High Point Highlights

Twice a year, retailers, manufacturers and the media converge on High Point, North Carolina, for the International Home Furnishings Market, a furniture bacchanal showcasing the latest offerings for the home. It’s also an opportunity to scope out the latest furniture trends and try to predict the Next Big Thing in the ever-changing world of home décor.

Last October, tens of thousands of visitors made the pilgrimage to High Point. Here are some of the trends that emerged from that show; look for some of these looks to emerge on retailers’ floors throughout 2006:

The Tuscan Look
Moviegoers may have not paid much attention when Diane Lane went traipsing Under the Tuscan Sun in 2003, but furniture makers were watching. A number of companies introduced collections inspired by the Italian countryside—a look that’s European, but more relaxed, with a definite country feel. In collections such as Thomasville’s Hills of Tuscany, Hickory White’s Italian Country and Century’s Caperana, the mood is curvaceous and the finishes often distressed.

Size Matters
Someone’s gotta furnish all those McMansions sprouting up around the country, so manufacturers responded with collections of large-scale pieces designed to fit all those two-story entry halls and vaulted living rooms. Bed posts that top 7 feet, gathering tables as high as counters and even extra-tall desks were shown at the fall market.

Greatest Hits of the 20th Century
Manufacturers are looking to the last century for period styles that will pique Baby Boomers’ interest, from the art deco look of Hammary’s Deco Collection, to Thomasville’s expansion of their Humphrey Bogart Collection, which conjures recollections of Hollywood’s Golden Age. This is a vein that Barbara Barry has also mined successfully in her collections for Baker and Henredon.

The Big Finish
Dark wood finishes continue to dominate the furniture market, reflecting a 1990s move away from the previous decade’s emphasis on bleached floors and pale woods. Hard to know when the pendulum will swing back again, but given the furniture industry’s nostalgia for midcentury glamour, don’t expect pickled pine to be showing up anytime soon.