Sanjay Panjwani likes to jump on coffee tables and throw chairs. And he asks customers at his new All About Furniture store, which took over the foreclosed House of Sofas space on Jackson Road (“we have no connection to them,” he says), to do the same. “Come climb up on this table,” he offers his hand, “it’s glass, but it will not break!” adding that he’s had a 400-pound man stand on it.
Panjwani has been selling furniture to Ann Arbor’s student housing management companies for about a dozen years–including furnishing both Zaragon high-rises–so he knows hardy furniture. Now he’s offering the same furniture, which he also sells to corporate office accounts, to the public. Much of it he says he designs himself, and he works directly with factories in China, Taiwan, and Malaysia, traveling there twice a year.
“Look how heavy this coffee table is,” he says, as he flips it over. “This is solid construction and solid Asian hardwood. You can’t find this quality at this price.” (It retails for $119.) He started his business in his basement, moved to a thousand-square-foot location, and then to a larger space on South Industrial until this 20,000-square-foot spot opened up. “It was so rundown,” he says, when he bought it four months ago. He’s since spruced it up and filled up the vast showroom with living room and bedroom sets and office furniture.
“I’ve gotten this far by being honest and hardworking,” he says. He calls his parents in India every morning. They are the ones who taught him these values, he says. “I believe in taking just an egg a day, not cutting off the head of the chicken.”
All About Furniture, 5301 Jackson Rd., 769-0394. Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun. noon-5 p.m. furnitureallabout.com
