The Ashley Furniture HomeStore will formally open its 20,000-square-foot showroom at 501 King George’s Road on Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Formerly the Furniture Showplace, this outlet store is the latest to become a member of the nation-wide Ashley Furniture HomeStores chain.

With this event, the Schafer family — which has been doing business in New Jersey for more than 75 years — is marking the grand opening of their third Ashley Furniture HomeStore in just over a year. The first two to open are in North Brunswick and Linden.

The new outlet store located in the midst of the Woodbridge shopping district includes more than 200 living room, bedroom and dining room settings in contemporary, traditional, cottage and rustic styles. Read more »

Construction has started on the 625,573-square-foot Building 9 at ProLogis Park 70 in Aurora.

Building 9 will be a national distribution center for Furniture Row Cos. of Denver when it’s finished later this year. Furniture Row owns the building and the 35 acres of land it occupies.

Furniture Row has more than 330 furniture stores in 31 states. Its stores operate under the names Sofa Mart, Oak Express, Bedroom Expressions and Denver Mattress.

Construction on the distribution center is under way, and scheduled to be completed in the third quarter.

Ware Malcomb of Los Angeles, one of this country’s largest architectural firms and a specialist in commercial buildings, designed the building. Murray & Stafford Inc. of Denver is the project’s general contractor. Read more »

At a time when the housing market’s distress is boiling over into various retail markets — a fact most easily illustrated by declines in the furniture sector — Bacon’s Furniture is changing the way it does business.

The company’s Sarasota store at 7766 S. Tamiami Trail, which now exclusively carries Drexel furniture, will soon change to a multi-line store, selling major brands of furniture, including a more diverse selection of home office and entertainment products.

“Now, essentially, we have all of our eggs in the Drexel basket,” said Jeff Bacon, the general manager of Bacon’s Furniture. “We will continue to carry Drexel. However, we will also be selling other top sellers.”

The change is in response to the desires of customers, Bacon said. Read more »

Asia’s landmark event for the furniture industry is getting ready for business in autumn, when it will open its doors from 12-15 September in Shanghai.

As the first significant international event after the summer break in Europe, Furniture China returns with 1,600 exhibitors on 220,000 sq.m. exhibition space. Featuring Asia’s best designs and quality products, the show is expected to draw over 70,000 visitors, including 12,000 international buyers.

In an attempt to balance growth, available exhibition space and visitors’ convenience, the organisers have appointed two venues to take pressure from the overbooked Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC). The new venues, Pudong Exhibition Centre and the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum, are located at a maximum of ten minutes’ drive from SNIEC. All venues are connected by shuttle buses and are most convenient to reach by public transportation or taxi. Read more »

Astral Media Outdoor’s proposal for Toronto’s 20-year coordinated street furniture contract scored the highest marks out of the three OOH giants bidding for it, and city management is recommending that councillors finalize the agreement. The contract will give one company control over ads on thousands of transit shelters, garbage and recycling bins, newspaper boxes, bike racks and public washrooms.

Last week, a staff report from deputy city manager Richard Butts urged the city to sign an agreement before the current transit shelter contract expires on August 31. It would require Astral Media to deliver three fully-functional prototypes of its designs before the end of 2007. The executive committee is expected to consider staff’s recommendations on April 30, after which councillors will vote on it. Read more »

As Mother’s Day quickly approaches, families everywhere are searching to find a truly special and unique gift. This year, why not get the whole family involved in surprising Mom with a beautiful piece of quality furniture? The gift of furniture is a unique and distinctive way to create a family heirloom that she is sure to cherish for years to come.

The allure of real wood furniture is becoming more wide-spread, according to the Unfinished Furniture Association (UFA), an international group of manufacturers and retailers who specialize in real wood, ready-to-finish furniture. UFA is the sole certifying authority for the unfinished furniture industry. Its designated Real Wood Furniture Finished Your Way(R) certification is awarded only to retailers who meet high standards of quality.

When you want to honor a special mother, personalized furniture is the ultimate token. It is functional, beautiful, and will quickly become a part of your family’s unique history. Read more »

Beautifully-crafted garden benches and bird boxes catch the eyes of shoppers strolling along Newland Avenue in the sunshine.

The craftsmanship belies the price tags, causing many to stop to admire the work before heading inside the shop.

For a bargain price of £55, you can snap up a three-seater garden bench. Cube-shaped planters start at £8 while bird boxes cost the pocket money price of just £2, a fraction of the amount charged in DIY stores and garden centres.

If that’s not enough of a pull, the goods outside Recycling Unlimited have been made from reclaimed timber, broken furniture or old pallets, restored and brought back to life by a team of volunteers.

Unlike media-savvy supermarket chains and major companies, who herald the tiniest of environmental moves, Peter Rowson, of Recycling Unlimited, is quiet and unassuming about its ethos.

“We want to look after the environment,” he said. “We don’t think people should be burying so much stuff into the ground for future generations to live with.”

As well as helping the environment by preventing the discarded wood being sent to landfill sites, every piece has been made by long-term unemployed or people recovering from mental health problems such as depression. Read more »

Kacey Fine Furniture (www.kacey.com) is proud to announce the launch of a monthly series of full color catalogs to showcase their broad selection of superbly crafted Colorado furniture collections designed for every room in the home. These catalogs will feature the top collections and newest designs in bedrooms, dining rooms, and living rooms from the world’s finest and most respected brands.

Consumers will be able to view a variety of design styles, including modern, contemporary, Old World, country, traditional, European Classic, and Rustic, and all collections reflect the best craftsmanship and materials. Pricing information will also be included on all items in the catalog so that customers can easily compare the exceptional values that Kacey Fine Furniture offers.

Kacey Fine Furniture is known for their outstanding customer service as well as their top of the line furnishings. The store is family owned and is currently run by Leslie Fishbein. Leslie takes pride in being involved in the day to day operations of the store and says, “Our customers are very important to us. Hundreds of plans are on file that showcase how the individual needs of customers have been satisfied by taking advantage of Kacey Fine Furniture’s free design services.” Read more »

Just because there is a teacher at the front of the room does not mean a room is a good learning environment. Even the ideal teacher can only do so much to enlighten and help students minds grow if the desks, chairs and other classroom furniture are poorly designed and utilized.

Many ignore the importance of good furniture in the classroom, thinking it is just a place for students to study and learn. But consider this is where students are spending many hours every day. This is essentially their office and needs to be set up in a manner that will foster productivity and creativity as much as today’s office buildings.

For this reason the furniture selected for students to sit in is important in creating a successful learning environment. Classrooms should not all be alike. After all they all have different purposes. Some need to be a serious down to work environment, some need to have an open communicative environment, and others need to foster creative output. Read more »

Furniture Brands International Inc. gained breathing room in its covenants with bondholders and creditors by agreeing to put up some property as collateral, according to a regulatory filing Thursday. The company also said in the filing that it had reduced the base salary of Chairman and CEO W.G. “Mickey” Holliman.

In exchange for modifying the debt covenants to loosen restrictions on its required debt-to-earnings ratio, Furniture Brands put up as collateral its personal property, including accounts receivables, cash, inventory and intangible goodwill. The deal was reached Monday and announced Thursday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Read more »