Colorful accents
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, May 6, 2007
High Point — A spring-like aura is returning to many homes thanks to a host of colors brightening up the occasional and accent category.
Hues ranging from fire- engine reds and cerulean blues to daffodil yellows and fern greens are bursting on the scene, giving customers a chance to customize their furniture and room settings.
Some pieces feature elaborate hand-painted floral and leaf motifs that bring a garden-like flair into the home.
In many cases, these colors and patterns update traditional forms of occasional and accent tables, chests and consoles. In others, they provide a fresh spin on transitional styling.
A key example of this trend was seen last fall in Century Furniture's New Traditional case goods collection, which includes some 15 occasional and accent pieces in five painted finishes, including jet black, sky blue, meadow green, crimson red and cloud white.
The pieces, which include occasional and accent tables, consoles and display cabinets, also are available in 11 wood finishes. However, the colors help update the more traditional forms of these pieces.
"People express themselves with color and express their individuality with customization," said Ed Tashjian, vice president of marketing, noting that Century chose the color schemes based on market research. "The audience for this would be people who appreciate traditional forms, but want to express themselves in a fresh way."
The most popular colors in the collection are white, blue and green, he said.
Philip Reinisch launched a similar color concept at the spring High Point Market called the ColorTime collection. The program offers five colors, including cerulean blue, pirate black, chili-pepper red, fern green and seashell white.
These 24-step finishes are available on five styles of display cabinets, giving the collection a total of 25 SKUs.
The collection also features reversible back panels, including a chestnut-finished version that adds a sense of vivid contrast to the cabinets.
By offering a range of color choices, Reinisch aims to reach the younger consumer looking for a fresh approach to curios.
"It's not just to display her collectibles. It is an accent for the room," said David Urbanick, vice president of merchandising and marketing.
He added that the use of color gives the architecturally inspired curios a more transitional flavor.
Another big color story this past market was the launch of CR-Home's InColor program, which offers 13 new colors for 21 occasional pieces in its Peters-Revington line. These colors also tie in with fabric options offered through the company's Cochrane brand of upholstery.
The program was created after extensive consumer research, company officials said.
"Consumers tell us they would like to customize accents and occasional furniture," said David Corbin, senior vice president of parent Chromcraft Revington. "We took our color cues this spring directly from consumers and applied the colors they want to the styles they use most among the most popular Peters-Revington and Cochrane collections.
"InColor offers CR-Home consumers a variety of ways to add color and pure style to their homes," Corbin continued. "These accents can take a room from traditional to transitional, contemporary to cottage chic and urban casual to coastal."
Pulaski expanded the rich color palette of its Accentrics line this spring with such colors as raspberry red, canary yellow and celery green. They appeared on items such as display cabinets, wine racks and demilune consoles.
As an additional touch, the pieces featured subtle hand-painted leaf and floral motifs.
As with Reinisch, the goal was largely to broaden the appeal of Pulaki's accent line for a younger audience, said Dallas George, vice president of accents.
But color hasn't just burst on the scene these past two markets. Companies such as Butler Specialty, Ultimate Accents, AA Importing, Four Hands and Riverside have applied the concept successfully for a number of years.
In the case of Four Hands, the colors update French traditional-style pieces. In Riverside's case, they provide a look that does well in coastal and other resort areas.
Riverside's long-standing Splash of Color collection of occasional and accent furniture features a range of highly eclectic colors, from chilled melon and sunrise red to denim blue and fresh mint.
"It has been an incredibly successful collection," said Linda Owen, national sales manager. "We update it each market with a fresh piece or a fresh color. It is a very versatile collection."
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