Outdoor furniture once meant woven plastic folding chairs with hollow aluminum frames.

Or wooden picnic tables. Or white stackable resin chairs.
These days, the trend is to extend a home’s living space outside with furniture fit for Cleopatra - or Hollywood’s elite.

It’s the resort-spa-luxury look brought home to deck, patio or pool.

Richard Frinier talks about it in a column posted on the High Point International Home Furnishings Market Web site, www.highpointmarket.org. Read more »

Bob’s Discount Furniture, Manchester, Conn., will hold a grand opening at its new store in South Attleboro, Mass., next Thursday. The location is the retailer’s seventh store in Massachusetts, and 28th overall.

The South Attleboro store will serve Bristol County, as well as customers in the Pawtucket, R.I., area.

The 10 a.m. grand opening will be followed by a weekend celebration starting Saturday at 10 a.m. President Bob Kaufman will be on hand to greet customers at the grand opening. Read more »

Wicker furniture has been used since the ancient Egyptians, but most of today’s collectors are buying pieces made in the 1800s and 1900s.

In the early 1830s, a Boston grocer named Cyrus Wakefield was watching ships unpacking cargo. Bundles of rattan wrapping were discarded. He thought it might be suitable as a material for furniture, especially chair seats. After experimenting, he developed braided wicker furniture and even had ships import more cane and rattan. His Wakefield Rattan Co. was founded in 1855.

Heywood Brothers, founded in 1861 by Levi Heywood, was the largest chair company in the United States by 1870. The company began making wicker furniture in 1875 using rattan bought from Wakefield. The two companies merged in 1897.

Many styles of wicker furniture were made, including Victorian, Arts and Crafts, and Art Deco. Plant stands, easels, fishbowl-planters, shelves, baby carriages, wheelchairs, cribs and even lamps and lampshades were made. The wicker was shellacked, stained or painted.

Today, collectors pay the highest prices for wicker with elaborate curves and intricate designs. They also favor the unusual.
Clifton Indian ware Read more »

An industry trend to consolidate domestic production in the face of Asian imports has prompted consumer products maker Dorel Industries Inc. (TSX:DII.B) to suspend manufacturing at its Ameriwood furniture plant in Dowagiac, Mich., affecting 170 of 215 employees there.

“The whole industry is shifting product to China and we’re following,” CEO Martin Schwartz said in an interview after the company’s annual meeting Thursday.

The decision was made after developing a supply network in China and improving the efficiencies at two other factories in Cornwall, Ont., and Tiffin, Ohio. Read more »

With a few simple steps, you can keep your outdoor furniture looking fresh and new for years. The American Home Furnishings Alliance offers these care and maintenance tips:

Aluminum frames.

Clean with mild soap and water. Occasionally spray oil lubricant on chair swivels or glides.

Tempered glass tabletops

Clean regularly with a soft cloth, a mild detergent and warm water. Buff dry with a clean, lint-free cloth. Read more »

He’s a record breaker… On Sunday May 13, 2007 Marek Turowski broke the Fastest Furniture Land Speed Record by driving the sofa.com high speed sofa at 92mph. The previous record, 87mph, was set in 1998.

The record attempt was witnessed and verified by a representative of The Guinness Book of World Records and the feat will appear in the next published edition! The record was broken at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome in Lutterworth Leicestershire, on a two mile long 60 metre wide racing straight normally used to test top-secret specialist Ministry of Defence projects.

Footage of the sofa speed record is now available online. Read more »

Leath Furniture is going out of business, according to sales fliers the company mailed to customers this week.

Its store at 107 S. Mall Drive, Normal, will start liquidation sales May 24 and close when inventory is gone, said Roy Hester, an investor in the Atlanta, Ga.-based Leath chain and vice president of sales for liquidator Planned Furniture Promotions Inc.

Rising competition and costs led to the company’s demise, he said.

“It’s kind of a perfect storm of many factors,” Hester said, referring to rising costs associated with moving from downtown locations to suburban areas. Read more »

ChristiaNet.com, the world’s largest Christian portal with twelve million monthly page loads, conducted recent research to find out if readers felt that church furniture could have an impact on church growth. One reader said, “Furniture does not make a church grow, the Holy Spirit does.” However, many readers seem to agree that when the pews are padded and comfortable it could very well encourage people to attend services especially if there are people attending who have difficulty sitting comfortably.

President Bill Cooper, of ChristiaNet commented, “Church furniture can make a difference to a visitor who views the surroundings as inviting and comfortable.” Having a positive experience will encourage visitors to return. Church growth can mean different things to different people but most Christians will most likely agree that being able to sit on comfortable furniture helps them to focus on the service because they are thinking less about themselves and more about what is being said.

Some Believers attend services for the fellowship and to study God’s Word and aren’t concerned with the decor. One reader stated, “Making the flesh comfortable has nothing to do with convicting the heart and bringing it to repentance.” Another reader commented that church furniture isn’t the reason for church growth in large churches where the teaching is “sugar-coating God’s Word” and leaving out the message that causes sinners to repent. This reader feels that many pastors are telling the congregation what they want to hear instead of the message of God’s Word that would change their lives, the revelation of truth that sets people free by being obedient and faithful to the Lord. Read more »

Businesses with Commercial Mortgages are facing the associated costs of furnishing their offices, with new reports indicating an increase in the UK office furniture market.

According to new reports from Research and Markets the market for office furniture in the UK was worth over £908 million in 2005, up by 1.3 per cent on like figures for 2004.

Demand is on track to increase further following an increase in office occupancy last year, leading many businesses to have to furnish their new premises. Read more »

Room & Board, a Minneapolis-based furniture retailer offering unique home furnishings that combine classic, simple design and exceptional quality, is making strides toward a more ecologically-responsible future for the home furnishings industry. As a founding member of the Sustainable Furniture Council (SFC), a consortium of furniture manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and non-profits, Room & Board will help set standards to guide sustainable manufacturing and business practices within the industry. While sustainable standards have already been set in myriad other industries ranging from construction to farming, this is the first such effort in home furnishings.

Environmentally conscious initiatives are fundamental to the core objective of Room & Board, which takes pride in socially responsible relationships and traditions throughout the marketplace. Furthermore, Room & Board appreciates another key aspect of sustainability: quality furniture that is timeless in design and built to last for generations, as exemplified by its Linear Series. Popular for more than 20 years and crafted with solid wood and a natural oil-and-wax finish, the Linear series is both durable in the home and ecologically responsible. Read more »