Green Front Furniture; Manassas Showroom 703-396-8560
Aesthetic: There is a balance of aesthetics at Green Front, a store that provides vivid, brightly colored pieces through free-spirited carpeting and, thanks to their European importers, more classical colonial designs. “We like to think of ourselves as the opposite end of IKEA, straying from mass manufacturing and keeping both our prices and aesthetic aggressive,” says Steve Johnson, general manager of the Manassas store.
Product spread: Their rugs are courtesy of mom-and-pop shops out of Pakistan and India. Their upholstery and wooden works are handmade by Amish communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio. “There has been a shift in the American consumer, a push to buy more domestic products with a history behind them,” says Johnson. Any one of Green Front’s 12 Manassas showrooms that make up the warehouse complex provide that story, the buyable works ranging from the Virginia designer to artists from across the pond. “We have a Theodore Alexander collection in show right now, [and] every piece [is] handmade by the English designers,” states Johnson. “And our Moroccan rugs were hand-selected from Berber artisans in the North African mountains.”
Clientele: The range of pieces reflects almost any taste, from contemporary to traditional. Shoppers can find anything from leather furniture and media consoles to decor pieces often filling the pages of popular home design catalogs. The warehouse houses any type of piece to decorate a home.
Wallet Wonders: At Green Front Furniture, which is based out of Farmville with a Manassas showroom up and running, the focus has always been on bringing the consumer a true work of art, without the marked-up price to match. “When we explore new manufacturers, we try to ‘buy right’—to get high-end furniture at low margins,” according to Johnson. And those low margins find their way back to Northern Virginia buyers now able to find locally crafted works on a budget.
( November 2015 )
