by Mary Childress
Days before the grand opening of the new Ashley Furniture Homestore at Southridge Center, designer

Jamie McCormick and others were wheeling grocery carts filled with accessories through the place.

With the help of two designers from the company’s corporate headquarters in Wisconsin and a couple more designers from the Memphis stores, McCormick started at the front of the store placing items that would likely match the theme of the furniture placement.

“After finishing up in the front part of the store, we would push the carts to the outer aisles of the store, finally finishing in the middle,” he said. “As our carts would empty, we’d go back to where we’d put the accessories, load up the carts again and start all over.

“It was kind of like when you’re in a grocery store — up one side and down another.”

The placement of furniture in the newly opened store is designed to look like a typical home arrangement. There are theme areas of casual pieces, country styles, contemporary furniture and more formal or traditional pieces.

Scattered throughout are dining tables of all shapes and sizes, home entertainment centers, desks and armoires for the home office and chairs and sofas to suit any taste.

McCormick has the job of pulling it all together.

“When we walked into this space, it was a shell,” McCormick said. “Corporate had sent blueprints of where they thought furniture placement might fit, and while some of that didn’t work and we had to rearrange it, we had the furniture laid out in 2 1/2 days. It took us another four days to put all the accessories in just the right place.”

With 45,000 square feet of showroom space, there are plenty of furniture styles, rugs, tables, lamps,

accessories, bedding and wall decor to choose from.

“When the area walls were painted, Ashley also included a small label at the lower right corner of each wall that tells the color used, or the wallpaper selected for that space,” McCormick said. “That’s a great Ashley addition to look for, especially if you happen to want to coordinate the color that is shown with the furniture you’re buying.”

McCormick comes to Ashley as the visual merchandiser. He studied art at Marshall University and design at the University of Charleston and recently worked as an interior designer at Boll’s Furniture. In addition, the 49-year old has his own design firm, J.C. McCormick Designs.

His furniture tastes run to antiques and contemporary and he has found plenty of the pieces at Ashley that he loves. “Finding just the right accessory, lamp or bedding that goes with the furniture pieces is the fun part of the job,” he said.

Since he placed all the accessories in the showroom, he immediately knows what’s been moved from one area to another or replaced with another piece as he walks through the space.

“I can tell when something’s been moved,” he said, “or a when someone sat on a bed. Right now it’s driving me crazy. We really do want people to test out the pieces so I know I’ll have to work on that.”

In addition to the high-end furniture and accessories, the store also sells the rugs that complement the furniture placement, art work and wall decor and even has a room set aside for Sealy, Simmons and Sterns & Foster mattresses. The store also offers a line of Ashley high-thread count bedding for sale.

The store does not keep furniture inventory on hand but does have a distribution center in Poca. According to store owner, Bob Young, customers can select the piece they want and can have it in their home in two to three weeks.

Ashley Furniture is the largest furniture manufacturer in the U.S. with showrooms all across the country but this is the first store in West Virginia. While all the furniture is from Ashley, the accessories come from a variety of vendors.

“Sales of leather pieces are a large part of our business,” said McCormick. “We’ve also sold a lot of pub tables, which are higher than the normal dining table and the painted finish pieces are also popular.”

While McCormick stays busy at the store right now, he hopes to offer in-home design work in the future. “Right now, I’m here 14 hours a day and I really don’t have time to leave,” he said. “But we’re working on developing that aspect of the business now.

“We’ve already had several customers come in with fabric swatches and color samples, and we’ve helped them match those to furniture and bedding,” he said.

For families venturing into the store, there’s a treat waiting for the kids and possibly their dads. At the very back of the space, the designers have set up a children’s furniture area with bunk beds for boys and princess-style pieces for girls.

But the fun is found just at the entrance to this area where kids can play all types of games on four flat-screen televisions. “That gives the kids a fun place to sit and play while their parents are shopping the store,” he said.

“When it comes to furniture, we believe we’ve got just about anything in our showroom that anyone would want or need,” McCormick said.

“Our owner said he wanted to make this showroom the most beautiful in the state. That’s what Bob (Young) wanted and that’s what I strived to do.”