Greetings from High Point Furniture Market, April 2019!
While it’s only been two days into our market trip, our team at Yeager Design & Interiors has been on high alert, trend spotting and taking notes to bring back to you, our readers.
For those of you who do not know, High Point, North Carolina hosts a furniture market every six months, in April and October. These are known as the spring and fall markets.
During non-market times, the city is home to around 118,000 people. That number swells to almost double as exhibitors from all over the world come to sell their merchandise, including furniture, art, lighting, accessories, fabrics, rugs … you name it and it’s here.
Likewise, buyers come from far and wide to purchase these goods and sell them to the public. I come to buy custom items for my clients’ needs, as well as to fill my show room with the latest and greatest of what the interior design world has to offer.
I have been coming to this particular market for seven years now, and if there’s one thing I can tell you, it’s that this place is never a bore because it’s constantly changing. With every new visit, I see new buildings going up, new and famous designer lines being offered, but most importantly, I see the styles changing.
Color
Over the past two or three markets, the pop color of choice had been cobalt blue and variations on that. Predominately, we are seeing green being used as the pop color this time. There are still blue tones shimmering through, but they are more subdued and pastel in nature.
Pinks and golds are still very popular, and continue to be seen on the design front. My mother, Anita Yeager, always accompanies me on my market trips and commented several times how these colors were the pallets of the ’70s.
“If you live long enough, you get to see everything cycle back through,” she said.
Grays are still extremely popular, mixed with neutrals, but thankfully, we are seeing color make a comeback to keep things from being too monotone.
Metals
If you know anything about YDI, then you know we love a good use of metallic. We adore mixing metals between bronzes, silvers, and especially gold to give a boost of shine and glam to elevate a design.
In the past few markets, we have told you about the resurgence of gold and how it was a step away from the brass of the past. This was not the case here.
Many of our vendors were showing off lighting and accessories in muted brass tones and to be honest, we didn’t hate it. Silver was used sparingly, if at all, in the contemporary showrooms and it looked to be a step away from the cooler metallic tones.
Fabrics
Performance fabrics are, thankfully, becoming the norm. After years and years of worrying about your light-colored sofas and chairs, fear no more!
Our favorite upholstered furniture wholesaler, Rowe Furniture, had more options than anyone. From Sunbrella to Crypton, from Revolution to wear smart, the categories of performance seemed to be endless and a bit confusing. However, a little research and the help of a good designer can ease the selection process to match your need with the right fabric.
Frames
The frame and form of the furniture we have seen so far has been giving a nod to mid-century modern as well as traditional comfy frames mixed together. What this means, is that the color palette of the ’70s is also accompanied by the frames of the ’70s as well.
Although this may be the trend, not all modern house plans may accommodate this trend. Large, open-scale homes with great ceiling heights tend to make mid-century modern furniture feel very small or even get lost.
This is a style more accommodating in a lower-ceiling-height room or space that the scale is more appropriate for. Perhaps a better solution is to mix your favorite mid-century pieces with scale-appropriate furniture for the size of room you are working with.
While I do think interior design is important work, I also realize that it is not life or death. What I do is fun and most times fanciful, but it does serve a purpose. I am a firm believer that making the world around you more beautiful tends to make you happier on an everyday basis.
If you ask around, you may find that people like to surround themselves with things that make them happy and comfortable.
Yeager Design & Interiors is honored to work and live in West Virginia while traveling all around to bring back a taste of the world and all the new things available to us. Remember, buy what you love and you’ll love it forever, and don’t get swept up in trends and fads if they don’t feel right for you.
Elizabeth Yeager Cross is the owner of Yeager Design & Interiors in Scott Depot. You can follow YDI on Facebook, and Yeager Cross can be reached at 304-760-8914 or by email at Yeager@ydiwv.com. Have a design challenge? Find out what our area experts have to say! Send your questions — even photos — and a summary of what you’d like help with, along with your contact information, to social@wvgazette.com. The solution to your design challenge could be featured in a future WV Design Team article.
