Shares of Ethan Allen plunged 15% Monday morning after the home furnishing retailer said late Friday it expects to report a first-quarter loss between $0.21 and $0.23 a share on Wednesday. That is far greater than the $0.08 loss that analysts expect.  

CEO Farooq Kwathari said net sales fell 34% last quarter, and that “business conditions remain challenging.”

The recession has been tough on furniture retailers.  Monthly furniture sales from the Commerce Department’s monthly retail sales report show sales tumbled to $7.83 billion in September from a peak of $9.92 billion in January 2007 

Furniture spending is closely tied to new and existing home sales, so it’s unlikely that Ethan Allen’s fortunes will improve until the housing market shows some meaningful signs of recovery.