortment.”

The collection is made up of a mix of DIY and finished decor items. How did you decide on the categories to include in the launch collection?

“The collection is all about how you decorate your house to get ready for a party. The twist is: How do you make those products look amazing while also useful? So even if you’re not playing with the giant Jenga set, these are cool pieces to look at while being extremely functional. 

As we developed all the SKUs, we had one key VP who worked on it and one key product manager who worked solely with the Jonathan Adler team. Everything had to get the stamp of approval from Jonathan and myself to ensure the quality and the aesthetic were there. I call it democratizing design. We want that very high-end design, but also make it priced for the masses.

We do have another drop that hits May 8. Then later this year, we are doing a cool Hanukkah drop for the holiday. It’s a celebration that is near and dear to Jonathan.  

The holiday collection is really important for us. We want to keep [Adler’s] design aesthetic in mind and have it fit with our celebration strategy. Then we will continue into Valentine’s Day and spring.”

How does the Jonathan Adler partnership help cater to your customer base?

“Our traditional customer is what we call a maximalist. They don’t want something that everybody else is going to do, and they want to be unique. This is where we have seen the growth, because our customer does not want what everyone else has.

For the entertaining pieces, we mapped out what that customer might be celebrating. Let’s say it’s a garden party where you might have cocktails,. We have a bar set, but we also have more unique offerings like the mahjong set, which might be a surprising item to the customer. But we know that mahjong is on the pre-peak of the trend curve, and we wanted to develop a beautiful set alongside the other entertaining pieces like beach towels and outdoor pillows. The DIY side came from the idea of [Adler] being a potter and bringing that to the masses. Even though the customers are not actually throwing clay or throwing vases, we are bringing that element so that everybody can have the design aesthetic of Jonathan in their own way.”

With all the challenges like rising costs and tariffs, how did you approach the product development process to keep pieces at an affordable price point?

“The main mantra was: We were not gonna walk away from quality. A big part of Jonathan’s brand DNA is the heirloom pieces that can be handed down from generation to generation, and so that was at the back of our minds. 

We have a lot of strategic partnerships with our different factories and suppliers. So it was critical that we identified who has the strength in each of these categories. There is a little bit of product engineering to it. Like for our pillows, I said they had to have a zipper so you can remove it and clean the pillow cover if you need to. Most lower-priced products don’t have a zipper because they’re more disposable. We had to pick the right strategic partner who was doing them in the cotton velvet or the linen cotton blend, so we can deliver on that value or price promise to the customer.”

How do you see that 25% home decor portion of the business growing as the assortment grows? 

“As the total company growth happens, [decor] will stay around that 25%. But the whole box is growing, and so that 25% will see volume growth throughout the years. But the biggest piece for us — and the other side of why we went into DIY decor — is that the analog trend of doing crafts, needlepoint or face painting is currently growing faster than the decor business.”