BASSETT FURNITURE

Home and Garden > Home Furniture and Furnishings

Our rich heritage is a source of great pride for us. It’s a story that goes back to 1902, when furniture making was shifting from local cabinet makers to larger scale production to keep up with the growth of America.

Bassett has about 100 dedicated retail locations in the United States and Puerto Rico. We are passionate about developing fashionable and innovative home furnishings at a great value, as well as providing exceptional customer service every step of the way. Our custom furniture programs make it easy to express your unique sense of style with a variety of options, including upholstery, beds, dining, home storage and home entertainment. No other company provides more custom options than Bassett. We feel furniture expresses something about you, so we want it to be a true reflection of who you are.

If you want to know how it all began, we have to take you back to
the late 1800s in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to an area northwest of Martinsville, Virginia. The Bassett family was running a sawmill that
supplied rail ties for the new Norfolk & Western line that was being built through the family property. In 1892, the rail line was completed and the family began looking for markets for its lumber.

JDBassett.jpgJohn David “J.D.” Bassett was making a good living traveling the countryside selling goods for general stores when he began carrying lumber samples from the mill. He quickly made his first sale of lumber to a coffin company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and returned home with the knowledge of the growing furniture industry and the subsequent demand for raw lumber.


He soon had orders for oak from several furniture companies in North Carolina. He quickly learned that the best markets for Appalachian oak was up north and he made inroads into those markets, providing top quality lumber for furniture makers. “Here I was shipping raw lumber from Henry County (Virginia) to Jamestown, New York, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, where factories converted that lumber into finished furniture to be shipped everywhere, including the South,” J.D. recalled. “It seemed to me that furniture certainly could be made in Henry County at a tremendous advantage.”


Bassett and his brothers laid out a plan, and in 1902 the Bassett Furniture Company was born. At first, the company had about 50 men, from farms and the surrounding hills, and focused on styles made of oak with simple profiles and carved overlays.

By 1917, Company sales reached $1 million. But family members had started new companies that ultimately competed with each other for sales. In 1930, a “house divided” meeting was called and the different companies were incorporated into Bassett Furniture Industries, Inc., in 1931.


The post-war years brought rapid growth as large neighborhoods sprang up quickly around the country. In the early 1960s, the Company bought Prestige Furniture Corp. and added upholstery to its line up and acquired three other companies to expand its bedroom and dining room production.


Furniture markets began to shift in the 1990s and many “mom-and-pop” stores were closed as large store chains with “no-name” furniture were gaining a foothold. Seeing this trend, Bassett opened its first store in 1997. The design was a departure from the compartmentalized rooms of typical furniture stores with little lifestyle merchandising. Since then, the retail store has undergone two updates to keep up with retail trends. The company is pushing to incorporate more technology into its stores, so the store is a continuation of the web experience customers started at home. But with the convenience of technology, we remain committed to providing the best customer service experience in furniture retailing because there is no substitute for a friendly, knowledgeable design consultant to make sure you get exactly the furniture you want.


Today, Bassett remains committed to the early principles of the company … that great quality, stylish furniture does not need to be expensive and should be available to everyone. A visit to one of our stores and you’ll see just how committed we are to that idea.

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