A new furniture store will be locating in Columbus Park Crossing next summer.

Ashley Furniture Homestore will open on Whittlesey Boulevard next to the hhgregg store, the developer said Friday.

“We are excited to bring this first-class furniture component to an already dynamic regional hub of retail opportunity,” said Stella E. Shulman, executive vice president of The Jordan Co. “It will complement the mix of existing stores, offering something for everyone. Columbus Park is attracting people from the neighborhood, from throughout Columbus, and from all across West Georgia and East Alabama.” Read more…

The family of seven burned out of their Fox Street home last week is still looking for a place to live — and furniture to put in it.

Elizabeth Durocher, her husband, Trevor Levitt, and their five children have been staying at her mother’s two-bedroom townhouse just down the street from the burned remnants of their home. It’s crowded, Durocher said, but they’re “making do.”

Donations of food, clothing and some furniture have been gratefully accepted and stored in the building’s parkade but must be removed by Tuesday because of a potential fire hazard.
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The rug cleaning business surely was in its infancy when John S. Van Deusen, in business with his son Oren, established his Carpet Cleaners and Furniture Renovating Works between 1895 and 1901, traveling the streets of Battle Creek in this pioneering mobile unit.

Also, in keeping with the fashions of the day, the firm specialized in feather renovating.

That snazzy new sofa is about to get more expensive.

Because of rising fuel and other raw-material costs, consumers will likely face higher prices for furniture in the coming months.

They will also see more offerings at the high end of the market, say participants who are convened recently in High Point, N.C., at High Point Market, a twice-yearly meeting of the nation’s home-furniture manufacturers, retailers and designers.

That is because more U.S. companies are abandoning the lower and middle-tier to the likes of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Rooms To Go to focus on lucrative luxury customers - and the interior designers they hire.

Manufacturers Laneventure and Bradington-Young both raised most prices this year because of higher foam, spring and metal costs.
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Today, the nation’s fire marshals and victims of furniture fires are launching an awareness campaign meant to pressure the commission to set national fire safety standards for upholstered furniture.

The federal government first reported in 1972 that standards were needed, but efforts by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to adopt enforceable rules have been derailed repeatedly by disagreements among fire safety groups, the furniture industry and commission staff. Read more…

The annual designer showcase at Southport Congregational Church, currently in its 12th year, has as its title “Rooms with a View.”

Truth be told, none of the rooms have an actual view, at least not of the outdoors.

Rather, the event, which opens Thursday and continues through Sunday, highlights the creative points of view of 12 professional interior designers.

The view of which organizers speak is a glimpse into the minds of some of the region’s top designers. It provides a taste of how rooms in a home can be transformed, whether the owners choose to design and execute an interior decorating concept themselves or with the help of a professional.

“The idea is to inspire your imagination and provide a chance to see designers’ work. A few careers have been launched through this event. It really, truly is a celebration of the decorative arts,” said Louise Lancaster-Keim, a committee member. Read more…

We mash them up with butter (and sometimes bourbon) and put marshmallows on them; we sprinkle them with brown sugar and cinnamon; we make pies out of them, and still they are good for us with all that beta carotene.

Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are swollen tuberous roots on plants native to the tropics.

Sweet potatoes are in the same genus as the morning glory (the good one, not bindweed) and have some ornamental cultivars, including dark-leaved ‘Blackie’ and chartreuse-leaved ‘Marguerite.’
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How do you feel about faux animal stripes underfoot? An Oct. 14 Post article detailed some of the many products sporting the now-hot zebra motif - pillows, towels, martini glasses. The beautiful animals’ mixture of wide and narrow black lines must really look wavy - like they’re moving - to anyone sipping a stout vodka martini from a zebra-striped glass.

Zebra accent rugs have been pictured this year in so many shelter magazines that some designers are stepping out of line, so to speak. Articles quote designers on both sides of the decorating fad: those “so over it” because zebra rugs are too popular, and the other group that values “the instant sophistication” a zebra rug adds to the right room, the element of visual surprise, the touch of fun, the symbol of exotic adventures. Think safari with binoculars only; no zebras have to be shot to fuel this fashion underfoot. Cincinnati’s contemporary furniture showrooms have had for years (they’re not new) those zebra accent rugs made to look real. They’re usually stenciled cowhide, so some unfortunate steer, if not an actual zebra, definitely had to commit to the striped product. I’ve always preferred frankly-fake wool rugs in the zebra pattern, not the cowhide rugs cut in a realistic shape with four extended “zebra legs” flat on the floor. Read more…

What makes a home eclectic? Surely, there’s no label of interior design that’s misused more often. Not to worry, Phoenix Suns’ basketball legend Alvan Adams and his wife Sarah are on hand to show the real deal. With their indisputably warm, inviting - and thoroughly eclectic - Paradise Valley home, the Adamses have hoisted the design term onto a pedestal of exquisite taste.

Alvan and Sarah began their home-building project eight years ago, in a neighborhood that allows only traditionally designed houses. True to the rule, their 5,000-square-foot Territorial looks like it’s been there for a long, long time. The effect is intentional. “We lived in Encanto from 1976 through 1996, and we loved the older architecture in that neighborhood,” Alvan said. “That’s one of the reasons we decided to build where we did.” Read more…

Adam and Katja Thom have designed a house that responds to an unusual site

Some things that make Southern Ontario’s countryside beautiful also make many a rural spot a trial to build a house on. I am thinking of the numerous rivers and the countless tiny streams that flow across the rolling landscape, steep water-sculpted slopes and the marshes nestled between tall shoulders of hill.

One common and quite acceptable architectural response to the country’s clefts and rills, of course, is to build above it all, straight out from the crest of the hill, creating a cantilevered overlook above the treetops with impressive views of what’s all around and below. Another approach — more difficult, but potentially just as rewarding to the artistic eye — is to go deep into the green, dealing with the poor soils and high water tables of the bottomlands in order to achieve a pleasing sense of immersion in nature.

I recently came across an example of this latter line of attack that promises to bear exceptionally fine architectural fruit. The imaginative designers of the project are Adam Thom and Katja Aga Sachse Thom, partners in both life and business. Last week, I visited their client’s building site, an irregular swatch of land on a rural edge of Brampton.
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