Urban Home

Urban Home was a regional home furnishings retailer based in Southern California that focused on stylish, affordable furniture and décor for value-conscious shoppers. The chain offered living room, bedroom, dining, and accent pieces in contemporary and transitional styles, positioned between warehouse clubs and higher-end designer showrooms. Stores were set up as large, open showrooms with furniture arranged in room settings so customers could easily visualize how pieces would work together at home.

The company was founded in 1998 and grew as a local chain serving the Greater Los Angeles and Ventura County markets. Over time it expanded into communities such as Oxnard, Valencia, Canoga Park, West Los Angeles, and Laguna Hills. As of October 2014, Urban Home operated 8 stores, primarily in suburban power centers and community centers where big-box and junior-box retailers tend to cluster. Many locations backfilled existing large-format space and benefited from traffic generated by neighboring anchors.

A key milestone in the company’s story came in the mid-2010s, when Urban Home had become a recognizable discount and value furniture name in Southern California, even though it never developed into a national brand. Around that same period, however, the competitive landscape changed quickly. Large national furniture players, online retailers, and direct-to-consumer brands put pressure on regional concepts that relied heavily on brick-and-mortar showrooms.

By 2016, public filings and local news reports documented a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process for Urban Home, followed by the closure of its stores and the vacating of boxes across its markets. Former locations in centers around Oxnard, Valencia, Canoga Park, West Los Angeles, and Laguna Hills were released to other tenants, often in categories such as home furnishings, fitness, and value-oriented soft goods that could use similar footprints.

Today Urban Home is no longer operating as an active retail chain. There is no current evidence of new store development, fresh market entry, or a restart of the concept under the same brand name, and the company’s former web presence and corporate contacts are inactive. In the last five to ten years the story has shifted from growth to disposition, with landlords and brokers treating former Urban Home sites as second-generation space available for backfill rather than as targets for a continuing tenant.

For owners, developers, and leasing teams, Urban Home’s legacy provides a useful reference point. The brand demonstrated that a regional, non-franchise furniture operator could successfully occupy large-format boxes in Southern California power and community centers and draw consistent destination traffic. Even after its exit, those former Urban Home spaces are often viewed as proven home-furnishings destinations with floor plates that adapt well to other regional and national users looking for similar size, visibility, and parking characteristics.