Furniture Brands International Names Chief Marketing Officer

ST. LOUIS, Mo., Jan. 22, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Furniture Brands
International, Inc. (NYSE:FBN) today announced that Alexander W. Hodges has been
named Chief Marketing Officer, effective January 22, 2008.

Ralph P. Scozzafava, Vice-Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of
Furniture Brands, commented, "Building our brands and winning with the consumer
are both critical elements of our strategic plan. In this newly created role as
Chief Marketing Officer, Alex will work with the talented and experienced
marketing leaders at our Brands to drive brand equity in the marketplace and to
build our brand franchisees. This coordinated effort will also enable us to work
more closely with our retail partners to enhance our presence in the
marketplace."

"Alex has outstanding marketing experience with some of America's most
successful branded companies. Their success is based on the same elements in
Furniture Brands' strategic plan: using consumer insights to drive product
development, leveraging the power of national accounts, and matching our
strengths to customer markets and categories. We have a great portfolio of
brands, and Alex will lead our core team of brand marketing talent to build
their presence in the marketplace. He will be a key driver of several of our
strategic initiatives, and I am pleased he has agreed to become part of the
Furniture Brands leadership team," Scozzafava concluded.

"I have been very impressed with the strategy that Ralph and the management team
are executing at Furniture Brands," Hodges said. "I look forward to working with
the brand leaders to develop programs that leverage our strengths and drive
sales and improved profitability."

Mr. Hodges' entire career has been in marketing, serving most recently as Vice
President of Marketing for Russell Athletic, a division of Russell Corporation,
leading all marketing and retail merchandising operations for that division.
Before joining Russell, he served in roles of increasing responsibility at
Eastman Kodak, and prior to that at SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline). He
is an honors graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About Furniture Brands

Furniture Brands International (NYSE:FBN) is a vertically integrated operating
company that is one of the nation's leading designers, manufacturers, and
retailers of home furnishings. With annual sales in excess of $2 billion, it
markets through a wide range of retail channels, from mass merchant stores to
single-brand and independent dealers to specialized interior designers.
Furniture Brands serves its customers through some of the best known and most
respected brands in the furniture industry, including Broyhill, Lane,
Thomasville, Drexel Heritage, Henredon, Pearson, Hickory Chair, Laneventure, and
Maitland-Smith.

The Furniture Brands International logo is available at
http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2757

Matters discussed in this release and in our public disclosures, whether written
or oral, relating to future events or our future performance, including any
discussion, express or implied, of our anticipated growth, operating results,
future earnings per share, plans and objectives, contain forward-looking
statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are often
identified by the words "believe", "positioned", "estimate", "project",
"target", "continue", "intend", "expect", "future", "anticipates", and similar
expressions that are not statements of historical fact. These statements are not
guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and
assumptions that are difficult to predict. Our actual results and timing of
certain events could differ materially from those anticipated in these
forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including, but not
limited to, those set forth under "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form
10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q,
elsewhere in this release, and in our other public filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. Such factors include, but are not limited to: changes
in economic conditions; loss of market share due to competition; failure to
forecast demand or anticipate or respond to changes in consumer tastes and
fashion trends; failure to achieve projected mix of product sales; business
failures of large customers; distribution and cost savings programs;
manufacturing realignments; increased reliance on offshore (import) sourcing of
various products; fluctuations in the cost, availability and quality of raw
materials; product liability uncertainty; environmental regulations; future
acquisitions; impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets; anti-takeover
provisions which could result in a decreased valuation of our common stock; loss
of funding sources; and our ability to open and operate new retail stores
successfully. It is routine for internal projections and expectations to change
as the year or each quarter in the year progresses, and therefore it should be
clearly understood that all forward-looking statements and the internal
projections and beliefs upon which we base our expectations included in this
report or other periodic reports are made only as of the date made and may
change. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in
the future, we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking
statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

-0-
CONTACT: Furniture Brands International, Inc., St. Louis
Lynn Chipperfield
314-863-1100