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At High Point--Upholstery brings on the color

Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, April 10, 2008

AT THE MARKET — Gray skies may be in the forecast for the U.S. economy, but stationary upholstery makers are working hard to counter the somber tone by decorating their latest introductions with a blaze of color.
Happy colors could translate into happy consumers in an uncertain and glum economy, several sources said. The approach is evident in a variety of showrooms this High Point Market, where the mood seems to be color gone wild.
Taking a cue from the fashion industry, big bold prints, bright patterns and florals are being used as drawing cards in many showrooms.
Ron Curlee, director of visual merchandising for Highland House, explained the riot of color on his company’s line this way: “We’re going into spring, and color is the best way to give you life.”
Before market, Curlee gave a presentation to the company’s sales force detailing how color interacts with emotions (for example, red equals passion, love, energy and power; yellow represents happiness, intellect, honor and loyalty).
“The textile mills focused on color as well,” he said, “which gave us great selections to pick from.”
Jaclyn Smith Home features muted red stripes and a rose print in a grouping unveiled in its new showroom in IHFC, space H-304. And Norwalk uses blasts of color in its youthful No. 1902 collection and in pieces such as Candice Olson’s Cuddle Chair.
C. R. Laine is spotlighting big, bright patterns, some in 54-inch repeats, with bold plums and giant paisleys.
Fashion stylist Tina Chai uses free-spirited botanicals, stripes and solids — a pale pink velvet chair, for example — in her first furniture collection for Rowe’s Robin Bruce line.
“Why live in a world of beige when you can live in a world of color?” asked Chai, hired on for the company’s designer series after her work was spotted in Domino magazine by Rowe President Stefanie Lucas.
Urban color in interesting, textured base cloths also fits another strategy emerging this market: Appealing to the younger crowd.
Klaussner, for instance, is featuring non-patterned covers in chocolate velvet, a mottled black and charcoal and other metropolitan-chic fabrics in its low-profile, smaller scale Millennials collection aimed at Gen Y consumers. Norwalk is going after the younger set with its 1902 collection (the year the company was founded). And Douglas is tapping deeper into what Michael Cohen, vice president, sales, West, calls the Yuppie market with its eco-friendly Novi collection.
Another trend in color is gray, which has become almost the new beige in the marketplace. But the hot tone is not a gray gray — it’s everything between blue gray and slate gray.
Contemporary/transitional is still a dominant style in many showrooms, with enough track arms being shown here to stretch around the world.

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