Smulekoff’s was hopping last Saturday night when the jolly man came to visit us and to greet all of the children.  After he appeared in the Fire and Ice Holiday Parade through downtown Cedar Rapids, Santa came to the store to visit with the children.

Nearly 100 families came to the store to see Santa and to say hello to the reindeer outside.  Santa brought along Mrs. Claus, two of his reindeer and several of his faithful elves.  As you might imagine, it was a busy place on first floor as the children climbed up on Santa’s knee to whisper in his ear that special something that they wanted him to bring on Christmas Eve.

We also had the pleasure of listening to the chorus from Washington High School as they shared some carols.  The Grinch was on the TVs and in another corner some of the children were listening to stories.  It was clear the holiday season has arrived.

And now the snow has arrived as well.  It is officially Christmas time.

Enjoy.

It is time to talk about mattresses again. It is time to talk about what to do when it is time to buy a new mattress. I know – no one likes to do that. It is amazing how long we will put up with an old bed that just doesn’t give us a good night’s sleep anymore. I swear going to the bedding store ranks right up there with going to the dentist. Well let’s see if I can make that a little easier.

First of all – when do you need a new mattress? Well, the real question you need to ask yourself is, how are you sleeping? Do you wake up refreshed and ready for the day? Or do you wake up feeling like someone beat you up during the night? Okay, no spouse jokes now.

If you aren’t getting a good night’s sleep – you must consider that your mattress just isn’t doing it’s job anymore. It may be old and worn out or it might just be that what was right for you when you bought it isn’t right for you now. Remember that it isn’t just the bed that got older – so did your body. I know that I am not physically the same person I was even five years ago. If Clinton was the president when you bought your last mattress – it’s time for a new one.

Here are some good tips to make shopping for a new mattress easy.

(blatantly stolen from King Koil).

1) Once you have realized you need a new mattress, do your research. Mattresses have probably changed drastically since you last shopped, so bring yourself up to speed. Good sources of information include the Internet, manufacturer Web sites, trusted friends and family, and the newspaper.

2) Look for sales. Mattress retailers typically advertise in the newspaper or direct mail.

3) Once you have decided on a store or stores to visit, have an idea of what you would like to spend beforehand. This will help you and the sales associate find the best mattress for your money.

4) When you visit, wear comfortable clothing.

5) Make yourself at home on the mattresses. Try every sleep position you go through in a typical night. Take your time and ask the sales associate to give you a minute if need be.

6) Try mattresses with different tops and different materials, as the feels and support levels differ.

7) Feel free to ask any question of the sales associate.

Try and narrow your selection down to two or three beds. More choices than that will be confusing.

9) Once you decide on a mattress, your retailer will arrange delivery and removal for you.

I hope, when you get to number 3, that you will put Smulekoff’s on your list of stores to visit. We have over 40 mattresses on display and a staff that can help you find the right one. If you are not sleeping well, it is time to do something about it. Don’t put it off any longer – you are paying too great a price.

The Hawks finally lost – bummer. But it has been a great autumn anyway.

Enjoy the coming holidays.

It is easy to forget what happened last summer.  It has been 16 months since we were flooded. But the recovery is still going on downtown.  One of the little known consequences of the flood was that many of the downtown buildings have been without heat.  Most of the old buildings downtown relied upon Alliant to supply the steam to heat our stores.  Unfortunately Alliant lost their steam generating facility in the flood.  They were great last winter to bring in a temporary generator to provide steam for the downtown buildings but they just couldn’t afford to continue that as a long term solution.

That meant that all of us had to install our own boilers to heat the buildings.  Well folks, that isn’t an easy thing to do.  We had to cut a hole in the floor of the back dock and the heating engineers had to lower the boiler into the basement.  Those things are way too heavy to use even our sturdy service elevator.  Now they are working in the basement, assembling the system.  I was told we are not alone – that 36 buildings are going through the same process this fall.  Hopefully we will have everything online before the snow flies.

The next time one of your friends asks how the recovery is going – just tell them that it is a work in progress but progress is being made.

It’s Haloween tonight and the Hawkeyes won today.  Life is good.

Enjoy.

Kincaid Custom Select Upholstery

There is excitement again on the third floor.  We have a new custom upholstery collection from Kincaid and it looks good.  We have shown the wonderful Kincaid wood furniture for quite a while now but the upholstery is a new addition.

This is truly a design your own program.  You pick your arm style, size, back cushion and base to create the silhouette.  Choose from over 600 high quality fabrics to bring your livingroom to life. .  Then you can fine tune the ride with a choice of 4 different seat cushion options.  Combine that with mortise and tenon frame construction; an eight-way hand-tied coil suspension and fully padded frames all around and you have the opportunity to create the sofa of your dreams.  The Kincaid upholstery shop is designed to tailor furniture to each individual order.

We think this will be an excellent addition to our collection of fine custom designed furniture made for you in America.

It snowed yesterday, looks like we may have an early winter.  Yech.  Oh well, just another excuse to spend time at home where it is warm.

Enjoy.

We have another new addition to our Broyhill Gallery on fourth floor.  Please welcome the Bentley Square collection of bedroom furniture.

Poster beds have always been a personal favorite of mine but they don’t seem to look good in a smaller bedroom.  To my eyes anyway – they seem to over power the room and make it feel even smaller.  But I like what Broyhill has done here.  This design has enough size to give you the impact that you want from a poster bed but it isn’t so large that it invades the room.  Very well done.

This is a very nice blend of solids and veneers finished in a walnut tone.  I also found the English dovetailed joinery that I have come to expect from Broyhill casegoods and the wood-on-wood center glides in the drawers.  Broyhill is really stepping up their construction to give you excellent quality at a very reasonable price.

There will be many more new designs arriving in the coming weeks.  I’ll do my best to keep you up-to-date but it is always best to just come in and see what is going on.  With four floors to fill, we always have something new.

Enjoy.

We have a new bedroom group from Broyhill to show you  up on the 4th floor.  It is the Nouvelle group.

This is an update of the very popular Louis Phillippe style of bedroom group.  Broyhill has taken what can be a very simple design and given it some class.  The headboard has a very well done  arched top rail and they have softened the transition into the side rails.  This whole collection is done in cherry finished  solids and  veneers and I like how they have allowed the grain patterns to be a feature in the headboard and footboard.

I took a look at the case pieces and was very pleased.  I found English dovetailed joints for durability and  wood-on-wood center glides in the drawers for support.  If you are like me and tend to over stuff your drawers, this is a nice feature.

This style of bedroom is a personal favorite of mine – heck, I wake up to it every morning.  I am impressed with this update from Broyhill.  They have added some class to what can be a very simple design.

Next time you are in the store I invite you to wonder up to our Broyhill gallery on fourth floor and check it out.  Let me know what you think.

The kids are back in school and football has started.  September is my favorite month of the year.

Enjoy.

Debbie is getting very nervous. It is almost time for the Grand Reopening of the Gifts and Accessories Department. She has been working hard these past few months to get everything in and out and on display. It has to be just right.

The big week will be August 25 – 31.  Debbie will be having all of her in stock gifts and accessories on sale for 20% off.  She has lamps, pictures, throws, vases, candles, tables linenes, and all sorts of fun things that I don’t know what to call them.

So maybe some early Christmas shopping is in order.  Or just brighten up your own home for the fall.

Enjoy.

I have been selling bedding for 20 years now and in that time I have watched as mattress design has trended toward softer and plusher designs.  The “modern” innerspring mattress at least, is now one sided and most have a very soft and plush surface.  Pillow tops are very popular but even a “firm” mattress has about 4″ to 6″ of foams and fiber above the innerspring.

These beds are very popular and for the most part this is what our customers want to purchase.  Let’s face it – if these beds didn’t sell, the mattress companies would make something different.  But some of the side effects of these plush mattress designs are the body impressions that our customers just don’t seem to be willing to accept, and the feeling for some people that you aren’t getting the support that you need.  Throw in the trend that Americans are becoming, shall we say, more substantial, and it looks like the pendulum is starting to swing back.  Comfort Solutions from King Koil has introduced a new line of mattress designed for the larger person who is looking for a more durable (read firmer) mattress.

The XL or eXtended Life Mattress Collection has been specifically designed with long lasting comfort, support and durability in mind.  And folks, they have really beefed up this bed, from the top cover down to the foundation.

The foam comfort layers are the highest density foams available for beds.  The innerspring is a 12 gauge offset coil with the firmest feel in the industry.  And the foundation is a wood box that alone weighs almost 200 lbs.  They have even brought back the old practice of button tufting to keep the upholstery from shifting.

We have two of the models on our floor now.  The entry level is the XL100 and the step up is the XL300. The only real difference is that the XL300 replaces 2″ of the high density foam in the comfort layer with 2″ of Talaly Latex for better pressure relieving support.

I have tried these beds out and King Koil has succeeded in building a very supportive and solid bed that, I think, is still comfortable to sleep upon.  These are very solid beds.  Believe me, you don’t sleep in these beds, you sleep on them – but that is the whole point.  If you are like me and there is more of you now than there used to be – come check out these beds.  They just may be what you are needing.

Take heart, the children will be back in school soon.

Sleep well and as always. . .

ENJOY

There is more leather showing up on the first floor.  This is a new little sofa from Natuzzi.  At just 82″ wide, it would be ideal for your condo or a smaller living room.  Wouldn’t this add a little style to the room?

Now if you have a larger room, this sectional just might fill it up.  With the matching barrell chair, this set would be great in the family room.  Leather is an ideal choice in that setting because it is durable and easy to keep clean.

This one is more to my personal taste.  I really like the track arms with the bumper chaise.

I’ve been a little slow getting these pictures up.  What can I say – it has been busy here at Smulekoff’s.

Enjoy.

The latest Natuzzi shipment has arrived and we are excited. That may sound funny but you have to understand – when you order furniture from an Italian company that is producing the furniture in China – it can take as much as 6 months for the order to arrive.  This stuff is nice – so it is a big deal when we have some back in stock.

Our warehouse staff is still bringing it over and placing it on the floors but I have a couple of pieces to show.  Yes, I’m jumping the gun here, but like I said – we are excited.

This is all Italian leather with the Italian styling that makes Natuzzi so special.  We should be getting the new display put together this week, so come in and check it out.

Enjoy.