Official Blog of Gallery Furniture's Mattress Mack of Houston, TX

They Make More than Ice Cream near Brenham, Texas... Introducing Hand-Made Cedar Furniture Direct to Gallery Furniture

Texas is known for a lot of things -- cowboys, hills and lakes, Texas A&M, beaches, the University of Texas, the oil industry, and college football.  Something many folks don't know is that Texas also has fine hand-made furniture, like the beautiful cedar pieces from the workshop of Dale Dickinson and his sales representative Jerry Ordner in Brenham, Texas.

From a fine little shop known as Texas Cedar Works, these two folks have teamed up to bring their skills and talents to Gallery Furniture, and Gallery Furniture is certainly proud to feature their work.  Gallery Furniture knows that are times when there isn't enough hand-made furniture in the store, yet it's always in demand. 

Clockwise from top left: It all starts with Texas Cedar... A table being made for Gallery Furniture, hand made in the Texas Size... owner and craftsman Dale from Texas Cedar Works stops to pose... Another finished Texas Cedar Works Table for Gallery Furniture.  Click on any image above for full size.

Dale uses the natural grain and the texture of the cedar istelf to enhance their furniture.  No piece is identical to another.  Here's an example:  What do you see in this table's top?

Above: A pair of cat's eyes?  A butterfly? The split log mirror technique lets mother nature design the pattern - and lets your imagination roam as free as the Texas plains.

Whether you see a face, a butterfly, or something else, the patterns in the wood make each table unique.

The cedar comes from the Texas Hill Country.  After it is cured, the wood is cut into planks and posts.  Sometimes when a log is split, the grain and knots in the wood are cut in half, giving two pieces that are mirror images of each other.  When you put those mirror images together, you get a pattern like the one of the picture above.

Left: A Coffee Table the Size of Texas... Right: Texas-sized Sofa Table!

There are no screws or nails in the furniture Dale and Jerry make (and sell) at Texas Cedar Works.  The only ingredients are wood, oil, glue, and Texas-style craftsmanship.  For example, Dale hand sands the tops with 600-grit sand paper - you read that right folks, Dale Dickinson painstakingly hand-sands these gorgeous pieces.  Only a Texan would do that.

Gallery Furniture reminds customers that any cedar furniture should not be exposed to direct sunlight for any length of time, or you will discolor the finish and wood over time.    

Below - watch the videos with furniture representative Jerry Ordner of Texas Cedar Works...

Gallery Furniture Market Report: Welcome Signature Home Furnishings

Part Three

Recently Gallery Furniture sent over the Gallery Furniture High Point Furniture Market Team over to High Point, North Carolina, to find new sources of furniture and pass the savings along to our Gallery Furniture customers.  Here's a report from the field from Ted and Gil over in North Carolina:

"Mack, greetings from beautiful North Carolina.  We just signed a deal with Signatgure Home Furnishings of Cerrito, California and they will be sending the paperwork over tonight for some of their beautiful line of traditional style home furniture - Gallery Furniture customers will not only love the prices, but they will love the style of this gorgeous furniture ready for their Houston bedroom, living room, theater room, and home office." -Ted and Gil

Signature Home Furniture comes to Gallery Furniture

That was quick, looks like my Gallery Furniture High Point Furniture Market Team already struck a deal and got things finished quickly.  We truly believe in TODAY here at Gallery Furniture, and it shows in everything we do - whether it is getting you to bed on your lovely Tempur-Pedic the same night or getting that new youth bedroom collection in your home the day you bought it, Gallery Furniture works hard to save you money. 

Keep up the good work, Ted!

Live From High Point, NC - The Gallery Furniture Market Report... Meet Icovia

Part Two

Recently, I sent out the Gallery Furniture High Point Furniture Market Team to High Point, NC for a variety of reasons - most of all to find out how Gallery Furniture can not only save you money, but also for how to come up with new and innovative uses of our great website, www.GalleryFurniture.com - so that all visitors can truly make their Houston house a home.

Here's an entry from one of the Marketing and Internet Division boys, Gil, live from the 12th Floor of the International Home Furnishings Center in beautiful High Point, North Carolina...

"Thanks Mack, wow - I wanted to stress a new feature coming soon to GalleryFurniture.com on the horizon - a space planner by the hyper intelligent and super creative team at Icovia (now called Icovia 20/20).  Turns out as I was attending a seminar on 3-Dimensional Visualization technology for furniture web sites, I ran into our awesome development team at Icovia Software that Hamilton and I have been coordinating with.

Icovia is working hard to make sure that they do things the Gallery Furniture way - and they have gone the extra mile in their new software and added a special bonus for us so that Houstonians can not only plan their furniture space online, they can also drop a rug from Fred the Rug Man onto the floor plan.  It also turns out we will be one of the first to roll out the newest version of the Icovia Room Planner software - folks visiting www.GalleryFurniture.com will be able to easily make their room happen and add tile and floor color to the room plan as well as pull item information sheets. 

They did a projector show for me of the new software they have demo-ing for us - and Mack, I gotta tell you, I am highly impressed.  It's better than anything else on the market currently, and we'll have a site that will allow all visitors to truly enhance their home and plan ahead before they buy with measurements, home furniture orientation, and so on.  I am truly excited for the opportunities afforded our web site visitors once we launch the new Icovia Space Planner with the extra Gallery Furniture add-ons that Icovia is designing for the Gallery Furniture faithful."

Wow, now that is good news.  I am glad folks from the Gallery Furniture High Point Furniture Market Team will all see this lovely piece of software and note the benefits of this software for our customers.  Gallery Furniture has been in business for over 27 years here in Houston, and our history of saving you money, same day delivery of Tempur-Pedic and Hastens mattresses, and our commitment to excellence is second to none.  To this, Gallery Furniture adds the value of being a technological leader - it's how Gallery Furniture has been doing what it has been for the first 27 years, and what we will continue to do for the next 27 years.

It's Off to Market We Go!

It's been some time since Gallery Furniture of Houston - your leader in bringing you amazing deals on high-quality furniture for all parts of your beautiful Houston area home - did a blog on what was happening at the High Point Furniture Market.  I sent one of the Marketing & Internet boys from Gallery Furniture along for a whirlwind adventure, and here's Gil's first entry as he ends day one of his market adventure!

"Thanks, Mack!  Well, I am happy to report that the plane flight went with no turbulence and no incidents, we had a very nice flight over to Raleigh and then a cab up to High Point, North Carolina.  I flew up with Gallery Furniture Interior Designer John Brown and Gallery Furniture Inventory Specialist Martha Kolo.  We enjoyed long conversations about how we were going to look for new and innovative furniture that would save Houstonians money and look great in their Houston homes.  We were set to meet buyers Ted Goldman and Chris Etheridge as part of the advance team that went out to High Point.

Last night's food was a new treat - Steak and Shakes of North Carolina is a fun little 24 hour joint down the road from our hotel.  They have real steak burgers and milkshakes unlike any other - and after the heavily lay-overed flight, my evening dinner (while a cholestorol nightmare) was quite filling.

Pictured above, the Dinner of Champions.

I think a lot of folks, Mack, are unaware of the ballet of organized chaos that is the orchestral movements of the Furniture Market - the wide array of manufacturers peddling their wares, to the voluminous amounts of information available from the Educational Seminars make the entirety of the experience one to behold.  There are innovative programs - l like the HGTV Preferred Partner Program - to software companies like Icovia who make room planning software for folks like us, all here and ready to enjoy.  I immersed myself in a ton of seminars today, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

It ain't a lecture as long as you're learning!

Gallery Furniture's www.GalleryFurniture.com has come a long way, and it is clear we have a long way to go - and learning about some new and innovative ideas that are coming down the pipeline as well on industry trends means that we can grow by leaps and bounds.

I have some more stuff to cover, Mack, and I will be getting all of our wonderful Gallery Furniture customers some more updates as to what is going on at the High Point Furniture Market - Mack, we are working hard to save our local area residents money!"

Good to see the Gallery Furniture High Point Market Team getting the best they can out of the many days at Furniture Market.  Gallery Furniture is committed to not only saving you money and delivering today, but also to find the latest fashion trends for your home and also staying ahead of the industry curve.  That is why Gallery Furniture sends staff members to seek great deals, and also to educational and interior design seminars.  We'll see what else they report from High Point, North Carolina.

Make Gallery Furniture Your Destination

When sisters get together to go somewhere, you don't usually think of a furniture store as a must-see destination.  But for a group of sisters and sisters-in-law who get together in Houston from different places, Gallery Furniture has become a featured stop on their itinerary.

Here they are -- Darlene, Sharon, Joan, Barbara, Regina, and Kayla.

They came to the store to look at the memorabilia, to get decorating ideas, and of course to shop for furniture! 

I'm happy to report they had a great time shopping with the assistance of Gallery staff Craig, Marcus, and Anthony.  In fact everyone of them found something they just had to have!

As they were leaving, these sisters said on their next visit to Houston they would be back with a much larger vehicle to haul their prize purchases away.

I can't wait!

Just as the sisters found, Houston knows Gallery Furniture is a great place to shop, with great buys on great furniture for everybody.  Isn't it time you put Gallery Furniture on your itinerary?