Metal mastery
Enhanced styling strikes a chord
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, June 12, 2006
High Point — Metal bed vendors struck a chord with retailers at the April High Point market with new finishes, styles and price points.
The enhanced selection affords many options for buyers — covering a broad spectrum of style tastes and budgetary sensibilities — seeking to spruce up their sales floors this spring and summer.
At domestic manufacturer Wesley Allen, the emphasis remains on offering high style and craftsmanship at a value.
The new Jasper model is a traditional-style bed with brass and silver highlights, priced at $900 retail.
Another moderately priced bed is Savoy, a $700 retail model whose slightly curved headboard and footboard and vertical slats give the piece what President Victor Sawan calls a "romantic contemporary" style. It comes in standard, custom and two-tone finishes.
The Korbel is a transitional-style brass bed based on an antique with a retail price point of $1,800. It features satin brass tubing with nickel-plated finials and castings.
And the Cornell is a large-scale, traditional-style bed that retails at $1,400. It comes in standard, custom and two-tone finishes.
Soft touch
At market, Wesley Allen also offered two new upholstered frames — the Pella and the Abington. Priced at $1,200 retail, the contemporary-style Pella bed is available in six fabric colors and standard or custom finishes. Abington is a transitional model that retails at $1,400. It also is available in six fabric colors and standard or custom finishes.
Style and finish options also are key at Corsican, another domestic metal bed producer.
One new bed has two different decorative scrollwork options on the headboard, including a floral medallion motif and another with leaves and grapes. Retailing from $1,200 to $1,600, the bed is also available in eight new heavily distressed finishes, including antique blue, dark red, multicolored greens and multi-colored golds and browns, said James Vacek, a sales representative for the company.
"Those colors seem to be accepted well," he said. "They are really popular."
Another hit at market was Corsican's rose panel bed, which features a hand-painted motif on the headboard and footboard. Priced between $1,300 and $1,400 retail, it also is offered in various colors, including antique blue with yellow roses, green and yellow with red roses, and antique ivory, also with red roses.
Fashion Bed Group's big story during market was a new "Value Price" program that features five transitional frames priced between $199 and $299.
They include Ellsworth in a new brown finish, Dexter in hammered brown, Grafton in rusty gold, Sanford in a black powdercoat and Winslow in mahogany gold.
Fashion Bed Group's line typically starts at $399 for a complete, queen-size bed. By sharpening its price points, the company can tap into a new market segment with the same quality and design story that existing customers have come to expect. The new beds include features such as thicker tubing, more castings, higher headboards and decorative feet, said Dan Greer, president of the eastern division.
Returning to roots
Largo International returned to its roots with 10 new metal beds, its strongest introduction in the category in several markets, said Ray Reese, vice president of sales. Based on the response, five of the models will be kept in the line.
Priced between $299 and $399, these include three contemporary models, including one with a corrugated metal look in a black rub-through finish with gold highlights.
"Our contemporary designs were so different from anything we have done before," Reese said.
"Right now, (metal beds) are a very strong category for us," Reese added. "During the past couple of markets, we started focusing more and more on the category, and it is doing pretty well. It is making a strong comeback for us."
Traditional case goods companies such as Hooker, Kincaid, Master Design and AICO also had new metal beds this market.
AICO launched its first metal bed in the Oppulente collection. This bed features a high, curved headboard and gently curving footboard with plenty of swirls and floral-shaped castings that match many of the curved and hand-painted elements featured on the case goods side of the collection.
Hooker Furniture added one metal bed to its lineup, a $999 traditional style model with curved scrollwork on the headboard and footboard. The bed also sports ball finials with carved leaf patterns.
In the past, Hooker has offered two or three new metal beds per market. The fact it only introduced one model in April doesn't mean it plans to abandon the category. By fall, it could have as many as four new models to show, said Kenneth Williams, vice president of merchandising.
With the latest addition, Hooker now has a total of 14 models in its line.
"People like the mixed media (element)," he said, noting the beds have an eclectic styling that ties in well with case goods. "It is a very viable program."
