For the past 56 years, Brumbaugh’s Fine Home Furnishings has represented the gold standard for customers seeking furniture and classic home accessories, not just in this neck o’ the woods, but from coast to coast.
Pretty much whatever you need – be it a sofa/sectional/recliner, a dining ensemble, a bedroom suite, an office desk, carpet, art or the proverbial “more” – you can find it at Brumbaugh’s.
What you’ll also find is a husband/wife tandem that founded the business on Christian principles that put a priority on relationship building. Yes, the product is always top-notch. But Larry and Sally Brumbaugh have made it their mission as the leaders of Brumbaugh’s Fine Home Furnishings to know their customers – and then help them find what they need.
Larry started the company even before he opened the original store in 1966 in the Fort Worth Stockyards. He would sell furniture salvaged from damaged rail cars on the north side of town. That endeavor evolved into a brick-and-mortar operation, which ultimately became a furniture empire.
He and Sally were married 34 years ago, and they’ve been working hand in hand since to see to it that Brumbaugh’s, as Sally says it, “has everything for the home.”
While Larry’s experience helped him become the product expert, Sally runs the day-to-day operations, manages inventory and does most of the designing of the products you see at Brumbaugh’s. That is why you will not see that unique design any place else. She also helps coordinate the store’s marketing efforts. You might have seen a fruit of that labor in last month’s issue of this magazine (it was on the inside cover), but Brumbaugh’s reach spans far beyond the Metroplex.
Realizing that the lion’s share of their clientele has a Western/Southern/Southwestern bent, Sally and Larry began advertising in national publications that cater to that crowd, such as Cowboys & Indians and Garden & Gun magazines. The store now has customers from Palm Springs, Calif., Emerald Isle, N.C., Ruidoso, N.M., South Dakota and Colorado, to name a few locales. Many either pick up the phone, shoot an email with pictures of the home or call to say, basically, “this is what we need.” Larry and Sally do the rest.
“A lot of them have never set foot in the store,” she says. “They just know from experience with us or through word of mouth from people they know who have shopped with us that we are going to take care of them.”
Many of the store’s customers, both locally and from farther reaches, are men who trust her design skills. “Men do not like to go shopping,” she notes. “So when they learn they can get everything they want, they just say, ‘go for it.’”
For the past 22 years, that task has put at her disposal one of the biggest showrooms anywhere, covering 50,000 square feet at Brumbaugh’s store at 11651 Camp Bowie West in Fort Worth. Daughter Elizabeth has become part of the business’ management team. Sally took time away from work to be a stay-at-home mom until Elizabeth went to college at Texas A&M. Now they are reunited as business partners, with the daughter lending valuable insight as a tech-savvy young person to help enhance the Brumbaugh’s brand.
That noted, the message Sally most enjoys spreading is the gospel. She says her longtime involvement in Bible Study Fellowship has enhanced her spiritual walk and helped her meet many friends and mentors who “have helped put me on a path I need to be on.”
Speaking of paths, Sally is an avid hiker who finds solace while communing each day with God. “I have been so blessed,” she says. “It’s nice to be able to just say, ‘thank you.’”
For more: brumbaughs.com
