GALAX, Va.- – Two popular TV show hosts known for revitalizing homes in their southern hometown of Laurel, Mississippi are hoping to give new life to a furniture maker in southwest Virginia.
Ben and Erin Napier of Home Town will now be making a new line of bedroom and dining room furniture with the help of Vaughan-Bassett.
The furniture company is one of America's last solid wood furniture manufacturers with plants in Galax and Elkin, North Carolina. The employees at Vaughan-Bassett Furniture consider their work a form of art. And now their talents will be shown on national television.
"We have the facility here to up our production and build furniture. And we're just excited about it," said Rodney Poe, senior vice president of manufacturing.
Vaughan-Bassett Furniture said the deal with the hosts of the HGTV show Home Town will develop a new line of solid wood furniture and create new jobs and expand the company even more.
"We're set up to run about 2,000-plus pieces a day, so we can get back to the heyday of where we used to be," said Poe.
Rodney Poe, who has been working with the company for more than 20 years. He's thankful for more chances to keep the company alive in an industry that is slowly leaving small towns.
"It's depressing to ride through my home time of Galax to see all the furniture factories shut down and see all the manufacturing that has left the area. That's true in most hometowns. And we're excited about bringing some of this back. Made in the USA," Peo said.
The new line will roll out of at the furniture market in High Point, North Carolina in October.
10 News spoke to Ben Napier by phone Friday. He and his wife were given the chance to work with a company overseas to make furniture. They turned it down because they wanted to continue growing small American towns. They say the small furniture town of Galax was the best choice.
"It is a really big deal for me as a furniture maker to be able to work with a company that I respect so much. And their values line up with mine. It's something that I have been actively pursuing for over two years now. And so to get to this point is just kind of a dream for me," Napier said.