Dining regains stylish formality
Pendulum swings back toward carvings, overlays and rich finishes
By Jeff Linville -- Furniture Today, January 29, 2007
High Point — After years of focusing their attention on casual contemporary, many dining producers are returning to their roots with groups that bring back formality and style.
The market still has plenty of clean lines and flat finishes, but now the style pendulum is swinging back toward carvings, overlays, hand-rubbed finishes and other labor-intensive touches that Asian factories can do affordably.
It's the return of "goopy," said one manufacturer.
At one time, U.S. companies turned to China mostly for cheap furniture, but that stereotype has faded as even high-end companies like Bernhardt and Century now bring in some imported collections.
Domestic companies can make casual contemporary at a competitive price, but they just can't hand carve furniture with the higher wages paid to their employees. Also, said an importer, the factories in China, Vietnam, the Philippines and other Asian countries have gotten much better in quality.
Major debuts
Bernhardt hasn't abandoned its casual contemporary groups that are still performing well, but some fancier collections had big debuts last year. Tuscan Villa, a big, bold Italian design, was the hit of the April 2006 High Point market, while Carmel Highlands, featuring birch solids and veneers and cathedral walnut veneer, was a hot launch in October.
Pulaski has added to its Casa Cristina line with Cantabria, 40 pieces that include a rectangular or round dining table with leaf extensions and wood and upholstered dining chairs. Inspired by Spain's Basque region, this collection features heavy moldings and other decorative touches, such as intricate metal trims and custom-designed metal hinges and door straps.
AICO introduced Palais Royale at the July 2006 Las Vegas market, then expanded it for High Point. The French Rococo-inspired collection has a dining table that opens and extends to 13 feet for large gatherings. Hallmarks include hand carvings, inlaid marquetry, and shaped and beveled glass.
New for Las Vegas, AICO's Starry Night offers Italian Renaissance styling with a black, rubbed-through finish with slight crackle effect.
Even when the silhouettes are more reserved, today's offerings still have a lot of style.
"(Our) new Vienna (collection) is a classic Biedermeier addition," said Martin Ploy, AICO's executive vice president. "Birch solids and primavera woods and burls are used with a duo-tone finish treatment called Truffle Medley."
Bernhardt's Wilshire Blvd., introduced in October, features clean lines that are jazzed up with stripe sapele and sapele pommele veneers.
"Formal dining isn't going away. It's changing," said Ed Tashjian, Century corporate marketing director. "Many of the new homes ... are being built with smaller formal dining rooms or no room at all."
Then at the other extreme, Tashjian said, some bigger homes have huge dining rooms that can hold a dozen or more people.
The tables with more pizzazz are the ones going into the dedicated dining rooms, while the cleaner groups find themselves in kitchens or great rooms, said Heather Bloom, Bernhardt's director of brand development.
Something for everybody
To accommodate this new reality, Century introduced furniture last market for both situations. One table shown in October is 17 feet long and seats 18. The company also introduced a smaller dining program that still provides plenty of look.
At the promotional end, Ashley is dominating the dining business with its imports, admitted Tashjian. "Asia is very efficient at making mass-produced SKUs ... with exceptional prices," he said.
However, Tashjian wondered if pushing lower prices really benefits retailers in the long run.
"Once someone buys a dining room suite, they are out of the market for a set for at least two decades," he said.
Century's smaller dining program offers three different tabletop sizes, six top materials (including granite, marble and hand-hammered copper), a choice of fifty 20-step finishes, and 70 dining chairs in 2,500 fabrics and leathers.
"They're not made out of laminate," said Tashjian about the pieces. "They're not offered in motor oil finishes. It's not rubberwood."
A quarter of the market still wants a highly polished, formal mahogany table, he said, while the remainder wants something styled differently.
"We're seeing a renewed interest in a ... somewhat more dressy, if not dress-casual design, in a smaller scale," said Richard Tompkins, director of sales and marketing for Cresent Fine Furniture.
Cresent has double-pedestal tables in the line, but that segment isn't growing right now, Tompkins said. Instead, the company is finding new customers with smaller round dining such as a 54-inch table that becomes oval with a 20-inch leaf.
Stylish and flexible
These tables can seat four easily for lunch or an evening card game for two couples, he said. If two more people show up for dinner, the leaf creates enough room for six.
"Empty nesters" are similar to young adults in that they don't often need a big table, but they expect a little more style, according to Tompkins.
Vaughan Furniture also has found new sales with this niche. This spring, the company will launch hybrid dining that offers designs that have been popular in its bedroom business, but not as big or expensive as the typical dining suite, said Bill Vaughan, chairman and CEO.
