The Australian home furniture market is in for a shake up this Christmas, following the opening of Williams-Sonoma’s first stores in Melbourne as well as the impending arrival of US furniture giant, Ashley Furniture, next month.

This week Williams-Sonoma opened the doors to its new stores in Melbourne at Chadstone shopping centre, with the site the largest for the US-based homewares brand in Australia to date .

The opening at Chadstone marks the first Melbourne-based stores for Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and Pottery Barn Kids and the second for West Elm, following the opening of a standalone store in Chapel St, South Yarra last September.

In a global first, all four stores, situated on the lower level in the west mall of Chadstone, are interconnected and occupy a total of 2505sqm of retail space.

“Melbourne’s vibrant culinary and design culture is globally recognised and we are excited to continue our global expansion by opening four stores in this thriving city in time for the Christmas season,” said Ron Young, senior VP of Global, Williams-Sonoma.

The official opening follows the announcement that fellow US furniture giant, Ashley Furniture, will open its first standalone store in Australia next month.

To be located at Adelaide’s Gepps Cross homemaker centre, the 1845sqm store will neighbour South Australia’s largest Harvey Norman store.

Ashley Furniture had previously only been sold at Fantastic Holdings-owned, LeCornu Furniture, in Adelaide.

Williams-Sonoma first opened in Australia at Bondi Junction, followed by a standalone West Elm store in Melbourne.

Earlier this year, all four brands opened at Sydney’s Chatswood Chase.