Magnussen To Celebrate 75th Birthday With Special Events In High Point

Furniture World Magazine

Magnussen Home has plenty to celebrate during its weeklong 75th Big Birthday Bash at the International Home Furnishings Market. “Each Market, we provide an experience for buyers that is memorable above and beyond buying world-class furniture,” says Jeff Cook, Magnussen Home president and chief executive officer. “We have planned another over-the-top attraction for our showroom – an incredible, life-size 12 by 12 foot, 25-ton sand sculpture that will continue to be built during the first five days of Market.” During the Big Birthday Bash, Market visitors also will enjoy tasty treats, dazzling entertainers and live music, but the biggest birthday surprise will be the enormous sand sculpture created by an award-winning sculpting team. “The sculpture will feature a vignette of a family watching TV in one of our new entertainment centers, and will serve as a festive salute to our 75th anniversary,” Cook says. “While they are adding the finishing touches Monday through Friday, Greg and Brandi will give demonstrations and answer questions for those wishing to pick up some tips for their next trip to the beach.” Greg and Brandi Glenn of California-based Sandscapes will have spent three weeks and over 200 hours creating the sculpture by the time that it is finished. “This is an anomaly, because we haven’t done a vignette of family life before,” says Greg Glenn, co-founder of Sandscapes, a company that has won countless sand sculpting competitions, including 14 World Sand Sculpting Championship titles. “The challenge is to make it look like something cut out, as if you are looking at an actual scene inside the home.” It is also the first time the team – which has worked outdoors during hurricanes and blizzards, as well as in numerous indoor locations – has ever worked as high as the 10th floor. “Getting all that sand into the building has been the biggest challenge,” Glenn says, adding that all the materials are being bought locally. “We are literally bringing it into the showroom in buckets.” Glenn, who grew up in Huntington Beach, Calif., started sand sculpting as a hobby in the 1980s. “I just started on the beach learning by trial and error to duplicate styles of architecture and animals, figures and people,” he says. After winning numerous competitions, he, with two partners, founded Sandscapes in 1992. They are now among the top sand sculptors in the world. Brandi Glenn met Greg while he was working on a giant 200-ton project at the Santa Monica shopping mall where she worked. She was fascinated by the project and began volunteering, but quickly made sand sculpting her career. The two were married and Brandi is now one of the world’s leading women sand sculptors. Averaging 50 sculptures a year, Sandscapes sculptors have created hundreds of sculptures in major venues worldwide. Later this year, the company will mark its 1,000th professional project. ENTERTAINMENT SUITED FOR A BIG BIRTHDAY BASH Magnussen Home festivities on Monday through Friday also will feature: -Professional Ventriloquist Steve Brogan -Balloon Artist Joey Rudzinski -Magician David Lucas -Wally West Band featuring favorites through Magnussen Home’s 75 years -Stilt Walker Toby Johnson out on the streets of High Point. In addition marketgoers may take any of five trivia quizzes on the movies, TV shows, music, video games and the world of VHS tapes and DVDs. And, of course, Market would not be Market at Magnussen Home without a stuffed animal, this time Domino the Panda Bear because pandas are as unique and rare as 75-year-old family owned businesses. Those who wish may make a tax deductible contribution to Pandas International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping support China’s panda reserves through research, breeding programs, veterinary care, medical equipment and medicine, and habitat preservation. Magnussen Home will match all donations. JOIN THE BIG BIRTHDAY BASH A special anniversary celebration will kick off the weeklong bash Wednesday, April 26 at 3 p.m. The Oasis, a new café and coffee bar, will provide a spot for visitors to gather and be treated to a variety of birthday cakes and personal ice cream sundaes from Cold Stone Creamery. Lunch in the Magnussen Home Café will feature meals that have been favorites of the Magnussen family through the years. One wall in the showroom features favorite birthday party photos of the Magnussen Home team. A custom-made piñata that looks like a Magnussen Home delivery truck also will decorate the lobby. “Our retailers really do enjoy the festive attitude that we bring to Market. Providing an enjoyable experience as well as top-notch products is part of the Magnussen Home tradition,” Cook says. “Seventy-five years ago, Ingwer Magnussen who first started carving sofa frames in an old chicken coop, never imagined his little enterprise would one day grow into a multi-million dollar international company. This Market we’re celebrating the values, tradition and innovation that have brought Magnussen Home 75 years of success.” Magnussen Home Furnishings, Inc. designs, imports, and distributes medium- and upper-medium-priced occasional tables, accent furniture, bedroom, dining room and home entertainment across all style categories for retailers around the world. The company brings more than 20 years of experience with offshore sourcing focused on quality control of state-of-the-art technology, workmanship, finishing and timely delivery. As a result, the Magnussen Express and Accents Express programs deliver products domestically within five working days to participating retailers in the United States and Canada. In addition, Biltmore Estate For Your Home by Magnussen Home is a valued licensing partner. Magnussen Home has permanent showrooms in High Point, Toronto and Las Vegas with a state-of-the-art warehouse and distribution center in Riverside, Calif. Its U.S. Sales and Marketing Offices are located in High Point, N.C. The Canadian company is headquartered in New Hamburg, Ontario. # # #