Think you've seen it all? Think again! Our 30th Anniversary Sale continues!

Guest Blog By LaDiff's Graphic Designer & Marketing Liaison, Juliette Heydenrych

Wow! After two weeks of awesome customers, great prices, and long, busy days our 30th Anniversary & Remodeling Sale is in full swing! It's an all-hands-on-deck event, with even our office team working on the floor answering questions, cashiering, manning the phones and helping customers get their new goodies ordered, picked up and delivered! I've spent two weeks at the front desk myself and it's been amazing to see so many of my favorite furnishings fly out the door!

As they say, out with the old and in with the new; we're adding great NEW and never before seen in our showroom items to our floor as they arrive from all over the world almost DAILY!

To give you a taste- in the next two weeks we are expecting 5 (count 'em, FIVE!) containers in from Thailand, China, Italy and more- and of course from our best selling vendors from the USA and Canada as well!

If you've been into our store recently, and you think you've seen it all, here's what you can expect to see arriving on our floor as early as tomorrow (Monday) for all price points;

• Extremely well priced wooden dining room tables and chairs from Thailand
• Leather sofas, chairs and sectionals- great quality at exceptional pricing
• New upholstered sofas, chairs and sectionals with 3 seat sofas on sale for $799
• Mixed bar stools, dining chairs, tables and occasional tables
• Another container of our favorite promotional wooden bedrooms from Vietnam
• New high end leather from Italy
• New outdoor furniture ('tis the season!)
• Plus... Lots and lots more. It just keeps rolling in!

See you soon! Don't forget to check our website for special sale store hours and specials!

WOW! What a sale!

Holy smokes, the last three days have been AMAZING! ... and it's only the beginning.

Thank you to all of our funny, special, patient, creative, appreciative, GREAT customers. You have made this sale so much FUN. Thank you to our long-time "old" customers for taking the time to say hello, ask questions, and keeping us at the top of your list. Thank you to all of you NEW customers for discovering LaDiff for the first time.

But the biggest thank you goes to our entire TEAM. They are pulling out all the stops, working super long hours, tagging, moving, cleaning, selling, loading, answering, walking, no, make that running (especially up & down the stairs... buns-o-steel, baby), listening, learning, explaining, reminding, signing, writing, lifting, changing, arriving early and staying late to make this the BIGGEST BOLDEST BEST SALE EVER.

If you've been, you know *exactly* what I mean.
If you haven't visited yet... what are you waiting for???

For more details, visit www.ladiff.com! Better yet, just visit LaDiff IN PERSON!

A few FAQ's about our SUPER BIG ANNIVERSARY & REMODELING SALE

By now, most, many, or maybe ALL of you reading this have received a LETTER or EMAIL from LaDIFF about our upcoming SUPER HUGE Anniversary & Remodeling Sale. Because this sale is SO special, SO big, SO different, we thought we might try to anticipate a few of your questions here in our blog...

Why does your advertising look so different for this sale?

We knew this sale had to be BIG because we have BIG remodeling plans ahead… so we took a different direction from our normal ‘look’. The print and direct mail campaigns you’ve seen are proven methods for drawing a crowd. Don’t worry - You’ll see the LaDiff look again when the sale is over!

Are you going out of business?

No way! In fact, just the opposite… when you visit in person you’ll see drawings of the ideas and plans we have to expand Vive, remodel our lighting department, create an outdoor furniture showroom, and develop a mattress gallery.

What if I didn't get the email OR your letter?

Just follow this link and print out a copy for yourself. Bring it WITH you when you shop on June 8th-9th-or 10th, too!

Why are all sales final?

We need to know that the purchase is NOT coming back so that we can plan our new showroom displays more effectively. Plus… these deals are so good, they have to be ‘final sale.’

What if you don't have what I want in stock?

That's easy... as long as the item is still available and we're still able to order from that supplier, we can order it for you. Special orders will be on sale too!

Can you store my purchase for me until I need it?

The longest we can ‘store’ your purchase is 30 days – maximum. We need to make room on the floor so we can start remodeling and re-merchandising, and we need to make room in the warehouse for new orders. If you’re picking up, bring your blankets & tie-downs so that you can carry your new purchases home safely.

Will you ‘hold’ my item while I think about it?

Sorry… no can do. This is a first come, first served sale. Bring your room dimensions, tape measures, color chips WITH YOU to the store so that you’re prepared to make a decision on the spot!

Anniversary? Which one?

Why, it’s #30… thanks for asking!

Thom Filicia is one heckuva nice guy

Yes, Virginia, I get star struck.

Mind you, I don't fall for the kinds of 'stars' that most of you might. Sure, I think it's way cool that Jessica Lange shopped in the store at Tobacco Row when filming a really forgettable movie with Gwyneth Paltrow. And do I love telling people that Sissy Spacek used to shop in Charlottesville on Christmas Eve (her birthday is Christmas day), and would walk through the store shouting "Schuyler! Madison! Come on... time to go"? Uh, yeah... it's a great story.

My real star struck, dumbfounded, must see, can't think what to say moments happen when I see, meet, or hear about a sale to (drumroll) an HGTV designer.

These people are like my family. They come into my living room and bedroom and show me how wonderful it can be to have GOOD TASTE and FUN IDEAS when you decorate a space. They ask their homeowners to be receptive and creative. They take risks. They are almost always disarming, charming, and funny.

You may remember the post about last fall's High Point market, when I mentioned being really really close to Candice Olson at a Revco party. Well, I actually MET Ms. Olson 6 months earlier at an American Leather party. As she towered over me, there I stood, between friends Jeff & Tom. Jeff, too, was a fan. I blabbered on about how funny she is and how she and her crew seem to get along so well (*ugh*). Jeff told her he was a fan of all of her kitchen renovations. Tom, seizing the opportunity to mortify both of us, asked her if she remembered the episode when the Klingons took over... comparing us to nerdy little Trekkies. If the shoe fits...

Anyway, back to last fall, which was the prelude to this past weekend's events. You may remember that our own Lisa Degenaars had a brush with fame when she got to meet Thom Filicia - original 'home design specialist' on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and now HGTV star and furniture designer.

Lisa attended a breakfast where she sat with one of Thom's friends. Afterward, she made her way to the man himself and got this photo as proof. She was thrilled.
(Vicariously, so was I.)

Now... to last week. It's a Thursday morning like any other. We walk into a 10:30 meeting and learn that our warehouse manager, Terry Fisher, will be making a delivery to upstate New York to deliver a bed that Bethany Magus sold. Cool. We like selling stuff, so this was good.

Two hours later, Andy-husband-president-of-LaDiff shows me the paperwork for the bed sale.

The customer is none other than... Thom Filicia.

Really? REALLY??? Are you KIDDING???

Lisa was in the next room. I called her to my office and told her to sit down - she did, laughing at me. I handed her the pink ticket.

She saw the name and looked at me in disbelief.
So exciting...

Now, at this point, we have no idea if Thom bought the bed for himself or if one of his employees bought the bed in his name for a client... but, we're going to find out. And... just in case he's there at the delivery, Lisa plans to send the photo with Terry... so that Thom maybe, might sign it for her.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon, and the phone call I got from Terry Fisher.

"Mission Accomplished."

Thom WAS there. The bed was for a friend & neighbor.


He signed Lisa's photo, and he willingly let Terry take his photo on the new bed.


He posed for photos with
Terry and his wife Theresa in front of our truck, and he encouraged Terry & Theresa to walk around the property and check out the lake.


Like we said... Thom Filicia is one heckuva NICE GUY. Thanks, Thom. Shop with LaDiff ANY time!

LaDeals Part 2: Behind the scenes

By LaDiff's Graphic Designer & Marketing Liaison,
Juliette Heydenrych


You might be wondering, what to baby chicks have to do with furniture? Well, there are some similarities. In Part 1, I explained the raison d'être for LaDeals: Good design should be available for everybody.

With spring in the air, we decided it was the perfect time to roll out LaDeals. You know all that sexy furniture I mentioned in Part 1 which converted me away from the big blue & yellow box? Well, now it has a name.

Enter Elevation.

Elevation brilliantly branded LaDeals and came up with the idea for the television promotion. It involved about a hundred baby chicks and some bright yellow tags.

During the early deliberations of the LaDeals category, we tossed around names like BrightBuys, SoLos and a personal favorite… Wowsers. Sadly, Wowsers didn’t make the final cut, but LaDeals did. The next steps would be making sure our LaDeals would be bright and visible throughout the store.

Branded with bright yellow tags, LaDeals hit us with a little spring fever. Our heads full of baby birds saying “cheep! cheep!”, Elevation came up with our latest Television ad.

The ad opens on the white limbo of a studio. We see a collection of LaDeals pieces. All over the furniture and floor are dozens of fluffy baby chicks. Andy, the voice of LaDiff, speaks the voiceover.

“…some of our staff worried that the name ‘LaDeals’ wasn’t quite enough to convey exactly how low the prices are. SO we’ve covered some of our many LaDeals with these baby chicks in hopes that you’ll remember one important fact. Our LaDeals are really, really…”

Cut to an extreme close up of a chick.

“…tagged in yellow”.

The real challenge with this production was purely logistical. After all, we’re in furniture. Where are we going to get a clutch of baby chicks? (Clutch is the official term referring to a group of chicks.) What would happen to them post-production?

As it turns out, you can’t just write up an ad with a group of animals in it and produce the thing without at least a few hoops to jump through first. First and foremost, the ad needs to get approval from the Humane Society.

The Humane Society needed to make certain that the animals would be taken care of before, during and after production. They needed to know where the chicks were coming from, how they were going to be cared for and that they would go to a humane home after all was said and done. They can even designate a representative to be present during production to ensure the welfare of all the critters involved.

Our baby chicks were acquired from a local poultry farmer, and were just 3 days old on the day of filming (it’s amazing how fast they grow)! By the end of the day, these fluffy little peeps were already starting to turn a light brown shade, developing the first tips of feathers on their wings- right before our eyes.

Chicks not on camera snuggled together under a heat lamp- kept at a steady 90 degrees (critical to keep them warm until they start developing head-feathers). The rest of the chicks enjoyed the run of the studio- well, part of it. We created a miniature great-wall surrounding the filming area to prevent chicken run-aways. Inside the barrier, chicks hopped around as we filmed them dozing on sofas, chirping on chairs and pooping- yes pooping- on everything.

We kept the camera rolling as we hustled about cleaning up after the flock. Baby chicks might be small, but they, like all birds, have a seemingly endless supply of poop, which they will happily provide at any given time of day.

Luckily it was a short day. The chicks were only put to work for a few short hours, and by lunchtime we had collected enough footage to take into the editing stages and cut together.

Video is a medium that is incredibly time consuming- especially with regarding to setting up the shots, making sure the lighting is right and adjusting the camera angles. Expecting an extremely long day, I was pleasantly surprised to call it a wrap. We couldn’t have done it without the suspiciously well-developed acting skills of all these baby chicks. One in particular- named Diva by the Princess of LaDiff Lucy Thornton- stole the show flapping her (or his) bright yellow fluff, cheeping on cue and posing coyly in front a LaDeals tag.

“I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille,” she seemed to say.

Of course, no animals were harmed during the making of this ad. We hope our fluffy little actors enjoy their early retirement from the stage in their new home. They were donated to a local farmer where they will spend their days on a local Virginia farm, enjoying the view and cheeping to their hearts content.

After sifting through a few hours worth of completely adorable footage, I was finally able to pare it down to the highlights and create a little behind the scenes video of the making-of our ad with Elevation. Enjoy!

LaDeals Part 1: My Dirty Little Secret

By LaDiff's Graphic Designer & Marketing Liaison,
Juliette Heydenrych


First of all, I’d like to congratulate Elevation. As friends & colleagues they never cease to amaze us with their flare for fun & quality work. At this year’s Richmond Ad Club awards, Elevation was named best Ad Agency of the year- a well deserved and hard-earned honor. So, I raise my glass (re-usable water bottle, actually) to Aaron Dotson and Frank Gilliam.

Last year, I wrote a little blog about the making of our fun Bedroom Sale TV ad and our Perfect Seat Sale TV ad, both of which were produced by Elevation. BOTH of these ads won a silver award in the Richmond Ad Club awards for best ad with a budget under $100,000- beating out ads for Geico and FreeCreditReport.com. Again, I raise my glass to you, Elevation.

That said, I’m going to switch gears a little bit.

Now, if you’ve seen our latest ad on TV featuring LaDeals, you might be wondering, What the heck do baby chicks have to do with furniture? More importantly, what the heck are LaDeals?

I’ll address the latter question first.



If you’ve ever broken your back hunched over a disastrous self-assembly with no one to call for help, then LaDeals are for you. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I can’t afford anything at that store” when it comes to deciding where you’ll purchase your new sofa or office desk, LaDeals are for you. If you've ever lived with a cheap, crappy coffee table with a wonky leg that looks like it’s trying to walk away, then LaDeals are for you.

What I’m about to say next might be a little intimate and I apologize if it makes you uncomfortable, but I simply have to come clean about something if I am going to properly explain the true meaning of LaDeals.

Alright, here it goes. Deep breath. My dirty little secret: I am an IKEA shopper.

Well, I was.

It’s not the quality or even the style that first attracted me to IKEA, but the prices. As a poor, fresh out of college starving artist, IKEA appealed to me because it offered me the chance to lose the hand-me-down hodge-podge furniture and make my apartment MINE. My taste, my style, my stuff. Oh, and my wallet.

Hauling things home and assembling everything was time-consuming and painful, and when things didn't quite assemble properly I accepted it as a consequence of going cheap- I wasn't about to lug everything back to switch it out and do it all over again!

The interior of my home was okay, I could live with it for the time being. When I made the decision to move to Richmond from the West Coast two years ago, I did so knowing I had an extremely low budget and would have to leave a lot of things behind. I brought with me nothing but boxes, my mattress and my two lovely cats. I minimized everything I owned as much as possible, loaded up the car with everything I could not live without, and well, here I am. I made the 3,000-mile trek, paid for gas, food and hotel stays on less than $1,000. Let the record state that I am a professional CheapSkate.

So when I got my first Richmond apartment, it needed to be furnished! No longer living in close proximity to the Store-Who-Cannot-Be-Named, and not wanting to drive a grueling 2 hours north, I started my search at home in Richmond. At LaDiff.

The first thing I hear when I tell people where I work is “Oh, I can’t afford that place”. As a professional cheapskate, I have to say that I resent such a statement. With an apartment now crammed full of LaDiff furniture, and done on a shoestring budget, it’s everything I can do to shout to the naysayers, THAT’S NOT TRUE!

My apartment gets a lot of compliments. In fact, the company I rent from didn’t want to let me switch apartments last year until they had found a new tenant, JUST so they could show the place with my furniture in it. This was confessed to me by the rental company manager himself, who knows I work for LaDiff and added that my apartment “shows really well because of how it’s furnished”. It’s flattering.

So that’s how I feel about LaDiff. As a master CheapSkate extraordinaire, if I can furnish my apartment on a tiny budget at LaDiff, anyone can. LaDiff's team is always ready to help, and each item has it's own manufacturer's warranty so I don't have to live with a piece that I don't want to build myself, that might be missing hardware or falls apart when the cats run amock on it, that has a huge scratch out-of-the-box or worse.

Gone are the days of escape-attempting coffee tables, desks with peeling veneer tops and furniture that falls apart after 2 years. Here to stay are the days of LaDeals: Sexy LaDiff furniture with sexy pricing and even sexier quality (is that why there are so many hot chicks in our LaDeals ad?).

Good design should be available for everybody. It’s a sentiment shared by all of us here at LaDiff. We know we have a lot of work ahead of us in breaking down the myth that we can only satisfy those with champagne taste.

And that’s what LaDeals are all about.

Now, what to baby chicks have to do with furniture?

Stay tuned for part 2, and find out.

Spring Cleaning Time ... for your furniture

Years ago, I read Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, about life in a small town in Georgia in the early 20th century. The story surrounds the Tweedy family and their general response to the grandfather's marriage to a very young milliner Miss Love Simpson, only 3 weeks after the death of his wife. Miss Simpson was from Baltimore - "practically a Yankee" by Cold Sassy, Georgia standards. There were many things about Miss Simpson that caused the town to gossip, but the one that has stuck with me is how she cleaned her house.

Yep. I remember the chapter on house cleaning.

Miss Love Simpson believed in true 'spring cleaning.' When she first moves in with her new husband, she begins to move room by room, cleaning, scouring, pulling out rugs, removing draperies, dusting, sweeping, scouring, and updating.

I love spring cleaning. There is just something about the new growth outside that makes me want to sort and clean and organize and purge on the inside. It's when you move the stack of boardgames on the shelf and find that missing Monopoly piece (oh, THERE's the little dog!). Or when you clean out your closet and discover a scarf from college may have actually come back into style (okay, maybe not).

Some people clean often, a lot, and regularly. Some clean in one long day every month. Some clean just before they're having guests over.

Here's the big question...

Do you CLEAN and MAINTAIN your furniture as well as you care for your house or your car or your clothes?

With every LaDiff delivery, we provide our customers with a Care Package of information. Included is a booklet that gives general ideas of how to care for your new purchase. Just like you gas up your car, refill the windshield wiper fluid, get the oil changed, check the air in the tires, and schedule yearly inspections, you need to take care of your furniture too.

The irony is that most people expect their furniture to last longer than their car or their clothes, but they provide little to no maintenance to ensure that it lasts and looks good too.

A website called, appropriately, furnituretips.com, provides starting answers for how to care for your 'furniture investment.'

A few simple tips and reminders from LaDiff are:

1. Wood furniture (veneered or solid) should be kept dust free to prevent drying out. Accumulations of dust particles that settle on wood eventually settle into it too, causing cracking and discoloration.

2. Unless you have granite, corian, or melamine, ALWAYS use a coaster to protect the surface from water rings, stains, scratches, or other marks: this applies to wood tables, glass, travertine, marble (marble does NOT like acids and one red wine spill can ruin your beautiful marble table).

3. Scratches happen: very few surfaces are completely impervious. If the surface is softer than whatever was set upon it, there may be a scratch left behind. (placemats, coasters, cutting boards... these can help keep the surface in good condition). Added note: some woods are softer than others! American cherry is one of the SOFTEST Hard Woods - if your child does homework on your cherry dining table without a mat or notebook under their paper & pencil, you may see their work left behind in your table top!

4. Often, the more expensive your purchase is, the more it will take to maintain it. Seems like the opposite should be true, right? It's like buying a car: a BMW and an Audi are more expensive to maintain than a Chevy or Ford. If you want a luxurious Elmo leather, for instance, remember that this is a natural hide in its most beautiful form, needing no correction. Because of that, it is soft, supple, and will age beautifully... but it is also NOT resistant to staining. Your richer, softer, more natural leather will absorb oils (pizza hands?), acids (wine?), and general dirt, making cleaning it and removing the stains a near impossibility.

5. Cushions do not fluff themselves. Wonder why your sofa has that smooshy look on one cushion only? Is that where you plop down to watch Real Housewives or Jersey Shore? You may need to do some regular fluffing. If the cushions are not attached to the frame, pull them off and gently push, pull, and pound on the filling. If necessary or if you can, remove the cover and/or restretch it around the insert. Feather or down filled? Feel free to pound HARD to fluff those guys back up. If the cushions are attached or it's a tight-seat style, you can fluff the seat and back with your fists. Of course, you really should consider sitting in more than one place - the other cushions are getting jealous. (photo courtesy of Apartment Therapy)

6. Glass is NOT scratch proof. Period. Glass is beautiful and very durable, but you need to use regular care, plus coasters or placemats, before you put your glass or dinner plate or serving pieces down on your glass dining or coffee table.

7. LIFT!!! please don't push & pull your furniture! Anything with legs or panel supports will break. I repeat... WILL break. Every time you pull or push an item one leg or panel wants to stay behind (that old science word: inertia). You weaken the joint where the leg attaches to the rest of the piece. This does not mean your furniture is not well made... it just means you have to move it properly. If someone tried to push or pull YOU, your legs would resist too!

8. Vacuum and dust the parts you DON'T see. Get between the seat cushions and under the chairs and UNDER the area rug (yep) and inside the shade of the lamps and on the top of the bookcase and behind the dresser and inside the tv cabinet. Embarrassing revelation: our dvd player stopped working a few years ago. When our personal Mr. Fix-it (my dad) took it apart, he found whirls of cat hair inside the unit. Turns out our cat had been climbing up onto the shelf and sleeping behind the dvd player. Gross? yes. Now we have glass doors and I dust out the shelves regularly.

9. Never lean back in your dining chair. Your mom told you not to. The teacher told you not to. Now I'm telling you not to. That leg thing mentioned in #7 applies to this, too. Your chair is meant to support you with all 4 legs on the ground. When you use only the back 2, they get stressed out and angry, the front 2 get jealous or start to taunt the back 2 because they have to do all the work. Seriously... you are damaging the physical integrity and joint structure of the chair... and you could fall and land on your noggin'! (p.s. those little protective floor caps at the ends of the legs will also be compromised, and fall out more often when chairs are pushed, pulled, and pressed inappropriately.)

10. Use cleaning products that are meant for the item you are cleaning. Do not use harsh abrasives on metal, marble, or wood surfaces. When in doubt, ask your design consultant, the retailer, or the vendor. Using the wrong cleaner on your leather sofa could discolor the leather or, worse, remove the color! Be sure to clean your wood with the right kind of oil or wax or paste. Most cleaners recommend approaching the entire product, not just the spot or stain, to prevent mismatched results. We've heard all kinds of horror stories about 'wrong product' applications: the wet-wipe used to remove gum off the newly delivered brown chenille sofa has to be the winner... that alcohol laden wet-wipe removed the gum all right, and all of the brown in the fabric too!

Basically, caring for your furniture simply means paying attention to what your furniture is telling you. You listen to the noises in your car and you look for the warning lights. You watch for loose buttons and frayed hems on your clothing. Your furniture doesn't have lights and bells, but it can give you other signs. Is a drawer pulling out slowly? Do you need to adjust the runners or is something 'stuck' in the back? Does a table surface look a bit dry? Is your leather starting to crack? These are all things that can be cared for easily if maintained regularly.

Good furniture should and can last a long, long time - if cared for properly. When you buy new furniture, TALK to your design consultant about the best way to care for your purchase. Manufacturer warranties generally cover the 'nuts and bolts', moving parts, and obvious defects, but they will never cover general use or general wear & tear. That's your job... take it seriously, and you'll enjoy your new furniture for many many years.