Paul Burrell named no furniture pieces after Princess Diana, but her influence is everywhere the famous royal’s former butler looks in his collection.

Burrell unveiled his new furniture collection in one of Louisville’s Homearama showcase houses this weekend.

He was a personal attendant to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II for 11 years before becoming personal butler for Diana, Princess of Wales during the five years before her death in a 1997 car accident.

“My old career finished August 31st of 1997 and this is a new world for me,” Burrell, 49, said yesterday, standing in front of some of his cheery pieces in the living room of a house designed by Simpson Builders Inc. “I was lucky to have lived in some of the finest homes in England. I realize now that it was an education for me, an education in style and in manners.” Read more »

Imagine how refreshing it would be if you could change your living room sofa bed into a garden bench, or set up comfortable sofas, lounge chairs, and gazebos in your garden.

Such distinctively innovative furniture designs have played a key role in helping a small Thai interior contractor emerge as a highly distinctive outdoor furniture brand at home and abroad, leaving copycats far behind.

Kenkoon Co, now 17 years old, ships its sophisticated multi-functional and chic furniture products all around the world.

Its stylish designs have brought success, even though some critics argue that its young local talents with degrees from top European design schools have yet to create a brand identity that tops other expensive world brand names.

Mechanun Suansilpong and his brother Manrat, who is in charge of marketing, have steered the family business past obstacles by transforming it from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to a stylish outdoor furniture brand. Read more »

DEMAND for high quality and certified imported sawn timber products will increase significantly in Malaysia and the region, according to a timber expert.

Local wood-based and furniture manufacturers, which traditionally used hardwood and rubber wood timber species as their raw materials, had gradually switched to imported sawn timber like oak and pine over the past three to five years, APP Timber Sdn Bhd managing director Michael Hermens said .

With competition from low-cost producers like China and Vietnam, many local players, particularly furniture makers, are actively improving their product range by manufacturing high-end furniture to capture a bigger export market.

Hermens told StarBiz: “There is also an emerging trend among wood-based furniture makers in Malaysia and Thailand to seek custom-made or cut-to-dimension timber components as they want to fully concentrate on assembling, finishing and marketing the end-products.” Read more »

Consignworks, a specialist in secondary market sales of art, antiques, fine furniture and collectibles, announced that it has opened a warehouse for retail sales to the general public. The grand opening is Saturday, July 28th.

Since 2001, Consignworks has sold a variety of unusual and specialty items on-line, and through dealer channels including art galleries, antique shops, auction houses, and other specialty outlets. They are an eBay PowerSeller and official Trading Assistant.

“We are very excited about opening a showroom to the public,” says Tana Scouras, President. “For years, we sold items using both e-commerce sites and storefront channels such as auction houses, shops, galleries and specialty stores. It was our customers that asked us if we would open a store. So we changed our warehouse to display items for preview and purchase. This works very well for specialty items such as art, rugs and furniture.” Read more »

Everyone from top designers to top models has found success with namesake furniture lines (even Donald Trump lent his name to a new collection). Now, increasing numbers of designers want to get into the action, using show houses to showcase their work.

At the Hampton Designer Showhouse, which opens for tours Sunday, and the 2007 Hamptons Cottages & Gardens Idea House, which opened last week, the designers sprinkled their rooms with pieces from, or intended for, their own product lines.

At the Idea House in Amagansett, Nancy Corzine’s Hollywood-chic media room was awash in neutral fabrics and furniture from the designer’s own collection. “It’s hard to do a room in the basement. You want it to be light and comfortable,” says Corzine, who has showrooms in Manhattan and Los Angeles. So the designer upholstered the walls in her signature line of Ultrasuede fabric and selected a cozy-looking linen velvet couch. Read more »

El Paso’s small-business owners can learn how to do business with the military and sell furniture to the federal government for upcoming Fort Bliss expansion projects during a workshop next week, organizers say.

Representatives from the General Services Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers’ Huntsville, Ala., office will attend the conference Wednesday at the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce’s Downtown office, 10 Civic Center Plaza.

Anyone who sells furniture and wants to learn more about how to do business with the federal government can attend, said Minda Villarreal, vice president of the Greater Chamber’s Business Development Division. Read more »

Louisiana-based Home Furniture Company has been added to the “Top 100 U.S. Furniture Stores” listing by Furniture Today, the leading industry trade journal.

The list is compiled each year and is considered a benchmark for excellence in the furniture business on a national level. This is the first time Home Furniture has been included in the list, which is based on sales of furniture, bedding and accessories.

AFTER NEARLY 130 years in the Bay Area, Oakland’s Gorman & Son Furniture is closing, signaling the end of an era.

“It’s a tough, tough market,” said Chuck Rosenberg, who owns the store with his wife, Andrea. The store, a Berkeley fixture since 1880, moved to Oakland’s Auto Row on Broadway in 2003. The Rosenbergs are shuttering the store, located in the former Saw Mill site, and moving to Florida to be closer to Andrea Rosenberg’s parents.

“Demand for new furniture is way down,” said Chuck Rosenberg, who is retiring, although his wife will seek new employment. “It got to the point where I didn’t feel like fighting any more.”

The store will remain open probably through September to liquidate inventory and to make sure all outstanding orders are filled, Chuck Rosenberg said.

Ron and Marty Sherman, who own the store’s six-story building near Interstate 580, will continue renting the top three stories as live-work lofts and are seeking a retail tenant to replace Gorman in the bottom three stories, Chuck Rosenberg said. Six people work at Gorman, including the Rosenbergs.The $79 billion furniture industry is fighting a slump, with 44 percent of all wood furniture coming from foreign imports. Huge national chain stores such as Heilig-Meyers have bitten the dust, partially because they couldn’t compete with the imports, said Michael Pierce of the National Home Furnishings Association in an interview last year. Read more »

Oak Express ready for relocation from University Drive

Furniture Row and its four specialty stores for home furnishings are coming to Madison.

Furniture Row, which will open Aug. 4, has Oak Express, Bedroom Expressions, Sofa Mart and Denver Mattress Company stores. Based in Denver, Colo., Furniture Row Companies is the parent company to Oak Express and Bedroom Expressions, which are relocating from their former Huntsville address at 4830 University Drive.

“The 53,440 square foot center will bring a unique furniture shopping experience to the area,” said Bill McKendry, marketing director for Furniture Row Companies. “Unlike other furnishings retailers, our centers have four specialty stores at one destination.”

The staff at each store is knowledgeable about their specific lines. “And, best of all, they all guarantee their prices to be the lowest,” McKendry said.

C.R. Crawford Construction of Fayetteville, Ark., is the contractor and received a $3.2 million building permit from the city of Madison. “Furniture Row goes into high-growing areas,” Cody Crawford said. “They saw lots of upsize growth in Madison.” Read more »

FURNITURE industry players in Cebu have decided to formally tap the academe in their efforts to “ride the waves” in maintaining global competitiveness.

The Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. (CFIF), a group of furniture manufacturers and exporters, has formed a partnership with University of San Carlos, the Canadian International Development Agency-funded Private Enterprise Accelerated Resource Linkages (Pearl) 2 Project and the German Development Services (DED) to capitalize on the students’ talents in effective marketing.

The partnership is meant to help keep the furniture industry afloat despite the stiff competition. Read more »