High Point Furniture Market - call it Mecca for Interior Designers.

Just back from the High Point Market for Home Furnishings in North Carolina and the strong trend for home furnishings is COLOR. There were splashes of rich hues everywhere in the gorgeously designed showrooms.  High Point Market takes place twice a year and is the place for the furniture industry to meet, greet and see what’s new.

My husband joined me on this trip, somewhat kicking and screaming.  He had heard horror stories from his guy friends who attended a couple of years ago.  They didn’t last a day.  You see, this furniture show is an entire city, yes I said a city, of showrooms.  There are even shuttle buses to conveniently transport you around the 10 million square feet of furniture and furnishings displayed by 2000 exhibitors. Luckily High Point has figured out a solution for show fatigue by plying visitors with food and drink at literally every turn.  It is easy to keep the spouse on the move with the temptation of a Moroccan lunch in a lighting showroom.  And we practically heard a bell ring at 4 o’clock, the start of the Cocktail Hour, or maybe it was the shouts of “Ginger Martinis in Aisle 4” that caught our attention.

So back to color.  These bright punches of color were used boldly on accessories and liberally on chairs, large pieces of furniture and lighting. The most eye-catching display was a set of dining room chairs, each shouting its own loud color in a curvy, space age shape.  It was made up of interwoven strapping material that was surprising comfortable. You could not miss nor forget these chairs.  Unwinding one evening, we decided to go to movie The Hunger Games, and were elbowing each other when the chairs showed up in the lavish dining room scene. This is how trends start.

Visiting one of my favorite showrooms, a manufacturer that makes chandeliers out of hickory twigs, we again saw the use of bright punches of color.  They had their usual display of natural twig chandeliers, and then there was goldenrod, sunset orange and scarlet chandelier and sconces. It was a magical experience to stand beneath the sparkly colorful canopy of twigs.

In another lighting showroom, we came across an antique birdcage filled with brightly colored birds in turquoise.  It only makes sense that the birds were wearing turquoise, this manufacturer’s signature color, which repeats over and over again in their chandeliers and table lamps. Designers actually think about this stuff. Amazing.