Bursting & Blooming with Color & Pattern: High Point Furniture Market

From Paris to Prada to High Point, N.C., fashion is bursting and blossoming with color and pattern. As the Spring 2013 High Point Furniture Market prepares to open on Saturday, it looks like optimism and confidence have returned to our national psyche. At least that’s the case if bold, vibrant and eclectic designs are any indication.

Bright colors from orange to fuchsia, from lemon to emerald and from peacock blue to lime are everywhere from leather upholstery, as seen on the new Bradington-Young Soho club chair,

…and the new Emerald Fretwork Chest in the Mélange Collection.

The new Astrid sofa  from Sam Moore is covered in a delightful lemon and stormy gray-blue print fabric.

Large-scaled and vivid patterns like ikats, watercolors, graphics and zigzags are layered on upholstery fabrics. The ever-popular animal skins are making way for reptile patterns on sofas, chairs and chests. This Sam Moore accent chair sports a new Emerald finish in recognition of Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2013, Emerald. The jewel toned green finish, combined with a leopard animal skin fabric, is right on trend.

Animal skin looks have paved the way for the newest rage: faux reptile and amphibian skins used in all-over or in accent applications. The Pompelli Red Croc Chest is one example:

Another example is the Bohemian Black Croc Table in the Mélange Collection.

Not to limit our representation from the animal kingdom, the Mélange collection is even introducing a new bedside table in a faux Shagreen finish. Shagreen, in case you didn’t know, is stingray skin. (Now you have a new piece of trivia!)

At Bradington-Young, the reptile and croc patterns are in the form of embossed leather accents, such as on this peacock blue chenille sofa accented with an embossed faux croc leather on the sides and front rails.

Another example of the brightening of the “color” palette, surprisingly enough, is the emergence of a very bright, cool white with no cream or neutral undertones. This is evident in Hooker Furniture’s new Quatrefoil Canopy Bed, Quatrefoil bedside table and electric white Descanso Chest in the Melange collection bedroom sets.

The bright, cool white finish story has even made its way into home office furnishings by adding a new pure white finish to the Wendover home office collection.

Also in a nod to the eclectic craze in home fashion, wood furniture bedrooms, dining rooms and living rooms are taking a curated, collected approach, mixing finishes and wood species in the same collection, along with mixed materials, metallics and two-tone finishes. Hooker Furniture’s Corsica Collection, for example, is an eclectic European traditional design mixing a core light natural finish with several items in a dark antiqued espresso, both in wire-brushed finishes for tactile, casual appeal. The Palisade Collection features exotic curly maple and walnut patterned veneers and a mix of transitional and traditional styles along with some two-toned looks.

Metallic finishes are offered in Hooker’s new Workwell home office line of smaller- scaled leg desks that are more stylish and versatile to address the changing work styles, work spaces and tastes of today’s home office user.

But certainly the most dramatic item in a metallic finish is this stunning new fretwork bed in Hooker Furniture’s popular Rhapsody Collection.