Where to Shop for Furniture in Bluffton and Hilton Head: A Local Interior Designer's Guide
One of the questions I get all the time from clients moving to Bluffton or Hilton Head is, “Where should we shop for furniture?”
My answer is usually another question.
What are we furnishing?
Are you furnishing the primary home you plan to live in every day for the next 15 years? A second home you will use a few months each year? A Hilton Head vacation rental? A guest room that gets used six times a year?
Those answers matter.
I don't believe every piece of furniture in a home needs to be an investment piece. I also don't believe in filling a beautiful new home with inexpensive furniture that will need to be replaced in three years.
The sweet spot is somewhere in between.
I might recommend spending considerably more on the sofa where you sit every evening, then saving on the nightstands in a guest bedroom. We may splurge on a beautiful dining table but find a much less expensive console for a hallway. And I almost always prefer mixing retailers rather than furnishing an entire house from one showroom.
The goal isn't to be able to say where everything came from.
The goal is for everything to work together.
First, Is This Your Primary Home, Second Home or Rental?
Before deciding where to shop, I think about how the furniture is actually going to be used.
For a primary residence, I am generally more comfortable investing in pieces that receive heavy use and that I expect the client to own for many years.
That might include:
- The main living room sofa and chairs
- A primary bedroom bed and dresser
- A dining table that will be used regularly
- Comfortable upholstered dining chairs
- A statement cabinet, chest or console that could move to another room later
Quality construction, better fabrics and finishes, and the ability to customize those pieces can be worth the additional cost.
A second home can be different.
You still want it to be beautiful, but if a guest bedroom is used a handful of weeks each year, do we need to spend the same amount on that dresser and nightstands as we would in your primary bedroom?
Probably not.
And if we're furnishing a vacation rental, durability and replaceability become even more important. I may purposely choose something at a more approachable price point because I know renters, suitcases, children and sandy feet are going to give that furniture a workout.
Good design isn't about buying the most expensive version of everything.
It's knowing where the money will actually make a difference.
Ethan Allen: One of My Favorites for Investment Pieces and Customization
Having worked as a designer at Ethan Allen in both Savannah and Bluffton, I know the product extremely well.
For clients who want to sit on furniture before ordering it, compare upholstery options and see wood finishes in person, Ethan Allen's large Bluffton showroom is one of the best local places to start.
The showroom gives you the opportunity to actually experience a lot of the furniture rather than trying to select a sofa from a two-inch photograph online.
That matters.
You can sit in a chair and realize the seat is too deep. You can discover that one sofa arm is much more comfortable than another. You can look at fabrics and finishes together rather than trusting what your computer monitor is showing you.
Ethan Allen also offers extensive fabric and finish options, which makes it particularly useful when we're trying to coordinate new furnishings with flooring, cabinetry, rugs or antique pieces you already own.
I don't think every piece in the house needs to come from Ethan Allen, but there are categories where the quality and customization make a lot of sense.
A main living room sofa is a good example.
A sofa used every single day is different from a loveseat tucked into an upstairs bonus room.
I also like Ethan Allen for artwork. They carry some beautiful large-scale statement pieces, and there are custom art options that allow us to select the size and framing. When we have a large wall that needs something substantial, that flexibility can be extremely useful.
Coastal Home and John Kilmer: When You Want to Shop Multiple Brands
One of the advantages of shopping an independent furniture retailer is having access to multiple manufacturers under one roof.
Coastal Home and John Kilmer Fine Interiors are both useful local sources when I want to broaden the search beyond a single furniture brand.
John Kilmer's Hilton Head showroom carries an extensive selection of higher-end manufacturers, including Lexington, Bernhardt, Century, Hancock & Moore, Hickory Chair, Sherrill, Universal, Theodore Alexander, Tommy Bahama Home and Palecek, among many others.
That gives us a lot of options when we're looking for better-quality upholstery, case goods or a statement piece without being tied to one particular aesthetic.
John Kilmer is especially useful for traditional, transitional and more sophisticated coastal interiors. You can find everything from beautiful leather upholstery to sofas, dining furniture, occasional pieces and bedroom collections.
Coastal Home also carries a surprisingly large number of furniture lines, including Lexington, Bernhardt, Hooker, Universal, Palecek, Rowe, Four Seasons, Bradington-Young, Made Goods, Uttermost and Braxton Culler, among many others.
They also carry outdoor furniture, which is particularly useful here in the Lowcountry where porches, screened rooms and outdoor living spaces are often treated almost like another room of the house.
This is where working with several retailers rather than one becomes helpful.
Maybe Ethan Allen has the sofa that works perfectly for the living room, but Lexington has the dining table. Bernhardt may have a great console. Palecek may have exactly the woven chair we need. Another manufacturer might have a swivel that fits into a particularly tight corner.
That's normal.
In fact, I prefer it.
A home generally feels much more collected when every piece does not look like it came from the same furniture collection.
Coastal Home Is Also One of My Favorite Stops for Decor
Furniture is only part of finishing a home.
Once the larger pieces are in place, we need lamps, mirrors, trays, bowls, pillows, decorative objects and all the little layers that make the house feel finished.
For local accessories, Coastal Home is one of my favorite places to browse.
I think of it as a step up from shopping HomeGoods or HomeSense. You can still walk around and discover things rather than feeling as though everything has to be special ordered through a formal furniture program, but the assortment is generally more elevated and particularly well suited to Lowcountry homes.
They also carry brands like Made Goods and Uttermost, so there are opportunities to find more distinctive mirrors, occasional furniture, lighting and accessories alongside the larger furniture pieces.
That doesn't mean I won't use HomeGoods.
I absolutely will.
Nobody needs a $500 decorative bowl simply because the sofa was expensive.
This is another area where I like mixing price points. A beautiful lamp or mirror may be worth spending more on, while a basket, stack of books or simple ceramic object can come from somewhere much less expensive.
What About Bassett Furniture?
Bassett is another furniture line I know extremely well from having worked as an in-store Bassett designer earlier in my career.
While there isn't a Bassett corporate showroom in Bluffton or Hilton Head, there are corporate locations in Greenville and the Charlotte area if you want to see a larger selection of Bassett products in person.
Fortunately, we don't necessarily need to make that drive.
Bassett also sells through independent furniture retailers, and I can source Bassett pieces locally when they are the right fit for a project.
Local retailers can also be very competitive on price and will often beat corporate retail pricing.
That's especially helpful because there are Bassett categories I still like very much, particularly custom upholstery and their BenchMade furniture.
So if Bassett makes the right sofa, sectional, dining table or bedroom piece for a project, I'm not going to eliminate it simply because there isn't a Bassett store around the corner.
This is another reason I don't get overly attached to the name on the storefront.
I'm much more interested in finding the right piece, at the best available price, from the source that makes the most sense.
Serena & Lily: The Look Is Popular Here, but Shop Strategically
There is a reason Serena & Lily is so popular in Bluffton and Hilton Head.
The relaxed coastal aesthetic works beautifully here. Their natural woods, woven materials, soft blues, whites and easy upholstery fit many Lowcountry homes without drifting into obvious beach decor.
But it is also a brand where I like to shop selectively.
Outlet shopping can be worthwhile, but the selection is naturally limited. You may find an amazing chair or console, but you can't build an entire room around the assumption that the outlet will have the sizes, quantities and finishes we need.
I keep Serena & Lily's wood finish samples here in my studio, which makes shopping much easier with clients.
If we're considering a Serena & Lily piece, I can take the actual finish with me when we go to another local showroom and make sure the wood tones work together.
That sounds like a small detail until you put three pieces of furniture in a room that are all supposedly “natural oak” and discover they are three completely different colors.
If you want to see a larger selection of Serena & Lily in person, Charleston is an easy place to incorporate into a furniture-shopping trip.
Arhaus: Another Reason for a Charleston Furniture Day
Arhaus is another retailer that can be worth adding to a Charleston furniture-shopping day, particularly if we're looking for a distinctive statement piece or want another quality level and aesthetic to compare against the Bluffton and Hilton Head showrooms.
Arhaus can be especially useful for organic textures, larger-scale furniture, interesting case goods and pieces that have a little more presence.
I wouldn't necessarily drive to Charleston because we need one end table.
But if we're furnishing several rooms and already have a targeted list of things we need to see, Charleston can become a very productive design day.
We might look at Serena & Lily and Arhaus, compare several key pieces and then return home knowing exactly where those items fit into the larger furniture plan.
Rugs Are Their Own Shopping Category
I rarely assume that the furniture store supplying the sofa is also going to have the perfect rug.
Rugs are difficult.
You need the right size, pattern, material, color, durability and price point all at the same time.
That's why I frequently shop rugs separately.
For a client who wants a traditional Persian, Turkish or Oriental look, Fletcher's Rug Company is one of my favorite places to explore.
It's more of a treasure hunt, with traditional and one-of-a-kind rugs that can give a newly furnished room some age and personality.
If we're trying to stay closer to approximately $1,000 for a 9' x 12' patterned rug, Gilman Floors has been a very useful local source for my projects.
They carry a good range of patterned rugs, and seeing a large portion of the design in person is far better than trying to judge the overall pattern from an online thumbnail.
Then there are times when the rug really is the artwork in the room and we intentionally spend more.
There is no universal “correct” rug budget.
Related reading: The Complete Guide to Buying a Rug in Bluffton and Hilton Head
Don't Forget Antiques, Vintage Pieces and Interesting Finds
One of the fastest ways to make a brand-new house look like it was furnished in one weekend is to buy every single thing new.
I love peppering antiques and vintage finds into a home.
That doesn't mean creating a room full of dark brown antique furniture.
It might be one old chest in an entry. A vintage mirror. An original painting. A pair of interesting lamps. Old books mixed into the shelves. A small table that is completely different from anything currently being manufactured.
Those pieces add history and personality.
They also solve another problem I see with heavily branded furniture rooms. If everything comes from one manufacturer in one season, the home can start looking more like a showroom than someone's actual house.
One unexpected piece can change that.
Related reading: Where to Shop for Antiques and Eclectic Finds From Charleston to Savannah
When Furnitureland South Is Worth the Drive
And then there is Furnitureland South.
Furnitureland South is outside High Point, North Carolina, so obviously this is not a quick Saturday afternoon run from Bluffton.
But if you're furnishing an entire home, it can absolutely be worth considering.
The advantage is sheer selection.
When I have a client who needs furniture for numerous rooms, has very specific requirements or wants to compare many manufacturers in person, a Furnitureland South trip can accomplish things that would otherwise require weeks of shopping.
It can also be especially useful for rugs because you can see so many full-size options rather than relying exclusively on samples.
Would I recommend making that trip because you need one chair?
Probably not.
Would I consider it for a new 3,500-square-foot house where we need living, dining, bedroom, office and bonus-room furniture plus multiple rugs?
Absolutely.
The key is going with a plan.
Furnitureland South is enormous. Without measurements, a budget, a list of priorities and some idea of the overall design direction, it's very easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices.
Related reading: Should You Shop at Furnitureland South? An Interior Designer's Take
A Realistic Whole-House Shopping Strategy
This is what furnishing a house might actually look like.
We find a beautiful, comfortable Ethan Allen sofa and two custom chairs for the primary living room because that is where you spend most of your time.
We source the dining table through one of my multi-brand retailers because another manufacturer has exactly the size and finish we need.
The bonus-room sectional comes from a more moderately priced source because teenagers, grandkids and dogs are going to live on it.
Guest-room nightstands come from an affordable retailer because they will hold a lamp and somebody's phone for ten nights a year.
The primary bedroom gets a beautiful wool rug, while another bedroom gets a well-priced patterned rug from Gilman.
Maybe we add a Serena & Lily console, a Palecek woven chair, an antique chest and a large statement painting.
Then we finish things off with lamps and accessories from Coastal Home, along with a few much less expensive finds.
Suddenly we have a home that looks collected rather than purchased as a package.
That is the point.
Why I Don't Recommend Shopping Exclusively From One Furniture Store
There is certainly something convenient about walking into one store and saying, “I'll take the entire room.”
But you're often giving something up.
Maybe their sofa is fantastic, but their dining tables aren't quite right. Maybe the dining table works, but I'm not crazy about the chairs. Maybe I know another source has essentially the same type of console for half the price.
This is where having access to multiple retailers becomes valuable.
If we save $1,500 on a secondary piece that isn't especially important to you, that may give us room in the budget for the custom fabric you really love on the living room chairs or the artwork that makes the entire room.
I would much rather make those decisions intentionally than spend the same amount on every item simply because they're all coming from one place.
You Don't Need to Shop Everywhere. You Need a Plan.
The challenge with having access to so many furniture sources is that it can become overwhelming very quickly.
I don't want clients spending six Saturdays wandering through furniture stores taking pictures of 47 sofas.
My job is to narrow things down.
Before we shop, I already want to know approximately what size sofa fits, what finish direction we're using, what fabric family works, what the room needs to cost and which retailers are most likely to have what we're looking for.
For larger projects, I organize items by room in a private client dashboard so we're not trying to remember which dining table was at which store three weeks ago.
I also use floor plans and renderings to make sure the pieces we're considering work together before purchases are made.
Because the expensive mistake usually isn't buying a bad piece of furniture.
It's buying a perfectly nice piece of furniture that is wrong for the room.
The Best Furniture Store Depends on What You're Buying
There isn't one best furniture store in Bluffton or Hilton Head.
There are stores that are better for certain projects, styles, categories and budgets.
Sometimes I want Ethan Allen quality and customization.
Sometimes I want access to multiple manufacturers through Coastal Home or John Kilmer.
Sometimes Bassett has exactly the sofa I need, even though we're sourcing it through an independent retailer.
Sometimes Gilman has the patterned rug we need for around $1,000.
Sometimes we make a day of shopping in Charleston.
Sometimes we head north to Furnitureland South.
And sometimes the perfect thing is sitting in an antique shop and has been around longer than any of us.
Knowing where to splurge, where to save and where to shop is how I help clients stretch a furnishing budget without ending up with a home that looks inexpensive or cookie-cutter.
You don't have to spend the most money.
You just have to spend it in the right places.
If you're furnishing a new home, second home or vacation property in Bluffton, Hilton Head or the surrounding Lowcountry, Bluff & Bay Interiors can help create the plan, narrow the selections, compare sources and show you how the rooms will come together before you start ordering.
Ready to start furnishing your home? Contact Bluff & Bay Interiors to schedule a consultation.