Lafayette-based Home Furniture is expanding

Even in a recession, furniture apparently sells. That’s the premise behind corridor-based Home Furniture’s expansion in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. The company founded in Lake Charles and now headquartered in Lafayette has signed a 10-year lease lease for the old Linens ’N Things building next to the Mall of Louisiana and plans to open its second Baton Rouge store there. Home Furniture President Randy Paul says the 32,400-square-foot store should be open by mid-July, joining its current store on Airline Highway. And in Lafayette, Home Furniture is moving in June from its current home in the old Books-A-Million store into the former Linens ‘N Things site, which will double its square footage. The Linens ‘N Things stores have been vacant since last year, when the company folded. The move comes just three years after Home Furniture added a 450,000 square foot distribution center in Lafayette. The chain posted about $60 million in sales at its seven stores in 2007. It now has two locations each in Lafayette and Baton Rouge, and one each in Lake Charles, Beaumont and Port Arthur.