Fresh colors, new twists spark youth activity
By Marc Barnes -- Furniture Today, May 22, 2006
High Point — Youth furniture continued its evolution here, with sources offering new colors that reflect changing consumer tastes and variations on time-tested designs.
In the PowellKids showroom, the expanded Sunday Funnies collection was an eye-opener, with swooping outsized lines, all in bright greens, blues, pinks and yellows.
Anne Russell, vice president of merchandising, said the palette is based on the most prevalent colors in children's apparel.
"We had barely unpacked it and we really started getting a great reaction," said Russell. "It really looks like Mini Mouse's bedroom, with a traditional base of a sleigh bed, but with a softer feel."
At Pulaski Furniture, Jim Kelly, executive vice president of marketing and product development, said the focus this market was to modify and improve what has worked in the past. An example is an Edwardian youth collection, a smaller-scaled version of Pulaski's top seller in an adult Victorian style.
"We've gotten a good response, but it is hard to go wrong if you take the No. 1 seller and translate it into something else," he said.
Linda Owen, vice president of marketing at Riverside Furniture, said the company's Spring Street youth bedroom combines sleep, study and storage pieces in a cottage contemporary style. Selected pieces are in pastel shades of white, blue and green, colors that were chosen based on what's popular in home furnishings fabric selections.
Bedtime also takes consumer taste into account, according to sales rep Rit Matt-his. Color is an example: In order of preference, he said, consumers are increasingly picking black, white, blue and red, in that order.
University Loft also told a color story here. Kathy Carlson, national sales manager, said an in-line Mission youth bedroom in a merlot finish has been refinished in white to appeal to girls.
At Primo Furniture, John DeFalco, vice president of sales and marketing, said many consumers will choose chairs and sofa-sleepers to coordinate with beds and case pieces in youth bedrooms. Some of the sofas are used under loft beds, or are substituting for beds in kids' rooms.
In color this market, small chairs, including swivel chairs for TV viewing and gaming, proved popular in bright reds, yellows, purples and greens.
"Sometimes, we will bring the bright reds and blues, and then they will buy what's safe," DeFalco said. "But we are doing a lot of youth business in this."
