The National Furniture Bank Assn. has launched Comfort and Joy, a drive to obtain 25 new sponsors before the end of the year.

Furniture banks are non-profit organizations that collect gently used furniture from the public and the home furnishings industry, then donate it to children and families in need. Typical recipients are women and children escaping domestic violence, victims of natural disasters, and working families living below the poverty line.
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With 20 years of business experience, Lisa Petrella had done just about everything: Climbed the corporate ladder, traveled around the world and ran the marketing end of a $55 million industrial supply company.

So it came as a surprise to some when Petrella quit her job, returned to school and decided to open her own interior design firm. But for Petrella, it was a move that took her working life from predictable to exhilarating.

“I had a career but no time for anything else in my life,” Petrella said. Read more…

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Tuesday inspected for the first time the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) and said she was pleased with its 21st century design and furniture.

The CICC is one of the venues of the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit set on January 10-15.

President Arroyo congratulated Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia for the CICC’s “Cebuano character” which makes it better than the Philippine International convention center (PICC) in Manila and those in Davos, Switzerland and Langkawi in Malaysia. Read more…

Levitz Furniture, a specialty retailer of furniture, bedding and home furnishings, recently opened its new corporate headquarters today in the historic Woolworth Building in downtown Manhattan. The move comes one year after new ownership took over management of the company, implementing an aggressive plan to revitalize one of America’s great retail brands.

The Company, which formerly had its corporate office in Woodbury, N.Y., now occupies the entire 23rd floor (approximately 30,000 square feet) of the Woolworth Building, located at 233 Broadway between Barclay Street and Park Place in downtown Manhattan. The Company maintains a small corporate presence in Woodbury. Read more…

In downtown Half Moon Bay Abode offers fine furnishings with unique artistry. You can find tables and chair sets, lovely ceramics and textiles, and fine finishing touches for the home.

This month, Abode has something else to enhance your home: fine art, with an exhibit by Antioch artist Jason Bowen.

Bowen, who teaches at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, has a collection of about 20 pieces on display on Abode’s walls. Read more…

Construction of Badcock Home Furniture & More on Wesleyan Boulevard is near completion, said James Hudson, owner and president of Greenville-based Hudson Properties East Inc.

Hudson owns the land and store, located adjacent to Colony Tire. He said the store has been leased to Badcock Furniture through Ed Braxton, a furniture dealer in Greenville.

Badcock Furniture is based in Mullberry, Fla., and operates about 400 stores, Hudson said, including locations in Greenville and Wilson. Read more…

Cebu’s officials still need to make the Asean summit ceremonial route more beautiful before next month’s event, but overall, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was impressed with the summit venues here.

The Cebu International Convention Center’s (CICC) modern design and the furniture at the MIP lounge pleased Arroyo, who visited both venues for the first time Tuesday after they were completed last November.

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All of the royal family’s furniture at their residence Stiftsgården in Trondheim will be going into a freezer.

This step is being taken to rid the royal trappings of moths. The first objects to get the deep freeze will be carpets, curtains and chairs with textile coverings, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports.

“We need to reach a temperature of -25C (-13F) at the core of the furniture. Five days in the freezer room is necessary to achieve this,” Oddvar Johnsen from The Directorate of Public Construction and Property in central Norway told NRK.
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Lori Hanks taught preschool for 11 years, but all the while she was working toward a totally different career. Most recently, the Memphis native taught pre-kindergarten classes at Christ Methodist Day School in East Memphis.

But when she wasn’t teaching, she was decorating. In between teaching and decorating she also had some children - three to be exact - ages 8, 14 and 17. She decorated the homes of her friends and family, and finally her husband made a suggestion.

“I had been staying at home with my kids for the past few years,” she said. “My husband and I had been looking for something to invest, and my husband said, ‘Why don’t you do this, you’re doing it anyway.’” Read more…

Whether we like to admit it or not, aging impacts our daily life. For instance, the leading causes of vision impairment in the United States are age-related eye diseases, according to the National Eye Institute. So, if your view of the world is growing fuzzy, it might be time to think about remodeling your home for the future.

A recent AARP study found that nearly 90 percent of adults 50 and older want to stay in their current home and community as they age. Read more…