New day for case goods
Traditional styles get update
By Jeff Linville -- Furniture Today, March 19, 2007
High Point — This season's case goods may start out as Edwardian or antique Chinese, but manufacturers are bringing them into the modern day.
Furniture at this month's High Point Market should offer the usual wide selection of styles, based on samples shown at premarket last week and product information submitted to Furniture/Today. The one theme that emerges is an updating of the traditional styles with the addition of contemporary or transitional touches.
Among the design influences on tap, in addition to Edwardian and Chinese, are Spanish colonial, Empire, British West Indies, Louis Philippe, MacIntosh, 17th century Irish antiques, Federal, French country, early American, Art Deco and European classical. Not to mention contemporary.
Several companies will offer groups that have roots in traditional designs, but are updated to transitional with styling touches that make them cleaner and more sophisticated, to appeal to a more urban or younger consumer.
Platt Collections, for example, has Adagio with a transitional/contemporary feel, while Aria leans more toward the contemporary side with an Espresso finish and silver-finished hardware. At Leda, the Uptown collection is inspired by Charles Rennie MacIntosh, whose straight-line designs readily lend themselves to contemporizing. Century has a pair of new collections also in the transitional vein, in cera jera wood.
Stanley Collections showed two new groups last week, including Hudson Street, with a mid-20th century contemporary influence. The maple solids and walnut veneers come in two flavors: a darker Espresso finish and a warm Cocoa. Details include curved fronts, gently splayed legs, beading and custom goblet hardware.
While Lexington hasn't unveiled its new licensed line with entrepreneur Donald Trump, the company promises Trump Home will offer a contemporary, New York-inspired flair in one of its looks, called Central Park.
Magnussen Home's Midtown Collection, meanwhile, evokes the 1930s interpreted for today's metropolitan spaces. Dressed in figured cherry veneers, the collection features rounded pilasters, shaped aprons, coved tops and hand-rubbed finishes.
Adding more glamour are groups derived from Art Deco or Art Nouveau. Zocalo designers Jorge Jaramillo and Margaret Leigh created Belle Noir with inspirations of Art Nouveau. The group's modern feel is highlighted by tapered feet and legs, and Nouveau-inspired patterns that are visible through subtle details in surface shine.
Broyhill's Art Deco-inspired Avenue has bird's-eye maple and sapeli veneers, mother of pearl inlays, jewelry hardware and dramatic proportions. Manufacturers Designers & Makers and Lorna Dewey also have Art Deco groups planned.
Going more casual, Fine Furniture Design & Marketing and Stanley each have a group with an island feel. FFDM's British Colonial is a mix of Caribbean and British West Indies design influences, in walnut solids and walnut and crotch walnut veneers. Sunset Key by Stanley reinterprets the breezy elegance of West Indies styling with a more relaxed feel than FFDM's group. Sunset Key features maple solids and rogue maple and cherry veneers, as well as a bed made from woven Lampe Kenai sea grass.
Habersham, FFDM and Bernhardt will feature collections based on American traditional designs, while Pennsylvania House and Aspenhome have developed new takes on the classic Louis Philippe.
