Quick Summer Style Tips

As summer approaches, schoolchildren count down the days until freedom and parents start planning family trips to the beach or cooler climes. At Bel Furniture, we find no reason at all why your very own home can't serve as a rejuvenating summer sanctuary. Before you leave for this year's summer adventure, try these simple decorating tips that will transform your living space.

Striped Cookouts
Summer weather is perfect for cookouts. You have the grill and you certainly have the friends and family. All you need now is a picnic table and a table cloth that will make your feast pop! Durability doesn't hurt either. To accomplish this, we recommend outfitting your table with a simple painting drop cloth from Lowe's or Home Depot. Paint stripes the color of your choice. We recommend subtle blues. By taking preliminary measurements and marking off sections in painter's tape, your stripes will look neat and uniform.


Natural & Delicate Candles
Our second tip is great for indoor and outdoor entertainment. As you comb the beaches this summer for the perfect shell, be on the lookout for ones that can serve as candle holders. Once you have washed off your shells in a solution of bleach and water, you may choose to either melt candles you already have-or paraffin wax-in a double boiler. Simply pour the wax into your shells and be sure to secure a metal wick holder at the bottom. It will cool and harden in about 30 minutes. If the shell is too wobbly for the wax to cool uniformly, we suggest placing it on top of water glass, where it can rest evenly.

A Live Centerpiece
These shell candles make a wonderful addition to the dining room table. Kick it up a notch by including a live, miniature herb garden as the centerpiece. This will not only add fresh aromas to the atmosphere, but will encourage conversation. You may even pluck fresh herbs right off the stems and branches to add flavor to salads, entrées, or desserts. When you're not entertaining, the herbs are easily transportable back to the porch or garden.


Are You Stumped?
Our fourth tip is equally as earthy as the fresh herb garden centerpiece. Add a little fun variation to your interior décor by incorporating a table made from a stump of wood. If you are feeling particularly ambitious, we encourage you to try making one yourself. For step-by-step instructions, see this enlightening blog by "17 Apart." After several rounds of sanding, applications of "Wood Juice" and satin spraying (and more sanding), this stump table was given a final top coat and little legs to stand on. We think a trio of stump tables would look great together even without legs.


Pillows, Pillows, Pillows!
Our fifth and final tip this week is easy enough. It involves a keen eye for design. Transform the ideal summer space like the front porch, stairway nook, or sun room into a haven of comfort and luxury by adding plush and brightly colored throw pillows. The image featured to the right is of a sun room with pastel-colored walls and rugged, wooden floorboards. All of the textures are working in harmony to create a summery artistic space. You can never go overboard with too many pillows if you are working with an unconventional piece like the makeshift couch in this image.

Final Words
If you have more interior or exterior décor tips that are perfect for the summer, we would love to hear from you! Simply comment on this post below or send us a message on any of our social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to featuring more tips like these five throughout the summer season. Additionally, we'll be announcing some amazing giveaways, so stay tuned!   

Perfect Summer Pairings

Here at Bel Furniture, we must admit that we are in total lounge mode as the spring season winds down and the hot summer approaches. It’s a good thing we’re surrounded by comfy furniture sets all day long because the only way to beat the heat is to stay indoors where it’s cool and cozy. While the official start of summer is still over a month away, we've already thought of the perfect snack and furniture pairings. Bear with us. This may make your mouth water.

First up (above), we have a decadent dish of Balsamic Honey-Pulled Sliders. The smoky flavors of pork and the light, sweet taste of honey is topped off with a sprinkling of coleslaw and radishes. These tasty burgers are best eaten at our Tuscano marble top bar, which features Italian leather inlays and two bar stools.

Our second pairing features homemade ice cream with divine chocolate flakes and a savory berry sauce. To appreciate this cool treat, we suggest trying it in front of the big screen while you watch your favorite film and relax on our 3-piece Home Theater Set. Covered with top grain leather, each seat luxuriously reclines and has a beverage holder.

Perfect for the summer, our third and final pairing is succulent, wholesome and flavorful. Dine on shrimp skewers marinated in orange juice and served with a refreshing side of zucchini. Enjoy this with the whole family atop our stylish Butterfly leaf table. Burnished edges, sleek upholstery and a dark cherry finish make this a unique piece. Check back in for more perfect pairings next week! 

Our Day at the Houston Food Bank

As a company with roots right here in Houston, TX, we strive to support the local communities that have  helped make our business a success. Recently, Bel Furniture was pleased to spend a Saturday volunteering at the Houston Food Bank, a wonderful organization that serves 18 southeast Texas counties. Each week, their mission is to feed at least 137,000 people. As our General Manager, Coleman Callahan, stated in a recent press release, "The Houston Food Bank is an organization that is very dear to our hearts" and we are always honored to help them reach their goal.

Many of the families in Houston, including loyal Bel customers, struggle to survive on incomes that are below the Federal poverty level. The majority of these hardworking families have young children and find it difficult to make ends meet. As a father, the President of Bel Furniture, Sid Mollai, was more than happy to help unload and store frozen food and organize care packages with members of his family and employee team. To show his gratitude and support for Houston families, he regularly contributes to charitable organizations like Pathway of Del Rio and the San Antonio Food Bank.

As the fastest growing furniture retailer in Texas, Bel Furniture can make a real difference in the lives of its community members. Their day of volunteering at the Houston Food Bank followed their sponsorship of the 2013 International Festival of Fort Bend, an additional volunteer day with the San Antonio Food Bank and a successful "12 Days of BELieving" during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons of last year. To learn more about Bel's charity work, please visit their website or follow them on Facebook.

Our Price Match Promise Debuts

Spring is well underway in Texas. The flowers are blooming, the rain is (occasionally) falling, and the Bel family debuts a new price match promise designed to give customers a comfortable, inspiring, and hassle-free shopping experience. Whether you need to furnish a new home or want to elevate the elegance of an existing home, our "120 Day Bel Price Guarantee" has you covered.

To celebrate this historic moment for Bel Furniture, we recently launched our "120 Day Sale" that will run through the end of April, giving our valued customers a chance to shop our latest inventory ready for immediate delivery. The shopping experience is even more relaxed than ever before. If you see a living room set you absolutely love, we want you to feel comfortable purchasing right then and there without worrying about competitor prices. Our new motto: Love it now? Buy it now. Compare prices later!

When luxury and style wow you, feel confident in your decision knowing that Bel Furniture will match the lowest price you find for up to 120 whole days after your purchase. We stand behind the quality and pricing of our home furnishings and accessories. But more importantly, we stand behind our customers.

In addition to the Bel Price Guarantee,our customers will enjoy 0% Interest until 2016. The home of your dreams is entirely possible with the help of Bel Furniture, where comfort and quality meet. If you have recently made a purchase at any Bel store location, we would love to hear about your experience. Please share you thoughts (and photos) with us on any of our social media channels:

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April Fool the Furniture

Those of you who are busy working mothers and fathers may be pressed for time to pull of a really memorable April Fools' prank. While pranks at the office or work are certainly good for morale and a little midday entertainment, they're not quite as satisfying as one that fools your kids, partner, or other family members. Originating from the Medieval celebration, "Feast of Fools," April Fools' Day is enjoyed by countless countries who all get in on this national day of jokes and hoaxes. At Bel Furniture, we love a practical joke that's both harmless and memorable.

One great prank to play on your kids and partner (there's still time!) is short sheeting their beds. When this simple prank is pulled off correctly, the bed appears to be normally made. But when the unlucky person tries to get in and settle down for the night, they discover that they can't even get their legs in. For a step-by-step short sheeting guide, click here. And, while we're on the topic of beds, how would you feel if you started to get ready for sleep and discovered a "hamburger" instead of a bed?

They kids would probably love a hamburger bed, but we're not so sure your partner would. If short sheeting isn't enough to satisfy your April Fools' hunger, we have yet another tip. Changing out the drawer knobs of dressers and night stands, or swapping the knob on a closet door is an easy prank you can do in literally minutes. Change them out in the kitchen to throw off your husband's routine in the morning, change them in the bathroom to shock your wife or teenage daughter, or simply replace every single dresser drawer knob with substitutes the little ones will love. We love this example:

Sometimes, altering a person's routine just enough to make them run late or irritate them, is enough for a triumphant joke. Keeping in mind that we want our April Fools' prank to be lighthearted, we thought of a few ways to "play" with our loved ones' routines:

• Put the shampoo in the conditioner bottle and the conditioner in the shampoo bottle
• Hide the left shoe of every pair around the house
• Re-park the car in a different spot that is further away
• Move the sprinklers closer to the front door and walkway
• Put the salt in the sugar bowl for a "unique" cup of coffee
• Rearrange the items in any single room

Chances are, your April Fools' victim will fee so discombobulated, they may not even realize they are part of a larger prank. If this seems too elaborate, you can always "April Fools" the dog!

Our last April Fools' tip is to take advantage of the lovely spring weather and move your prank outdoors. If you are lucky enough to have decent sized hedges and other low-growing foliage, we have the perfect joke for you. Warning: this may require waking up a littler earlier next year with a pair of shears. The hedge below has been shaped to look like a sofa, but we think the shape can be a little more elaborate and silly. How about a giraffe? Or, a "portrait" of your wife, husband, or child? If you have any hedge suggestions, we'd love to hear from you! Simply leave a comment for Bel Furniture below.

It’s our 11 Year Anniversary!

This month, we’re celebrating 11 years of comfort, quality, and style. Since 2002, our local, family-owned and operated company has been providing Texas communities with affordable and high-quality home furnishings and accessories. Because our founding principle is “people-centered service,” we’re celebrating our success from now until April 2^nd by rewarding our wonderful customers with unprecedented savings and unbelievable prizes.

In addition to interest free financing until 2018 (terms and conditions apply), our valued customers will save an extra 20% off all Living Rooms, Dining Rooms, and Bedrooms. We continue to meet our goals and wish this for our customers, too, when it comes to their dream home. We want them to feel confident knowing that they are getting the most for their dollar. For that reason, we've started our “120 Day Bel Price Guarantee,” which allows our customers to purchase the furniture set or item they love when they see it and worry about prices later. If you find a better price somewhere else within 120 days (please see our website as terms and conditions do apply), we will match it. After all, shopping should be stress-free.

In addition to buying what they love when the y love it, we’re giving away some pretty sweet doorbusters to our customers this month:

We’re also excited to give away a free Samsung Android Tablet with select mattress purchases and encourage everyone to check our website for details! You could be lounging like a king, surfing the Internet the very same day you make your mattress purchase. We guarantee it.

As a part of our customer appreciation this month, we've also decided to reward those fans who are following us on Twitter. Each week (almost every day), we’ll be tweeting exclusive codes that save customers 30% on select items. All they have to do is enter the code during their online checkout. To keep it exclusive, we only share these codes with Twitter fans, so be sure to start following today! 

Happy International Women’s Day!

Our Home Luxuries & Accessories Perfect for Women’s Comfort

In honor of International Women’s Day and all our wonderful female customers who come into our stores searching for the perfect sofa sectional for the whole family, the comfiest mattress for the best price, or the dining table that will seat everyone plus visitors during the holidays, we have compiled a sample of the home furnishings and accessories designed with women’s taste and comfort in mind.

We understand that at its very core, International Women’s Day is about the female right to work. And, it is a woman’s right to do so in fair working conditions with proper compensation in a manner that is open, organized, and 100% legal.

For all of the hard-working women out there—whether their job entails manual labor, intellectual rigor, raising children, or all (or some) of the above—we have the perfect bedroom set to come home to after a long day.

The Monte Carlo Bedroom absolutely radiates beauty and style—from its warm silver, pearl finish to its marble tops and finely stitched leather inserts. The Monte Carlo is exclusive, avant-garde, cosmopolitan, and 100% cozy and comfortable.

Occasionally, we know that our female customers' households (or anyone's for that matter) become so full, that surfaces for storage and display can become scarce. Below, we've selected a lovely occasional table set of three that goes well in a formal living room or an informal den.  Find storage and display space on top and below with this trio.

While we’re on the topic of storage (but beautiful storage), we’d like to draw your attention to one of our favorite dining room accessories: a Palais Royal Sideboard. We think our female customers will love this when the time comes to entertain—and impress—guests, or when the serving dishes just won’t fit on the main dining table. 

This sideboard is constructed in the Rococo style and features durable and elegant birch wood, cherry, walnut primavera, elm burl, and maple wood.

To round out our female-friendly home furnishings, we've selected two bold and unique accent chairs. We know that after an arduous day on the job as an employee, a mom, or both, there’s nothing quite like settling down and putting up your feet. 

This first accent chair, made of elegant wood and ornate floral fabric, looks great in the dining room, the living room, or in the bedroom. It’s shapely, solid, and comfy.

The second accent chair, below, is more on the cozy side with its large rounded track arms, sleek attached back, and angled wooden legs. The dessert hues of its design are striking enough to stand out in any room. We dare you not to enjoy the plush cushioning of this ideal seat.