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The Designers

Brashears Furniture

Back Row Left to Right: Nancy Bullock, Robert Hodgson, Jeanine Duffey, Doug Brashears, Susan Brashears, Sam Warren
Front Row Left to Right: Vol Brashears Jr., Jacqueline Sommer-Pitts, Brian Jackson, Wendie Lemay, Vol Brashears III

Things really are “a little different” at Brashears Furniture. Brashears is a third-generation, family-owned business that has been serving customers in the Ozarks since 1935. When you walk into one of their showrooms, you may see kids watching cartoons or Dad enjoying a football game—and you will certainly be offered a hot cookie! Their main showroom room remains in the small town of Berryville, Arkansas, just 10 miles from the popular travel destination of Eureka Springs. They have additional showrooms in Branson, Missouri and Springdale, Arkansas. The company tries to do everything they can to make customers feel welcome in the showroom—which they refer to as their home—and they help provide solutions to all customer’s furniture needs. They say they think shopping for furniture should be fun.

Between the three showrooms and their warehousing, Brashears has over 150,000 square feet of furniture. They provide one of the largest furniture selections in the Ozarks. Their size allows them to choose the manufacturers they believe offer the best value and to buy furniture in volume at substantial discounts. Brashears offers professional delivery and installation by uniformed drivers within 100 miles.

In addition to offering a great selection of furniture, the Springdale showroom houses Brashears’ Fine Rug Gallery, offering the largest selection of hand-knotted, machine-loomed and tufted rugs in the Ozarks. Their in-house rugs experts have over 30 years of combined experience traveling and selecting rugs from around the world.

Brashears Furniture prides themselves in the fact that they have so many long-term, knowledgeable employees. They say that they see their staff as their biggest asset, and that you can have a great showroom and great merchandise, but if you don’t have the right people, none of it will work. The company has many employees that have worked at Brashears most of their adult life, which they say are truly a part of the Brashear’s family.

Brashears Furniture has been recognized as the Arkansas Furniture Dealer of the Year, and has been selected as one the top 100 furniture retailers in the country. They also had the privilege of providing furniture for Camp Barnabas while working with the ABC network’s Extreme Makeover series.

Jacqueline Sommer-Pitts

Jacqueline Sommer-Pitts
Allied ASID member and SDA member

Jacqueline found she had an interest in interior design at an early age while working in her family’s furniture store in Wisconsin. She studied interior design at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, and in 1998 when her parents decided to move to their favorite vacation spot to the Branson area on Table Rock Lake, she moved with them and transferred to Southwest Missouri State University. Jacqueline interned for the Design and Development Department at Bass Pro Shops while she completed her Bachelors of Science Degree in Interior Design.

Immediately after graduating in 2000, she started her career at Brashears Furniture in Branson, MO and Berryville, AR. Since then she has had the opportunity to work with many clients from northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri, and all the way to Williamsburg, VA. She has completed the interior design for a large number of residential homes, condos, resorts, and other commercial projects in the past nine years with Brashears Furniture. Jacqueline’s personal style is contemporary, but she is just as comfortable designing any style her clients’ desire. When the project calls for custom lodge-style furnishings, she loves to show off unique items from her parents’ business, Bears to Chairs Gallery.

Jacqueline will work alongside her clients or take the project into her own hands. Either way, she will take the stress out of her client’s projects and make the design they want come together. Whether it is giving your room, house, resort or business a facelift or starting with plans from the ground up, she is excited to have the opportunity to design it. One unique service to Jacqueline’s designs is that if a special piece of furniture or architectural element is needed to complete the look, she will research and find it or design it and have it made. Her resources are endless. “I like to get to know my clients and what their design needs are, and then complete every design beyond the expectations of their dreams,” she says.

Wendie Lemay

Wendie Lemay

Wendie Lemay grew up in Colorado Springs and, after graduating college with a degree in interior design, she began her career working with a large builder as a drafter and designer. In 1997 she began working independently until she moved to Branson and started her career with Brashears Furniture.

Wendie has worked with Brashears Furniture as an interior designer for the past four years. She has worked with many clients and helped redesign their interior spaces. She has many innovative ideas and has enjoyed working on a wide variety of projects. In addition to the enjoyment she gets working with the fundamentals of space planning, Wendie  is also an accomplished artist. She enjoys using her artistic abilities to do faux-finishes and create large 3-D murals.

Wendie is constantly working to expand her skills on every project. She attempts to connect with each client’s creative style and to learn their individual likes and dislikes. She believes it is important to create balance and harmony within a space. Wendie enjoys a challenge and believes each project is another chance to let her creativity show. “I love making a person’s dreams real by working from the ground up,” she says.