News from High Point

It is the High Point International Furniture Market this week and sadly we did not go this time.

High Point can be daunting. It is a city the size of Akron, Ohio with 130 or so expo buildings that are open only 2 weeks a year for the furniture market. It would be similar to parking your car downtown and thinking I have 5 days to go through every building down here and try to see as much as possible. It is laughable. We work really hard, long days and cover maybe 5-10% of the market.

But Market is a blast. It is so inspiring to go through the showrooms and be introduced to the new products. There is so much creativity flowing through the hallways and in the spaces. I just love it. I always come home with oodles (yes, oodles is a word) of fun ideas.

This year I am experiencing High Point through the modern convenience of Twitter. It has been really great to hear from other designers, furniture makers, and magazine execs on their impressions of the hot trends, what is exciting them, and of course, who is having the best parties. (Actually far more important than what is in the showrooms. Let's be real.)

Take this info for what it is, a fun insight into HP, but none of it is first hand.

*It sounds like nature is everywhere. StudioM_ on twitter described what she was seeing as "Au Natural Chic" and that there was burlap, turtle shells, and driftwood galore. (Love That)

*I wish I could remember who said this on twitter and I have tried to go back and find it but, "Gray is the new beige". Such a fab statement and I am seeing this all around me in Cleveland too.

*Bold colors on accent walls are being shown through out the showrooms. Raymond Waites was quoted as saying he is only using, "happy colors", for his collection at Lane Venture.

*A big trend at all price levels seems to be the Napa or "French Laundry" look. Classic, yet a bit rustic.

*Lots of reflective surfaces and silver, silver, silver, silver.

There are typically a few hot color combinations that come out of market. All I have heard so far is gray mixed with either citrine, eggplant, or fuscia.

Love them all!

I will be keeping my nose close to twitter for the next few days. If you are on twitter and would like to follow along with the fun, type #hpmkt in the search box. (I have found some great people to follow this way)

Cheers,

BBS


image is from Google Image and is of the GIANT chest of drawers that welcomes you to High Point, NC. It always makes me giggle when I see the socks.