Despite a 15% increase in net sales for furniture, Kimball International recorded a 4% drop in consolidated net sales for the second quarter, which ended Dec. 31. Net sales for the company were $296.9 million for the period, and net income was $3.2 million.

Flexsteel Industries Inc. reported residential furniture net sales of $67.0 million for the second quarter ending Dec. 31, 2011, an increase of 5.4% compared to the same period in the year prior.

AUSTIN, TX – Discount registration has been extended through Friday, Feb. 10 for the 8th Annual Closets & Home Organization Conference & Expo, Feb. 15-17, 2012 at the Austin Convention Center.

The Port Townsend, WA, School of Woodworking, proposed a $5 million project to train Army veterans in cabinetry skills by renovating abandoned military barracks. A slide show shows the effort.

Vaughan-Bassett invests $8 million, Stanley Furniture $8.2, as U.S. residential furnishing factories get back into production. GRS Wood Products moves wood flooring production from China to North America. And Brad Pitt shops lumber. Meanwhile, Brad Pitt's charity orders lumber for New Orleans home rebuilding. Those stories and more topped the wood industry news this week.

Most viewed wood stories: Vaughan-Bassett invests $8 million, Stanley Furniture $8.2, in U.S. residential furnishing factories. GRS Wood Products brings wood flooring manufacture back from Asia. And Brad Pitt's charity orders lumber for New Orleans home rebuilding.

Fortune Brands Home & Security posted net sales of $3.3 billion for 2011, an increase of 3% over 2010. The company said it projects 2012 sales to also increase, “at a mid-single-digit rate,” based on an assumption of 3% growth in the new housing and remodeling/repair markets.

WASHINGTON -- A financial commitment of $232.5 million by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assist the development of the ZeaChem Boardman Biorefinery in Boardman, OR, comes with strings attached.

A $4 million 2012 investment in residential furnishing manufacture brings the total to $8.2 million at Stanley Furniture's Robbinsville, NC factory. Stanley Furniture saw its first profitable quarter in three years.