Monica Pedersen named National Home Furnishings Month spokesperson

"Is It Home Yet?" campaign features HGTV personality

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, August 26, 2009

Monica Pedersen

LAS VEGAS — HGTV personality Monica Pedersen will be the spokesperson for the first National Home Furnishings Month in September and for the "Is It Home Yet?" national ad campaign, the World Market Center announced.

The WMC's owners are the sponsors of the multi-year, $20 million campaign, which has the support of a number of industry organizations.

Pedersen is a designer regularly featured on HGTV's "Designed to Sell" and has also appeared in magazines, newspapers and other television programs, offering tips on how consumers can redecorate their homes. In connection with National Home Furnishings Month, she will give interviews to national media to generate attention and interest in the event, said WMC spokesman Andrew Maiden.

She also will provide design advice to the winners of a weekly sweepstakes to be held in September, with five $5,000 room makeovers to be given away.

In addition, she'll be at the Las Vegas Market hosting the opening night entertainment on Sept. 14 and will be available for other relevant seminars and programs, Maiden said. Pedersen will appear on the market's "Style File" trend videos, which will be downloadable on the new homeyet.com Web site as well as lasvegasmarket.com.

"National Home Furnishings Month is such a huge and wonderful initiative and I am thrilled to be involved with it," Pedersen said in a release.

"This is especially close to my heart because it celebrates what I love most - home furnishings! My home is a very special place to me and I want to help others make their homes a unique and warm place for them and their families to spend time together in," she said.

National Home Furnishings Month is the first event in the "Is It Home Yet?" campaign. While the WMC is footing the bill, it has the cooperation of industry groups including the National Home Furnishings Assn. and the American Home Furnishings Alliance.

Retailers also are expected to target sales and promotions to the event.

"National Home Furnishings Month is dedicated to celebrating the very ideal of ‘home' and showing people that you can reinvent where you live by adding new home furnishings," said Bob Maricich, WMC president and CEO.

"The idea of refreshing one's environment, even in the smallest ways, can have a restorative power and transform a house to a home. And, since the home is a place for family to celebrate life events, there is also a very powerful emotional return on this kind of investment."

Launching online to support the campaign is homeyet.com, which features ideas for home trends and a chance to win a room makeover. A 10-day industry-wide event, Sept. 19-27, will include in-store promotions and sales events at retailers around the country.

More Las Vegas Market September 2009 Coverage