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| Trends: Styles and Trends |
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By Leslie Fishbein, Kacey
Fine Furniture
The watchwords are choice, individualism, and customization.
Life's ultimate luxury is to be able to choose your style and
the articles you surround yourself with to fit your personality.
The ultimate mélange of textures and materials that is
available on the market today reflects the customization possible
through the advent of technology and globalization. Whether you
style is sophisticated luxury or inspired simplicity, rustic
charm or old world comfort, crisp and clean modern, or casual
elegance, the breath and depth of products available today can
help you create your unique vision for your home.
Now, as never before,
you are in charge of the color, size and style of the pieces
you select. Not only can you custom order your upholstered pieces
with your choice of colors and materials, size and shapes, but
also, dining room and bedroom pieces are available allowing you
to completely customize as never before. From the color and finish
to the arrangement of the inside storage of the case piece, you
are in charge of making the item fit your specific requirements.
Hardware style and finish is also up to the individual's discretion
and unique needs on many of the new items introduced for this
year.
And if you don't want
to entirely customize a piece of furniture, then another new
trend is furniture that is up to the job of multi-tasking with
multi-purposes built-in to the item. Home fashions have an aesthetic
requirement, but also must serve functional purposes to help
us streamline our daily tasks and activities. Now we can find
furniture that is functional with hidden storage. For example,
you can find a chest or dresser with movable side panels or doors
that may hold ties or jewelry. Pieces that can be made to fit
in small spaces but can extend when you need something bigger.
An example of this is a console or sofa table that flips open
and can be used for dining. How about open storage that doubles
as a room divider? And what room has more multifunctional requirements
than the media center? With the advent of HDTV, Plasma and LCD
televisions, media storage with full bar and entertainment functionality
is necessary. Media room upholstery with motion and speakers
built into the frame bring home entertainment to a new level
to enhance your viewing pleasure like never before.
Technology makes it possible to render your room and any pieces
you are adding to see exactly what you are creating. With computerized
fabric draping programs to on line design tools, you don't have
to guess about what something will look like in your home.
Materials for surface appeal reflect global interest and availability.
From iron to pewter to zinc to polished steel or copper, nickel
or brass, you will find metals a very important design trend
to add sparkle to any environment. Wood is painted, multi-colored,
distressed, waxed, and inlaid to provide texture and long lasting
beauty to any room. Accents are trending toward the use of bone
or horn, acrylic or bamboo, beads and jewels inspired from ethnic
influences. Leather, animal prints, fur and hair on hide are
important textures for home environments that have important
stylistic motifs.
Geometric shapes, argyle,
lace and eyelet toile, are just a few of the important trends
in home textiles.
Inspiration and creativity match with customization and availability
to help you create the style that expresses your personality
and the home of your dreams.'
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| Trends:
Trend
Report Winter |
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If you're looking for
new ways to spice up your home, here are some bright ideas. Whether
you're looking to update your entire living room or simply refresh
your style with some affordable accessories, here are some of
the trends shaping this year's colors and designs.
Purple, purple, purple!
Emerging as a hot fashion
color last fall, purple is not just a fad, it's an entrenched
trend, strongly influenced by the election. (After all, red plus
blue equals purple.) The Color Marketing Group suggests a grayed-out
violet will work equally well as an accent or a neutral, and
you'll see redder, plummier purples and blue-influenced fuchsias
in a huge range of products. Purple is 2009's "must have"
color. In addition, Pantone Color Institute forecasts other lively
colors and sophisticated, grounded hues with Fuchsia Red, Salmon
Rose, Palace Blue, Lavender, Rose Dust and Vibrant Green predicted
to be popular.
Wood is good.
Wood remains the leader
in materials, which is great for the eco-chic trend. A shift
toward lighter finishes is really going to keep this category
going. Look for gray wood. Dark is not done, but it's evolving.
According to Kathy Peterson
- celebrity design expert and co-host of Lifetime TV's "The
Balancing Act" - wood flooring is blending into an eclectic
mix of wood tones. She also forecasts hardwood wall coverings
(wood, resin, metals) with seamless panels of custom designs
becoming focal points of a room. The popularity of wood throughout
the home is gaining popularity, with floors, walls, ceilings
(bead board) and furniture incorporating wood at their center.
Another interesting eco-friendly product is silk-like luxury
eco-bedding - natural silk-like linens are created from organic
materials such as processed wood-pulp, and are given gorgeous
color through the use of non-toxic dyes.
Fabric finery.
High fashion details and
styling will jump the fashion runways and sashay their way into
home furnishings. Accent pillows and other soft textiles will
sport gorgeous dressmaker details from sexy belts and glamorous
beading to 3D floral details. Look for intricate weaves, fine
and elaborate textures, and lustrous overtones in fabrics. Visual
and textural variety is important - stripes, paisley and botanical
patterns are showing up in updated and reinvented ways this year.
Also, look for patterns
in décor and tableware. New interpretations of fine point
illustrations are decidedly decorative. Experts at the Las Vegas
Furniture Market suggest that patterns such as Greek keys, camphor
leaves, medallions, iron work patterns, scallops and architectural
elements are making their way onto tableware and accessories.
Design without borders.
Global and multi-cultural
decor inspired by China, Russia, Latin America, Morocco and India
(primary influences) are mixed and matched to create a global
design tour at home.
A cool, clean, Asian-influenced
aesthetic is inherent in the forecast. Watch for "eastern
cool" and aged neutrals from the landscape - stone gray,
moss green, deep indigo - accented with lacquer red and sky blue.
A continued interest in metallics, particularly with special
finishes such as blackened patina or hammering. Also look for
natural forms and materials. Consumers love the traditional black
and red lacquer, but new, unexpected colors such as white, aqua,
coral and lemon are giving the trend a fresh look.
African influences can
bee seen in accessories such as rocks, fossils, horns with a
metallic coat. Leopard and tiger skin patterns are paired with
unnatural colors to make them feel new. Moroccan motifs, such
as grillwork, stars and paisley, work well in sheer and lustrous
tapestries. Add in exotic grasses and metal and lacquered wood
to round out the look, and you have an African trend to reenergize
the global mood for the balance of the decade.
A sophisticated take on
preppy is inspired by the New England shores, with moody mid-tones
such as classic camel in the luxury market. Look for beachy,
dreamy hues - sandy taupes punctuated by barn red, salmon pink
and grass green. This color palette reflects a rustic, worn feel.
Eco-friendly emphasis.
Eco-friendly decor and
furniture products continue to be in demand by today's energy-conscious
and environmentally-aware consumers. Interior designer McKinley
Adams predicts consumers will be interested in sustainable building
materials that may cost a bit more up front, but will save money
in the long run. He also sees a surge of interest in vintage
furnishings for inside the home, while other designers anticipate
increased use of grass cloth and natural finishes.
Also, watch for blue to
become the new "green" - various greens have symbolized
"green living" over the last few years, but in 2009
the "green" environmental message is delivered by the
color blue. There are watery blues, sky blues and a whole range
of blues that now represent our commitment to living on a greener
planet.
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| Trends: Trend Report Fall |
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Women in the Home Furnishing
Industries Today, held its semi-annual Competitive Intelligence
Trends Panel in High Point last Thursday. Panelists included
Barry Dixon, Barry Dixon, Inc.; Raymond Waites, Raymond Waites
Design, Inc. and Michael Wolk, Michael Wolk Design Associates.
The panelists and moderator Ellen Gefen discussed several emerging
trends in the industry:
· Colors: Minimal and earthy neutral pallets,
as well as organic influences were noted as strong. Dark brown,
parchment, berry, rose and pink were mentioned as prominent colors.
Further discussion indicated that reds are becoming warmer, greens
are moving to more olive tones, and purple is lightening to lavender
shades paired with grey for a subdued effect.
· Customization as a Competitive Weapon: Panelists
discussed the ability to offer the customer exactly what he or
she wants as a way to stand out from the competition in both
upholstery and case goods. This has the added advantage of bolstering
domestic production. Strong unique looks can draw attention,
particularly on the high end of the market.
· Smaller Scales: The many advantages of featuring
smaller-scale furniture were highlighted, including lower transportation
costs (more units per container) and lower costs of the raw materials
which translates to lower, more compelling, retail price points.
· Other Highlights: Case Good Trends - Inlays and
marquetry in case goods with motifs inspired by and reminiscent
of tattoos were noted with interest. Limed finishes to highlight
the grain of wood, and walnut finishes were noted on case goods.
· Upholstery Trends - Swarovski crystal
accents, bold Marimekko-style prints, flocked fabrics and linen
weaves were mentioned by commentators when discussing upholstery.
· Overall Trends - Organic textures, pewter-finished
metallics, softer aesthetics in contemporary furniture, and historical
references in clean-lined, smaller updated traditional styles
were mentioned about as impacting all categories.
When the discussion was opened up to the audience, attendees
contributed the following observations:
· Berry was the
"in" color in Paris's recent fashion season. Noted
by Connie Post, the Connie Post Companies.
We may be entering the era of "Victoriana II" where
diverse styles and designs from cultures around the world, as
well as past and present times, are combined into new forms.
Noted by Jenna Hall, AspenHome.
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