History of The Home Beautiful

The Home Beautiful first opened in 1977.

Looking to return to his roots, Gilford, NH native, Bruce Hamel left the corporate world and along with his wife, purchased The Home Beautiful in 1986 from the original owners. For the next 35 years, Bruce and a dedicated team of home decorating experts built a locally owned, community-focused home design store specializing in flooring, carpeting, window treatments, wallpaper, paint, tile and countertop installations.

The Home Beautiful staff quickly built a reputation as the home decorating store, “where friends send friends”. As the company grew on that word of mouth, Bruce and his crew knew that they were on the right track building a successful, customer-centered business.

In 2002 The Home Beautiful added The Home Beautiful Bargain Outlet in a building next door to the main store. The Bargain Outlet became a location where Lakes Region and Central New Hampshire homeowners could find first quality flooring, carpeting, flooring remnants and other home bargains at up to 70% off original retail. Customers regularly stop by to check the Outlet’s ever-changing inventory. A trip to the Bargain Outlet is known as a “treasure hunt for your home”.

Over the years The Home Beautiful added additional services: A custom shop specializing in custom window treatments, custom upholstery and custom designed pillows.

Our ability to constantly adapt to changes in the home decorating world, our exceptional customer service, expert knowledge of our product lines and 250 years of combined industry experience has allowed us to thrive and grow despite the addition of new competitors, including national brands and big box stores. We’ve been able to withstand economic downturns and continue innovating to make our customers’ experience even better.

In recent years, Bruce started to think about retirement and who would carry on The Home Beautiful legacy. In 2018 he began exploring selling The Home Beautiful to the people who knew the business best, and who the customers knew best, his employees. Over the next 3 years, including through the pandemic, the entire team began working with Cooperative Development Institute to help set up an employee-owned business co-operative.

On October 5, 2021, Bruce Hamel, the new ownership team and CDI officially announced the start of a new era for The Home Beautiful, as Bruce Hamel steps back and turns over the company to an experienced group of business leaders who know their business and their customers very well: Eleven employee-owners leading a total team of 21 full and part-time personnel.

This ensures that The Home Beautiful and The Home Beautiful Bargain Outlet will remain locally owned and part of the Lakes Region and Central New Hampshire communities for years to come! Customers can be assured that they will continue to work with designers and decorating experts they have always known. You can count on still enjoying the same integrity, professionalism and craftsmanship you have enjoyed from us for the past 35 years!

Watch The Home Beautiful Ownership Announcement – October 5, 2021