I'm Michael Ruhr, and I look after sales and the day-to-day running of Merit Home Furniture in Duncan, on Vancouver Island. My wife, Rubeena, and I became co-owners of the Duncan store in 2025.
My first furniture job was in 2000, at Ashley Home Furniture in Kamloops, where I worked with Rubeena's father. We later moved to Pemberton, and I ran Pemberton Valley Hardware while we raised our children. Then we came to the Island to help her father run Merit. So my furniture years have a hardware store in the middle of them. A sales management course is the only formal training I've had.
Planning rooms and choosing mattresses at Merit Duncan
Custom furniture and mattresses are the two things I know best. When someone is planning a room, I measure it, draw it out, and work through the configuration, colours, style and size. For a sectional, we draw how it will face and its measurements right on the invoice, then ask people to measure again at home.
Mattresses are my deepest subject: firm against soft, how memory foam, latex, coil and copper foam compare, what coil counts mean, and which brands suit a budget. Furniture becomes part of a home, and of its family gatherings, for ten years or more. I want people to feel good about what they choose.
I'm passionate about Canadian-made furniture. Decor-Rest and the Burnaby side of Island Living are two of the makers we carry that are genuinely Canadian made. Island Living also has an offshore division for ready-made furniture, and those pieces can't be customized the way the Burnaby ones can.
What I write about on this site
These are the subjects I write guides on. Each hub page gathers every guide on its subject in one place.
- Mattresses and sleep, starting from how to tell which mattress is right
- Recliners and lift chairs, including what to ask before choosing a lift chair for a parent
- Massage chairs, with the Cozzia chairs we carry compared
- Sofas and sectionals, down to measuring a room for one
- Canadian-made furniture, maker by maker
I also write about bedroom furniture and the brands we carry.
Where to find me in Duncan
I work at Merit Home Furniture Duncan, 107 Ingram Street. The store is open Monday to Saturday from 9 to 5. We have a strict no-pressure policy, and we want people to stroll the store and look. Anyone who'd like a hand planning a room or choosing a mattress can ask for me.