Johnston Casuals 2582L / 2582R Who couldn’t use some versatility in their space? The Encore Contemporary tagre Set, featuring sleek yet functional designs, gives you all of that along with loads of style. With several beautiful glass shelves and many available metal finishes, this contemporary tagre is versatile enough to match any dcor. Individually hand-made in in 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 »

HIGH POINT, N.C. – Large-screen TVs, laptop computers, cell phones and homeowners desiring ambience, innovative styling and smart storage solutions are clearly driving furniture design.

Furniture makers have been challenged to create pieces that meet the desires of the sophisticated, savvy homeowner, and clearly they have managed to deliver with furniture that makes being organized hip and simple without sacrificing style.

At the spring High Point Market, which ended Sunday, multifunctional furniture pieces were as plentiful as the shuttles carrying the thousands of interior designers, buyers and reporters to and from the world’s largest exhibition of residential furnishings.

Several showrooms had at least one new introduction that qualified as a piece doing double or multiple duty. Read more »

Youth furniture is growing up.

It’s hardly a surprise that kids attuned to style and accustomed to choice would expect the same when it comes to furnishing their bedrooms. And manufacturers are giving them what they want – furniture that’s sophisticated and customizable, just like what Mom and Dad demand for themselves.

Robin Campbell, marketing services manager for Young America, Stanley Furniture Co.’s youth furniture brand, attributes the evolution to young people’s increased exposure to design trends.

“I think they’re just more demanding in what they want,” she said. “They know what they want, and they want it now.”

In fact, the youngsters’ taste is one of the biggest influences behind their parents’ purchasing decisions for the children’s rooms, according to a recent survey by the American Home Furnishings Alliance, an association of manufacturers, distributors and suppliers. Taste tied with price is the second most important consideration in buying youth bedroom furniture, behind function. Read more »

Trend-setter Maria Yee is taking home furnishings design to the next level with her latest assortment of handcrafted BambooTimbre(TM) furniture, showcasing an array of intricate forms never before possible in bamboo furniture making.

Yee’s patent-pending BambooTimbre is one of the fastest growing renewable materials made from the finest timber bamboo species — which is simultaneously harder than red oak yet remarkably pliant, enabling the material to be shaped into beautiful forms while promising long-lasting structural integrity. The company’s newest products feature Yee’s signature hand joinery — where not a single nail or screw is used — and detailed lattice work, patterns and structural design that can only be created using BambooTimbre.

“Unlike any other bamboo product, our eco-friendly BambooTimbre is specially developed for producing luxury home furnishings,” said Maria Yee, the company’s namesake founder. “It has many resounding qualities that enable us to accomplish truly innovative designs.”

Yee’s latest “lattice window” design entails flattening strips of bamboo, layering and weaving them in distinct patterns to create a subtle crisscross effect. Another technique — a first in bamboo home products — is Yee’s “striated” design, whereby bamboo pieces of varying color and
thickness are arranged on their side. This strategy changes the “classic” look of bamboo, as the “nodes” or joints of the bamboo become less visible. Read more »

Couture designers Silvano Banfi and Frank Zambrelli have teamed up with upholstery vendor Robin Bruce to create a new line of furniture for introduction at the upcoming High Point Market.

The duo is known for their signature designs for top fashion houses including Judith Leiber, Calvin Klein and Nanette Lepore, as well as their own couture shoe line.

The new furniture line, the Banfi Zambrelli for Robin Bruce collection, will be available at select stores this May. Banfi and Zambrelli will be in the Robin Bruce market showroom Monday through Wednesday, March 26-28. There will be a cocktail reception to meet the designers Tuesday, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Read more »

Another N.C. online furniture seller has been sanctioned by state regulators and a state court. National Furniture of High Point can no longer require upfront payments for orders unless it puts money in an escrow account, places orders within five days and gives a “realistic” delivery time, the N.C. Attorney General’s office said Wednesday after getting a court order against the company. National Furniture also must refund consumers who have not received their orders.Owner Myron Savage, who also was named in the court order, did not return calls from the Observer. Read more »

A High Point furniture distributor accused of taking money up front and not delivering goods when promised is facing a new court order, Attorney General Roy Cooper said today.

On Friday, Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway agreed with Cooper’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop National Furniture of High Point and its owner Myron Savage from deceiving consumers, according to a news release from Cooper.

Under the order, the company is barred from taking up front payments for furniture orders unless they place the money in an escrow account, place the order within five days and give a realistic delivery time that the company either sticks to or allows customers to get a refund.

Cooper is also asking the court to order National Furniture to pay refunds to consumers. Read more »

National Furniture, a distributor based in High Point, has been ordered by a Superior Court judge in Raleigh to stop collecting money from customers upfront and then failing to deliver the promised goods.

According to an announcement from N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, the judge’s order bars National Furniture from taking upfront payments for furniture orders unless the money is placed in an escrow account and the company passes the order through to the manufacturer within five days. The company is also required to give a “realistic delivery time,” after which customers can get refunds if the furniture is not delivered.

National Furniture owner Myron Savage was not immediately available to respond to the order. Read more »

After nearly 60 years, the “going out of business” signs are up at King’s La-Z-Boy Gallery, 116 North E. St., a landmark furniture store in Lompoc.

Owner Thelma King said she entered the furniture business when she married her husband, Jim, in 1963, who owned King’s Furniture at its current location then.

She has worked at the store ever since, but with Jim having passed away two years ago, now is the time to retire.

Her retirement will bring to an end the long history of King’s furniture store. Read more »