5th Generation of Furniture and Family at Finds Design and decor by brian austin WRITTEN BY SHELLY BRANDON | PHOTOS BY DIANE NICOLE PHOTOGRAPHY
Brian Austin comes from a long line of furniture purveyors that goes back nearly one hundred years. It all began with his great-grandfather, who opened a furniture store in Southern California in the 1920s called Weatherby and Austin. In 1962, Brian’s grandfather, Earl, and father, Norman, moved to Chico and opened Austin’s Home Furnishings on the corner of 8th and Main Streets, now the home of Eighth and Main Antiques. Chico was kind to the Austins, and in 1964, they opened a second store on the corner of 6th Street and Broadway called Austin’s Maple Shop. This store was geared toward providing specialty furniture
popular during that era and evolved over the years to become a shop known for a little bit of everything. After Earl passed away in 1972, Norman began thinking about expanding. In 1985, the Austin family closed both downtown shops and moved their enterprise to the corner of the Skyway and Notre Dame Blvd., where they built a gigantic new 55,000 square-foot store complete with 25,000 square-feet of offsite warehousing and delivery space on nearby Meyers St. Brian Austin began his career at the downtown furniture shop as a boy, cleaning and dusting the showroom. Over time, he and his siblings began to take on more
responsibility until, eventually, Brian was heading up the enterprise himself. When his father Norman passed away in 1999, Brian was the only Austin kid still heavily involved in the day-to-day operation of the business, and he continued to run it successfully with help from his siblings. In 2006, Brian began to realize Austin’s was more his dad’s dream, not his own, and the scope of its operation was starting to feel overwhelming. He also felt Austin’s was losing sight of its values, and the things that had made the business special back in the day. “Austin’s was known for its incredible customer service,” Brian says. “As you grow, you lose that to a certain degree. My grandfather and father knew every customer. They were 19
