White Furniture

Bill White, owner of White’s Furniture in Downtown Benton, might not have exactly what his customer is looking for on his 27,000-square-foot showroom floor—but he can get it.

Established nearly 100 years ago, the company has been going strong each decade since.

“We are an old company with our roots going back to 1938,” White said. “We were basically a hardware store and supply company that sold home improvement goods.”

Located at 206 S. Market St. since 1972, the original business sat roughly a block away from the current structure.

It was not until 1949 that White’s father, C.W. White, would join the business to become the sales manager, before purchasing the company in 1965.

“The owner wanted to get into high-end furniture, which was unheard of in the 1940s,” White said. “We had some of the biggest brands in America. A lot of companies that we started with in the 1940s and ’50s, we still carry those brands if they are still around. We lost a couple dozen during Covid.”

White began his journey with the company the day after his father finalized the purchase.

“He bought it on a Friday. I’ll never forget it,” White said. “He got up and got ready for work, and I ran out and got in the car with him. He asked what I was doing, and I told him, ‘You bought the company so I am going to work.’ I’ve been here every Saturday since.”

White was 10 years old at the time.

Specializing in high-end furniture and home decor, White is proud of the business’s success. While White uses many companies for his products, most of the furniture sold at White’s is made in America.

“Taylor King is one of the really popular brands we carry for upper-end, heavy-duty sofas with good-looking fabrics. It is all hand-built in Hickory, North Carolina—one of thirteen or fourteen companies we have in that area making good furniture.”

Sofas, recliners, and other lounge furniture are popular at White’s, but the woodwork offered excels above all.

“Our wood pieces come from all over North Carolina and Virginia, and we get a tremendous amount of furniture out of Ohio,” White said. “Most of the products from there are made by the Amish community. There are a lot of solid wood companies there and we sell a bunch of them.”

White added that the lowest quality pieces available from those companies still come “exceptionally made.”

“With one of the companies, we have had a 500-percent increase in sales this year over last year,” White said. “I thought we did pretty well last year, and we might go even higher by the end of this year.”

While the pieces are exceptionally well built, White said his customers also have many different styles and colors to choose from with most of the items.

“Some groups have twelve different colors items come in,” White said. “For some you can specify what kind of lumber you want, and you might have twelve finishes. One has seventy-five different finishes to choose from.”

At White’s, some wood finishes are not the traditional type but instead are covered in varnish.

“The trick is they do the hand sanding and everything first,” White said. “Most of these are family-owned businesses, so the men do the woodworking and the women do the finishing. The varnish is put on boiling hot, so it soaks into the pores of the wood, and you are good to go.”

Aside from selling all his furniture in Benton, White has left his mark across the country as he and his staff deliver and set up homes for customers.

“We do lots of bedrooms and dining rooms,” White said. “We do custom bookcases and living room tables, made by the Amish community. We have fabulous gliders and rockers and office furniture as well.”

With nearly 30,000 square feet of showroom space, White said his customers can purchase a piece from the floor or have it custom ordered.

“If we have to custom order, it’ll be here in six weeks,” White added. “One company called Yutzy (founded in 1998) works on an 18-week schedule. They are the top-rated Amish manufacturing company in America. As for us, we are in a growth mode and business is good.”

With six decades of service to the company, White said it has been fun.

“We work 12 hours a day, six days a week,” White said. “On Sundays after church we go to everything from trade shows to open houses. Every day is different, with no two days the same. You never know who will walk through the door.”

White said movie stars, presidents, and other celebrities and politicians have graced his business, including each Governor of Arkansas.

“We have made quite a few deliveries to the White House,” White said. “We did a lot of work there and a lot of work for the Clintons.” White added that he and his company have provided a lot of service to former Governor Mike Huckabee and his family.

“From St. Louis to Dallas, we are about the last of the upper-end stores,” White added.

At White’s, the showroom is full of colors, something White said appeals to customers.

“I tell everyone to do a piece at a time or a room at a time,” White said. “Colors make your house look pretty. There are some wonderful fabrics out there. Your imported fabrics are usually ugly and bland. American companies are coming out with innovative fabrics constantly. Every day there are new fabrics out. One of our sofa companies has five hundred different textures and colors of leather.”

White said he has no plans to retire from the business, as he enjoys the constant change in the industry and the relationships he builds with his customers. νJosh Briggs