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Conservative case goods

Producers play it safe with traditional styles

Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, November 24, 2010

The Main Street dining set is one of four new groups planned in Universal Furniture’s Better Homes and Gardens line. The rustic Americana-inspired collection is made with hickory veneers.HIGH POINT - Updated traditional forms with European and American style influences will continue to play big roles in case goods at next month's High Point Market, a sign that many suppliers are looking to play it safe with familiar, time-tested designs.
     A number of style leaders previewed their planned introductions at Premarket here Sept. 13-14. The market opens Oct. 16.
     Among the highlights at Premarket was Universal Furniture's Bolero, a traditional, Spanish-influenced collection. Made with cherry and maple veneers with walnut inlay and chestnut burl marquetry, it features design elements such as serpentine shaped case pieces, acanthus leaf carvings, canted posts and carved feet.
     Signature pieces include a $1,499 queen bed and a four-poster leather panel bed with large nailhead trim.
     Broyhill's Leonora is a 32- piece traditional, Italian-inspired collection that features a $1,299 top grain leather sleigh bed, a $999 panel bed and a double pedestal dining table that extends to 108 inches with two leaves. The Italian design influences are seen in both carved elements and in the stepped bases on case pieces.
     Bernhardt's Artisan Estate is a 50-piece collection with Tuscan and Old World-inspired influences. Made with plantation mahogany veneers in a burnished sage finish, it has light distressing and mixed-media elements such as cast stone pedestal bases, glass tops and metal accents.
     Also from Bernhardt is Somerset Hill, a relaxed 19th century traditional collection with British Colonial design influence. The 45-piece collection is made with plantation-grown mahogany veneers in a distressed Clove French wax finish. The British Colonial design inspiration is seen in the hand-woven rattan on drawer fronts and the random hand-planed effect on tables and case pieces.
     Other traditional European influences can be seen in Fine Furniture Design's 29- piece Highlands collection and A.R.T.'s 28-piece Villa Nueva collection. The former has Tudor, British and Scottish- inspired design elements while Villa Nueva has Italian Renaissance design influences.
     Casual lifestyle collections with coastal, rustic farmhouse and in some cases Southwestern flair are expected to appeal to more regional markets.
     Pennsylvania House's R&R is a solid poplar casual lifestyle collection that features a shutter effect on the headboard of a panel bed and the door fronts of case pieces.
     "It's casual and comfortable," said Kevin Miller, brand manager for Universal Furniture, which oversees the Pennsylvania House and Better Homes and Gardens lines.
     Four new groups in Better Homes and Gardens also have a casual design approach, with a mix of cottage, updated traditional and rustic Americana design influences.
     "The key think about all of these is that they are relaxed," Miller said. "They are all designed to go into 80% of the homes in America.... We felt we needed these relaxed perspectives for the Better Homes and Gardens line."
     Kincaid's 100-piece Homecoming collection has rustic farmhouse design influences and is available in three solid wood choices - pine, maple and walnut.
     Hooker's 33-piece Moccato bedroom and dining room collection has Southwestern or Western ranch styling as seen in the raised triangular panels on the headboard and footboard of a panel bed. Pieces are made with cherry veneers in a dark brown finish.
     Perhaps the largest offering in the coastal realm this market is Stanley's licensed Coastal Living Resort collection, an addition to the Coastal Living Cottage line launched in the fall of 2008. It features some contemporary clean-lined forms with mixed-media elements such as metal and woven sea grass. Made with American white oak veneers and hardwood solids, the 50-piece collection also is available in two wood tone finishes and eight other color finishes.
     Hooker Furniture's 55- piece Trilogy melds Old World traditional and urban contemporary design influences. It achieves this with the use of circle, diamond and mitered rectangle-shaped design motifs on various case pieces. The diamond shapes reflect a more traditional approach, while the circle and rectangles give a more contemporary look and feel.
     Signature items include a glass dining table with wooden pedestal bases that repeat the circular and rectangular shapes, and a chest with medium and dark walnut vertical stripes set against a birch background. A sleigh bed uses the diamond patterns in the headboard and the circular and rectangular pattern on the footboard.
This large-scale panel bed is part of Bernhardt’s Artisan Estate collection. The collection has Tuscan design influences and is made with mahogany veneers in a Burnished Sage finish.     Contemporary design influence also can be seen in Broyhill's Alliance collection, which is made with cathedral and straight grain ash veneers in a dark merlot finish. It features a wall bed with hidden storage and a mirror on the headboard, and retails at $2,495 with a storage rail. Other signature pieces include a $999 leather platform bed and a peninsula dining table with storage that seats four.
     "It's simple, it's clean and that's what's selling in the marketplace," said Broyhill President Jeff Cook.
     American Drew's Eclipse is an urban transitional 10- piece bedroom-only group made with white oak veneers in an ebony finish. Its Sedona is a clean-lined seven-piece contemporary bedroom that features a panel bed with a lighted headboard. A four-piece group in Sedona is slated to retail at $2,350.

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Case goods intros in conservative vein

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