Carolina Rustica Blog: June 2011

A Good Nights Sleep is Hard To Find

As a terrible sleeper, I can appreciate (with a dollop of irony) articles promoting a good night's sleep. Although this condition has long eluded me, it is essential to your emotional, mental, and physical well-being. Fortunately you can compensate with exercise, a good diet, and loads of caffeine.

Experts say that most adults need seven to eight hours of sleep each night, but I would argue you can train yourself to live on 6 1/2 hours comfortably. While your ability to sleep can be affected by a number of factors, one of the most important components of a good night's rest is to create a sleep environment that promotes sound sleeping. Always start with the bed itself, and then work your way around the entire sleep space.

How to Create the Perfect Sleep Environment (from Fashion Bed Group)

Evaluate your bedroom environment including lighting, color, and accessories. Is it an oasis - a soothing space conducive to relaxation and indulgent comfort?
Create a calming and personal environment in which you can begin and end each day.
Comfort is the key to getting a good night's sleep. Select a mattress that gives you enough room to move easily - especially if you're sharing your bed.
If your mattress is more than five to seven years old, it may not provide the proper comfort and support needed and you should look at a new purchase
Protect your mattress from unwanted invaders – encase your mattress in a mattress protector to keep dust mites and other microorganisms from invading. This is particularly important with the recent bedbug outbreak.
Choose top-quality pillows to keep your spine properly aligned and to cradle you in comfort. Pillows are designed for different sleeping positions – remember that how a pillow feels when you touch it in the store display is different than how it feels when you rest your head on it.
Make your bed extra inviting and uniquely yours with high-thread-count sheets and a plush bedding ensemble.
Keep your sleep environment dark, quiet, and cool, between 60 degrees and 70 degrees.
Schedule time for sleep. When the quality of your sleep improves, so does your mood and the quality of your life. Tonight's rest helps determine how your tomorrow will be, so it should be at the top of any daily agenda.
Wind down before bed to ease your anxious mind. Take a bath, meditate, or do whatever it takes to relax and wipe away the day's stress.
Is your mind racing while trying to go to sleep? Keep a pad of paper next to your bed and jot down what's on your mind. If you still can't sleep after 20 minutes, get up, go into another room and engage in a calming activity until you feel ready to sleep.
It's one day at a time. Changing your schedule and attitude about sleep requires lifestyle changes, dedication, and practice. Remember that the return on the investment will be a happier, healthier life.

Redesigning our Showroom

We have been discussing our expansion for several months now, and while we fully intend to expand our current location, we've had a great opportunity arise at a High Point furniture venue, Gates on Ward, in the very heart of furnitureland. It going to be exciting, as we are looking at expanding into 7,000 s.f. of space, more than doubling our total square footage! This is in response to both our customers, and our manufacturers, who continually request that we place more product on the floor. With 80+ manufacturers, we can only do so much, so this is a great opportunity to satisfy those demands. So many of our customers want to touch and feel the product, which is completely understandable, but quite a challenge with almost 50,000 products online.

Yesterday, Gary Pigg, one of the owners of Gates on Ward, and Debby C., who helps him manage the place, came by our showroom to start moving inventory over to the new location. We filled up a truck and still barely made a dent on our own floor! Here are some shots of how the floor looks now.

We intend to have complete showrooms at Gates on Ward for Lexington Home Brands, Century Furniture, Bernhardt Furniture, and Hickory White. There will be other pieces there, of course, but we are trying to keep our manufacturers grouped together for customer convenience.

In our Concord, NC location, we will (of course) also have representative samples from those groups, but we will also be focusing on Hooker Furniture, Bradington-Young, Universal (which includes Paula Deen, Better Homes and Gardens, and Pennsylvania House), Schnadig, AICO, and whew! The list goes on.

It is a delicate balancing act when the business is growing. On the one hand, you want to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. On the other hand, we just went through a gut-wrenching recession and its going to be a bumpy ride for the next few years. The reason we are still here is because we are very very careful about our overhead (I never used to admit to being cheap, but these days, its okay to come out of the closet).

We will post pictures of our new High Point showroom as soon as it is filled. Meantime, take a look at our somewhat-chaotic Concord showroom as it looks this morning. I did not take pictures of any staff members because they all run away when I am stalking them with my camera. Just because I post them on our blog, Facebook, and anywhere else for the entire world to see!

Friday, June 17, 2011

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Nothing About Furniture

Those of you who follow us through this blog, or Twitter, or Facebook...know that on many of my posts I talk about personal events of great significance ("I ran this morning"..."My parrot bit me"...etc). While I am always happy to talk about Furniture and Carolina Rustica, since I think it is such a topic, I realize this can be repetitive sometimes. So I won't expostulate about the new, great furniture lines we have brought in recently, or how we are busier than we ever have been in June. What I would like to announce is that we will soon be expanding our retail footprint, doubling it to over 10,000 square feet. This is the first part of a three-part expansion that will make Carolina Rustica one of the largest high-end furniture retailers in the region.

Expanding in an uncertain economy can be scary. We have not truly emerged from the recession, and homeowners are all feeling the pinch. Where the market goes from here is anyone's guess (and don't let them tell you otherwise!). So we feel particularly honored that so many of our great customers have placed their trust in us by continuing to order, again and again, resulting in over a 25% sales increase over last year to date.

We will continue to strive to bring you the best value for our high-end furniture lines that are available today. More importantly (and since I said I wasn't going to talk about furniture) we will continue to work our hardest to exceed your expectations in every way, and live up to the trust you have placed in us. This is the most competitive environment I have ever seen in my 16 years in the business, so earning your business is something we are proud of, and take extremely seriously.

Now, have I ever told you about our new bunny......?

Friday, June 10, 2011

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Lexington Furniture Clearance

Lexington Home Brands is one of our largest and most valued suppliers. We buy into every collection they introduce, and sell this inventory from our website and retail store. Of course, being an 11-year old business, we do build up inventory over time, and now is a great time to be buying some of these closeouts and floor samples at unbelievable prices. Most of these items are free shipping as well. Please call us at 800-205-7819 if you would like more details on any of these great items!