Kidney Desk from Aspen Home
Hello All! Here is the exciting content I promised! Cori Dunn is a shelter industry expert, very highly thought of in the competitive and fast changing home furnishings and home improvement / decor world. Cori has graciously agreed to bring us the very latest from this week's High Point Home Furnishings Market.
Cori details the latest home furnishings trends, and advises on small details that will update the look of your design center and model homes without breaking your budget. Cori is also available to create consumer centric content for your builder website or printed materials.
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AT HIGH POINT:
Model Homes With Wow: The Delight Is In The Details
By Cori Dunn
Crispy Content
With traditional retail furniture store sales in the doldrums, home furnishings manufacturers are looking for new customers. Residential interior designers, and even more specifically, design centers, are the top choice of many companies that sell lighting, decorative accessories, furniture, rugs, wall art and other home fashion products.
At the spring 2008 High Point Market last week, manufacturers talked up new products, programs and services geared to residential designers’ unique needs. Although relief is in sight for their old-time retail customers (industry analyst Mann, Armistead and Epperson Ltd. (http://www.maeltd.com/) forecasts furniture store sales will pick up in the second half of the year), it seems design centers are more than a mere target market du jour. Convenient online ordering, faster shipping, and a greater willingness to offer products in custom colors and sizes are just some of the signs of vendors’ genuine commitment to your satisfaction.
High Point exhibitors also have bragging rights to some of the world’s most amazing wholesale showrooms. Need inspiration for that new model home? The High Point Market’s 12 million square feet of show space fills an entire city with decorating and display ideas. Created by immensely talented merchandisers and visual display artists whose creativity and imagination never seem to run dry, High Point is a living textbook…a treasure trove of ideas you can put to use in your model homes and design centers. Here are a few that you can put to use today.
Create rooms that reflect a lifestyle. Aspen Home (www.aspenfurnituregallery.com) paired a lovely European-inspired writing desk and breakfront in a home office setting created with a busy lady executive in mind. Her favorite magazines, a vase of flowers next to a laptop, a pretty alabaster table lamp are details that cinch the look. And did you notice? Arranging books by the color of their binding gives the lighted shelving a polished look.
Use everyday items in every display. In a cozy home entertainment vignette, Jena Hall from Aspen Home (www.aspenfurnituregallery.com) turns magazines, bottles of soda and a remote control into inexpensive props. A ceramic bowl filled with crunchy snack mix brings color, texture and more realism to the set.
A snazzy bar at Global Views (http://www.globalviews.com/) becomes a mini vignette stocked with fresh flowers, a burning candle and icy drinks. Did you notice: The ice cubes in the glasses and pitcher are made of clear plastic.
Tread lightly with trends. Rather than invest in big pieces that will be dated next season, depend on small accessories to keep your model home current with today’s top color trends. Accent pillows and other home textiles at Palecek (http://www.palecek.com/) bring in a jolt of bright green, this season’s hottest hue.
Learn the art of art arranging. Consumers’ growing interest in all things arty has spawned a big market for mass produced paintings, sculpture and more. Traditional rooms look right with many small, well-framed pieces on a wall. For a more modern approach, choose one enormous piece—Global Views (http://www.globalviews.com/) opted for a linear abstract painting to accompany an equally geometric chair, table and lamp.
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About Cori Dunn
Cori Dunn is President and Chief Creative Officer of Crispy Content. Based in Chicago, Crispy Content provides web content, custom publishing and other marketing communications services to a broad range of companies in the home furnishings industry. The founding editor of Vance Publishing’s Furniture Style magazine, Cori also created and edited Residential Lighting, Home Fashion Forecast, OFFICE and other trade titles during her 20-year career at Vance. You can reach Cori by email at crispycontent@sbcglobal.net.
About Cori Dunn
Cori Dunn is President and Chief Creative Officer of Crispy Content. Based in Chicago, Crispy Content provides web content, custom publishing and other marketing communications services to a broad range of companies in the home furnishings industry. The founding editor of Vance Publishing’s Furniture Style magazine, Cori also created and edited Residential Lighting, Home Fashion Forecast, OFFICE and other trade titles during her 20-year career at Vance. You can reach Cori by email at crispycontent@sbcglobal.net.
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The Design Minds at Hearth and Home Blog is geared to support design center staff and the new construction industry in selling options and upgrades to the new home consumer. Subscribe for updates. Contact Krisann Parker-Brown for merchandising or marketing support of your design center. She will be happy to work with you on your assortment and presentation to ensure you are on track for the upcoming decor trends.
Krisann Parker-Brown is the merchandising manager for Hearth and Home Technologies, the leading manufacturer and retailer of fireplaces and hearth systems. Krisann supports design centers and new construction builders in presenting Heat & Glo, Heatilator and Quadra-Fire hearth systems, and consulting on design center merchandising, point of sale and the consumer experience. Contact her at brownkr@hearthnhome.com or 952-985-6537
