Brown takes backseat to fresh colors
By Gary Evans and Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, November 2, 2009
HIGH POINT — As the color palette becomes more varied in upholstered furniture, brown is going down.
“It has been a sea of brown for the last five years, but that's changing,” John Phillips, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Palliser Furniture Upholstery, said in the company's High Point Market showroom.
Said Sheila Seigel, a principal in Sklar Peppler and Alan White, “We left brown two markets ago.”
A lot of the new brighter, bolder looks have been on floors for six months to a year and — surprise! — they've been selling. At the October market, that trend emboldened vendors to expand their palettes even more.
“Our best color last market was teal. There was a lot of skepticism that it would sell, but it has,” said Mike Delgatti, executive vice president of merchandising for Bradington-Young, which this market offered everything from spa blue to terra cotta to key lime green.
Other leather colors sprinkled around showrooms included yellows, oranges, gray/slate and eggplant.
Among the other multi-hued hot spots, Southern Furniture continued a riot of color that began last market, Michael Thomas was successful with sofas and chairs that included large and colorful butterflies, and Rowe sported a rainbow of colors in its Vivienne Tam, Rowe and Robin Bruce collections. Norwalk introduced fabrics in colors that included wasabi green, robin's egg blue and tropical punch, as well as 64 shades of leather in its new Colors program.
“Gone are the days when a handful of colors dominated home furnishings,” said Reyna Moore, director of marketing at Norwalk.
“Color is the ultimate way to reinvent or wake up space,” said Meredith Younger of Younger Furniture. “The use of colors, patterns and textures is what makes upholstery come alive and allows buyers to make their home feel like their own sanctuary…. It is what the furniture industry needs to get its mojo back.”
Sam Moore's big introduction at the market was a modular program sporting colors that included melon, orange, key lime and red. Three groups — Margo, Dorian and Claudia — offer 60 fabrics at the same price.
Other colorful displays were found at Lane and Flexsteel, each of which unveiled leather chairs in numerous colors.
Flexsteel's program, dubbed Color Outside the Lines, features four styles of chairs and matching ottomans, available in 16 leather colors.
“We think color can brighten up a retailer's floor and generate greater interest from the consumer,” said Lee Fautsch, vice president of sales for home furnishings at Flexsteel.
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HIGH POINT MARKET: No longer a sea of brown
Oct 19, 2009
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