The World of Home Furnishings is Our Playground
High Point Market is Like a City Devoted to Furnishings
Just as technology and electronics companies have the Consumer Electronics Show and the car industry has Auto Week, the home furnishings and design industry has its own massive new products show, High Point Market. Twice a year, furniture, boutique and department store buyers, e-commerce companies, professional interior design firms, and manufacturers of every kind of furniture, bedding, décor, wall art, and other interior decorative item, show up in High Point, NC, affectionately known as the Home Furnishings Capital of the World. It’s there that we see the coming trends, colors, fabrics and furnishings that you will eventually experience in your homes. It is where editors are inspired to bring you the latest and greatest in interior design in the pages of their magazines. And, where architects, designers and merchandisers find products for hotels, restaurants and virtually every other spot that humans inhabit.
What’s different about High Point Market is the scope and scale. It is not confined to a big tradeshow hall or arena. About 2,500 exhibitors fill buildings covering 12 city blocks and more than 11-million-square-feet of show space. And through the years, GSID has mastered this maze of manufactured mania to find the most stunning, luxurious home goods for our beloved clients.
We’re just back from High Point Market so here’s a sneak peek of some of the products we saw, trends we tracked, and a bit of the fun we had, too.
Searching for the Best
Form and function may come to mind when thinking of furniture, but there’s a third “F” and that’s fabric…literally thousands of fabric selections are available from our partners and vendors.
We cannot resist a stunning chair. Interesting backs, unusual shapes and incredible detailing come together to create style statements for our clients’ homes.
Sharing the Stage with Other Industry Leaders
Glenna with Tanya Lewis, founder of Austin Gray, share a moment during their discussion of “The Alchemy of Antiques,” one of the many educational programs offered during High Point Market
The panel sharing insider tips about vintage and antique finds. From left: Hadley Keller of Design Leadership Network, Blair Moore of Moore House Design & Roweam, Glenna and Tanya Lewis of Austin Gray.
In addition to her expert advice as a panelist for The Alchemy of Antiques, Glenna moderated a discussion for design professionals called, “Solopreneurship: How to know when to hire a team,” presented by Odette. Scroll up to the top of the blog where you will see Glenna with the speakers: Dalia Soles of Design Assisted, Lauren Czarniecki of Czar Interiors & Jasmine Crockett of Joy Meets Home.
Here’s What We Saw
Three new trends we spotted:
Green marble, available on everything from tables to wall art to lamps
Trendspotting this lamp with variegated green marble base
Mentioning lighting, we saw lots of diminutive lamps in all styles and materials
Lighting that trends toward tiny was seen in several showrooms
Low profile headboards, some in wood and others upholstered, all with a shorter, but more refined, stance
Bye-bye big headboards. New designs are trending towards a lower profile
Catching up with other design professionals—all great friends—is one of the perks of High Point Market. From left: Matthew Tenzin of Joe McGuire Design; Gail Doby, Pearl Collective; Elissa Grayer, Elissa Grayer Interior Design; Kristin Magowitz, Pearl Collective; Becky Charton, Table Setters; Erin Weir, Pearl Collective, and our photographer, Tina Ramchandani, Tina Ramchandani Creative
While High Point Market is enjoyable, educational and social for us, the real reasons we regularly attend is to stay ahead-of-the-curve for our clients; to work with our trade-only vendors so you have furnishings that are not cookie-cutter or seen everywhere. We use it to understand and maneuver around business challenges before they become headaches for us or our clients. We do it to be better designers and better partners for you.
What’s one home trend you think should never come back? Put it in the comments below!
Watch this space for exciting news about one of our projects in Traditional Home. We can’t wait to share it with you.
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Glenna Stone Interior Design is an award-winning Philadelphia interior design firm serving Philadelphia, the Main Line, and surrounding cities. Utilizing her background and training in interior design, architecture, and engineering, Glenna specializes in creating interiors for residential and commercial design settings. We invite you to visit our website, view our portfolio, and catch up on the latest interior design concepts on our blog!
