Bernhardt Furniture in Kelowna

The Bernhardt Story

John Mathias Bernhardt was orphaned at thirteen, worked a general store, surveyed land out west, and came back to Lenoir, North Carolina, to work in timber. In 1889 he started making bedroom furniture from the region's native white oak. The company has been in the same family, in the same town, ever since — more than 135 years and four generations.

It very nearly ended in 1926, when a fire took everything but the dry kiln and the boiler room. The family considered closing. Instead George Bernhardt rebuilt, and a new plant opened the following year. When the Depression made cash impossible, the company issued scrip so employees could keep trading and keep their jobs. During the Second World War the plants were turned over to the war effort and women ran the machinery to keep the business alive.

Upholstery arrived as a major line in 1958 and reset the company's reputation for style. Today the range spans living, dining, bedroom, workspace and outdoor, split across collections including Bernhardt Interiors, Living, Loft and Exteriors, with hundreds of fabrics, leathers and finishes specified separately.

Bernhardt is now one of the largest family-owned furniture companies in the world, with over 1,540 employees and representation in more than 50 countries. There is a time capsule in the wall outside the Lenoir head office, sealed at the centennial in 1989, to be opened by employees on the company's 200th anniversary in 2089.