- Ana Maria Salazar in her new Byram store, Casabella Furniture. Photo by Bill Fallon
Peruvian by birth and Incan by ancestry, Ana Maria Salazar can nonetheless claim to have furniture in her blood. Last month, she opened Casabella Furniture in Byram, her first solo store, having moved from upstate New York specifically to do so.
She chose Byram, she said, “Because I like this area very much.”
Salazar comes from a family where three brothers are furniture dealers. Her husband and store manager, Jorge Valdivia, also has spent his life in the furniture business. She worked five years in a furniture store in Albany, N.Y., before deciding to take the leap and renting two connected stores in downtown Byram encompassing 1,300 square feet at 248-250 Mill St.
The store carries bedding and bedding linens, dressers, office furniture, TV stands, tables, chairs, rugs, paintings and the like. It also features a new twist: multiple online catalogs so customers can shop, discuss and buy and then receive home delivery and setup of their selections.
Most items Casabella sells are available for the store”™s free delivery-and-setup service, with the outsized delivery truck parked outside ready on a recent weekday. Salazar said her price points are purposely low as she establishes a name for quality and value.
“Right now I am looking for more furniture of different qualities,” she said. “That will be coming soon.”
She sees her market as private homes and businesses.
“We offer so much ”” our in-store experience, online shopping, home delivery and assembly,” Salazar said. “Customers may just want to look and that”™s OK. If they buy, that”™s OK, too. We”™re glad they have come and we”™re always glad to show them affection.”
