Nebraska Furniture Mart, The Colony, Texas

Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM) has opened the nation’s largest home furnishings store, in The Colony, Texas. Featuring 560,000 sq. ft. of selling space, the two-level space also has an on-site warehouse, giving it a combined footage of more than 1.8 million sq. ft.



NFM partnered with Interbrand Design Forum, Dayton, Ohio, on the design of the mega-store, which sells 100,000 products, ranging from very high-end items to value offerings, and has another 500,000 items in stock in the warehouse.



“When you think about the volume of merchandise, this is like building a bricks-and-mortar Amazon of merchandise for your home,” said Amanda Kohnen, senior creative director, Interbrand Design Forum. “This has been an exciting design challenge to help NFM create a store with a vast assortment, but that is also easily shoppable for the customer.”



Open sightlines help accomplish this as having a view across the space allows shoppers to orient themselves. Another key was the creation of a design system that provides a framework for using the space. The system includes towers and beacons that help shoppers identify departments and encourage exploration.



Some of the store’s highlights include:



• Treehouse focal in the kids bedding area, where animated movies are shown;



• “Man cave” area featuring pool tables, game tables and bar counters;



• A 96-ft. interactive headphone wall;



• High-end kitchen shops showcasing the latest high-tech options; and



• A pop-up shop whose theme will change out quarterly. For its debut, the focus is unique Texas items.



Interactive kiosks are used throughout the massive space to augment the shopping experience in different ways. There are a number of touch-screen monitors that allow customers to search and obtain directions to specific categories, brands or products. There are also interactive design tools and brand specific touch-screens, such as in the KitchenAid area.