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Every spring and fall, furniture market is a buzz through North Carolina’s triad. Hundreds upon thousands of industry professionals flock to High Point for the largest furniture show, compared only by the Las Vegas furniture market which occurs each spring and summer. Some visitors travel from across the world, but I have the luxury of living only an hour away!
When I say market is big, I mean there’s so much to see that I always come home saying, “I should’ve gone to this showroom, or that showroom,” and usually I spend several days down there. But this year, I took a different approach. This year, myself and my friend Adrienne went for one single day and we picked out our top showrooms to visit and left it at that. And if I’m being completely honest, after a few hours, everything starts running together anyways and it can become unproductive.
So here’s my recap of a single day at market. I’ll highlight my favorite showrooms to visit, a couple hidden gems of market, and give you a sneak peak at what you can expect to hit the stores this season!
My Favorite Market Showrooms
There are couple showrooms that I have to visit each year. They always inspire me and get me motivated to create. They’re beautiful and each provide a unique experience with each visit.
Massoud
Massoud is one of my all time favorite showrooms to visit for several reasons. First off, they are small and super personal. Every time I go, they don’t care if I have an account. Instead they are excited to hear I’m a designer and eager to assure me they can do single item orders. It doesn’t matter how small of a designer you are, they give every person a personal tour through the showroom highlighting new pieces, fabrics, and even artworks! So far I’ve happened to have the same representative give me the tour and she’s awesome.
Second of all, they mix the coolest fabrics on their pieces. They are one of the few companies I’ve see that puts a different fabric on the back of the chair that on the front. They can do accent piping, made to order items, and pretty much create any combo I could dream up. I mean, who else could put peacock fabric on the back of chair…successfully???
Loloi
Loloi is also one of my favorite companies ever! I’ve watched them grow over time and every season I’m excited to see what new creations they’ve come out with. I believe what draws me to them so much is that their products are very textural, and ya’ll know how I like texture.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to go into their showroom this round, but that had a little to do with the fact that Kenny G was playing a concert in there!! VIPs only of ocurse. The halls were filled with beautiful music, so I guess it was OK they we couldn’t walk through. We got to watch through the windows.
CR Laine
CR Laine is also a must see on my list each trip. This showroom is huge and filled with beautiful pieces upholstered in statement fabric. This time we stumbled on the perfect application of dog fabrics, pink club chairs, and the inspiration for my next gallery wall!
Baker Furniture
When I say class, I mean CLASS. I enjoy visiting Baker so much because it takes me into a furniture world that the only the elite get to experience. (I’m pretty sure one of the chairs I saw was priced at over $30,000.)
The furniture here is stunning and bold!
TOV
Honorable mention goes to TOV Furniture. They are super fun! While not one of my favorites, I always enjoy going in there to boost my “girl power” mood. Their entire brand is about empowering women and embracing the velvet and glam.
Hidden Gems of Market
There are a few secret showrooms that I’ve stumbled upon over the years and they are each quirky and unique in their own way!
Akara
Akara is an indian rug company. Their showroom is very small but I what I love about them, beyond the fact that their rugs are beautiful, is that they actually sell rug samples right there. This year I walked out with an adorable 2×3 rug (black and white thank you,) and a huge bag they made out of rug scraps!
Knock On Wood
This showroom just speaks to my soul in so many ways. This room is full of natural wood tones and Scandinavian style! Located in the Antique and Design Center, you can take home the gems in this room that day. They’ve got a huge selection of handwoven pillows and rugs as well as some killer furniture pieces.
Expect These Trends
Now after a solid day of walking and walking, and walking some more, we began to see some recurring themes. You’ve probably already seen some of these things in stores and I’m pretty confident in my predictions of what’s coming!
- Denim Blue – Not necessarily denim the fabric, though that’s running at large now too, but we are seeing that blue color EVERYWHERE!!! It’s perfect on walls, on pillows, and dare we say major furniture? I mean, I could get behind a light blue couch in my living room.
- Blush – Who’s surprised with this one? Anybody? The market is in full saturation with this beautiful color and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Probably one of my favorite applications of this color, besides a velvet blush chair, is art! How beautiful it is to have a large scale artwork mixing blush tones and gold!
- Midcentury Modern – My heart is tickled at this one! The 70s are back with a twist. Be prepared to see modern cabinets with the iconic cone shaped legs! And curves, beautiful curves!
