Original Gallery Furniture store fully reopens

On Thursday, Gallery Furniture opened the second and final phase of its renovated North Freeway location, where a fire in May destroyed a warehouse and resulted in heavy water and smoke damage to the showroom.

Gallery Furniture owner Jim McIngvale reopened the store July 4, but this second phase comprises more than two-thirds of the 100,000-square-foot retail space at the North Freeway location.

The remodeled showroom features new sections, including a “build-your-own-sofa factory” where customers can select their preferred fabric, style, color and pillows.

It also has an expanded aviary and a monkey habitat, including two capuchin monkeys named Tidwell and Parker.

Gallery Furniture will typically house four capuchin monkeys. The store has six monkeys in all. Four of them will get their names from a contest.

Asked about the local economy and the furniture market, McIngvale said: “It's picking up a little. It's not what it was three or four years ago, but we'll be fine. Houston is a growth area.”

McIngvale said his fire-related insurance claims have been resolved.

Nationally, the furniture industry is still struggling, said Jerry Epperson, a columnist for Furniture Today, although furniture stores “still have good holidays.”

Texas and much of the Midwest seems to be holding up better than the rest of the U.S., Epperson said.

“Gallery is always going to do well,” he said, partly because the store is creative with merchandising and advertising.

McIngvale described the reopening as “one of the great days in my career.”

In conjunction with the reopening, Gallery Furniture gave out 200 gift certificates worth $500 each.

KHOU-TV broadcast its Great Day Houston show live from the store Thursday morning, complete with a live audience.