HOUSTON — Gallery Furniture here is making a bold move into the high end this weekend with the introduction of a Hastens bedding gallery, where a king-size premium mattress will sell for nearly $50,000.

On top of that, Gallery owner Jim McIngvale said he has negotiated a deal to take over the 8,000-square-foot high-end Kreiss store in the affluent Highland Village neighborhood here on Oct. 1. He’ll also open a 10,000-square-foot Kreiss gallery in his main store later that month or in early November.


“It’s a new frontier, but we’re stepping out,” said McIngvale, whose 90,000-square-foot store here is known for promotional to midpriced furniture and same-day delivery. “Between both lines (Kreiss and Hastens), we hope to do at least an extra $10 million to $15 million the first (full) year.”

Gallery is No. 58 on Furniture/Today’s Top 100 with estimated furniture, bedding and accessories sales of $129.1 million last year.

“Our whole thing is we’re going to stock this furniture and try to do with the high-end the same thing we’ve done with midpriced and what you call promotional. They can buy it today and get it delivered in two hours,” said McIngvale.

He said he got the idea for the Hastens gallery from an ad he saw for the line in Furniture/Today, and promised the gallery will “be the most spectacular bedding showroom in the country.”

Gallery has carved out room in its bedding gallery and has added space for 12 to 13 models from the Sweden-based Hastens, which will range in price from about to $10,000 to nearly $50,000. That includes the Vividus super luxury mattress made by hand with all-natural horsehair, cotton, linen and wool. The manufacturing process takes 150 to 160 hours and according to Hastens, only four people are certified to make the bed.

McIngvale said the product should complement Gallery’s line of upscale Tempur-Pedic bedding. The store did some $6 million in sales with Tempur-Pedic last year and is now the brand’s largest single-store seller, he said.

As for the high-end Kreiss upholstery line, McIngvale said he didn’t know anything about it until he read about the company’s launch this year of the Kreiss collection with tennis stars Andre Agassi and Stefani Graf. McIngvale owns a Houston tennis club, where he has sponsored professional events, and Agassi is his favorite player.

When McIngvale stopped to see the line this summer at the Las Vegas Market, he was impressed. Agassi put in a good word for him and the deal developed from there.

Kreiss is in the midst of expanding its brand through in-store galleries to supplement 20 of its own stores nationwide. The high-end line ranges in style from contemporary to neo traditional. New galleries require an inventory investment of $75,000 to $150,000, Kreiss and CEO Mike Kreiss has said.

While the new Kreiss and Hastens lines will include custom order options that Gallery will offer, McIngvale said he believes the affluent consumer craves the same kind of speedy delivery his more modest consumer base wants. 

“I think all Americans are interested in immediate gratification,” he said. “I don’t know why you can buy a $300,000 automobile and drive away with it, but you have to wait six weeks for furniture.

“We have a lot of wealthy consumers coming into the store now asking if we have better furniture,” he said. “Pretty soon we’ll have the better furniture they’re looking for.”