About Art Van Furniture
Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.
Art Van Furniture began in 1959, when Archie “Art” Van Elslander opened a 4,000-square-foot furniture store at Gratiot Avenue and 10 Mile Road in East Detroit, Michigan. The early shop, then called Art Van’s, specialized in Danish and contemporary home furnishings—because apparently the living room needed a little Scandinavian swagger.
The retailer expanded across Michigan and beyond, becoming a major furniture and mattress chain in the Midwest. In 1973, the company moved its headquarters to Warren, Michigan, where its corporate identity remained rooted for the rest of its run. Stores eventually operated under Art Van Furniture alongside concepts including PureSleep, Art Van Flooring, and Scott Shuptrine Interiors.
In 2017, founder Art Van Elslander sold the business to private-equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners. The next chapter was short and decidedly less cozy: Art Van announced on March 5, 2020 that it would wind down company-owned stores and begin liquidation sales. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 8, 2020, later converting to Chapter 7 liquidation.
Our Art Van Furniture collection celebrates the big-sign, big-sale, sofa-showroom spirit of a Midwest retail original—an era when “going out of business” banners somehow felt as permanent as the sectional.