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Color Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / Urbana's red Flying Carpet Chaise by Hank Wu. About $2,800 Cdn. ; Color Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / This dresser from Drexel Heritage, the first piece completed in the new Nine Elms collection, will retail starting at $12,500 Cdn. ; Color Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / Think creatively -- tables and chair don't require four legs. Mulholland Brothers calls this new 24-inch cube with leather handles a pillow. ; Color Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / From Thomasville's Asian- inspired Visaya collection, this glass-top dining table has a solid oak base softened by woven banana bark (bakbak) panels, about $2,000 Cdn. ; Color Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / Tusk table from Baker's Bill Sofield collection, $1,200 Cdn. ; Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / This bed by Mitchell Gold features leather on the head- and footboard. From $2,600 Cdn. ; Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / This Thomasville cocktail table comes with removable trays, $1,400 Cdn. ; Photo: This writing desk by Century Furniture is a good example of the fusion trend in the decor world. The piece combines elements of French and English country with an Australian ruggedness. About $4,500 Cdn. ; Photo: Thayer Coggin's Delano banquette features a high back and clean lines, about $4,100 Cdn. ;
Bakbak and abaca soon might find a home at the end of your sofa, and your next cocktail table might improve your great room's chi.
Asian looks were the dominant trend at the world's largest trade show, a wholesale furniture market which drew about 80,000 exhibitors, buyers and others to more than 9.5 million square feet of showroom space in High Point, N.C.
Thomasville, Bassett and Broyhill introduced Asian-inspired collections -- thanks in part to the wide availability of exotic materials and the continuing interest in feng shui -- and woven fibres adorned everything from hassocks to headboards in other showrooms. (Bakbak and abaca, by the way, are woven fibres from the Philippines. Bakbak is from the banana tree, and abaca from banana's first cousin.)
Straight, spare lines make the Asian look versatile, allowing it to blend with a wide range of other furniture styles.
"It mixes well with a lot of looks," said David Salinero, a spokesman for Thomasville Furniture. "It's really eclectic."
Many of the new collections, from Asian to traditional English and French, are crafted of pine and finished in soft, low-lustre sheens. That gives even the more formal styles a casual, contemporary appeal.
The dominant upholstery colour remains bronze, in every possible shade and permutation.
Accent colours include yellow and red -- and purple in all its permutations.
"Lots and lots of shades of purple," said Ed Tashjian, marketing director for Century Furniture. "Lilac, lavender, amethyst."
Upholstery that isn't chenille is likely to be leather.
And toile, that French scenic pattern born in the 18th century, is young again. After gaining popularity in the fashion industry on trendy purses and pedal pushers, it's elbowing for space amid the furniture industry's plaids and paisleys.
Toile brightened a half dozen of the major showrooms. And Highland House introduced a new toile pattern based on antique blue- and-white porcelains.
The show came at a time when manufacturers are closing plants and laying off workers, after several years of strong growth. But the American Furniture Manufacturers Association predicts shipments will increase four per cent to $40 billion next year, after dipping 2.7 per cent to $38.6 billion this year.
Furniture introduced at the twice-a-year market typically appears in retail showrooms (including Calgary) in about six months. Here's a look at what to expect:
- Thomasville's Visaya collection consists of 34 pieces reflecting a blend of Asian and American contemporary influences. It combines oak in a tobacco brown finish with leather, stone and -- yes -- bakbak. Signature pieces include a bed with leather padded headboard with windowpane stitching.
- Broyhill, a Lenoir, N.C., company, also describes its Eastwinds Tapestry as a fusion of Asian and western. Pieces are crafted of cherry veneer in mid-tone ginger finish, and details include bundled reed corner carvings and orchid leaf legs. The dominant piece is an armoire that can be combined with bookcases.
- Lane has introduced Holden Bay, a collection in pine based on European antiques. Signature pieces include a curio cabinet with arched top and a sleigh bed that combines details of rattan, leather and metal.
Lane, based in Altavista, Va., also introduced 13 specialty pieces designed to appeal to wine lovers. A tall but compact rack wine rack of metal and stone is designed to fit into a tight corner.
- Century Furniture of Hickory, N.C., turned to Australia for inspiration for its Matilda Bay collection.
It's a combination of rough-and-tumble and elegant, Tashjian said. It's designed to appeal to those who match cashmere sport coats with jeans or choose exotic sound systems for their SUVs.
The centrepiece of the collection is the Kangaroo Kouch, which combines leather with two upholstery fabrics. The patterned upholstery trim includes images of unique Australian animals. (Yes, including kangaroos.)
In the collection, ornately carved dining chairs are combined with simple parson's tables featuring simulated plank tops.
Even the finishes offer such contrasts: one finish on the alder wood is a rich chestnut, called Burnt Umber, while the other -- Aged Ochre -- is an antique finish with hints of yellow, red and green peeking through a heavily textured top coat.
- Universal Furniture of High Point has two new collections from Alexander Julian.
He said his Highlands line is a nod to his ancestors, who emigrated from Scotland to the Carolinas in the 1700s. The collection blends English oak and burl veneers in the plaids and argyles that typified his men's fashion designs.
Sausalito is lighter and more eclectic, a sort of bohemian mix of East and West. Julian's wife, Meagan, grew up in the town of Sausalito, on the Northern California coast.
"She was raised in one of those houses where you just had to raise your head off the pillow to see the entire bay," Julian said. "So we started playing around with ideas."
Highlights include custom silver details and hardware.
The top of one signature piece, the Trident dining table, is bamboo -- a material Julian discovered three years ago while working on a line of bamboo flooring.
- Bassett Furniture of Bassett, Va., christened its new 80,000- square-foot High Point showroom with an Asian-inspired collection called Focus, 45 pieces in ash solids with a blond finish called cashew.
Like Sausalito, tables have crushed bamboo veneers on tabletops for style and durability. Signature pieces include a lighted apothecary chest that can be used in the bedroom or dining room, and a round dining table with lazy Susan.
Bassett has 15 new pieces, some with Asian touches, introduced by author and television host Chris Madden. Among her favourites are an oversize wing chair of woven abaca and a painted glass-front cupboard she calls Anacapri. She discovered and photographed the original cupboard in a hotel lobby in Puerto Rico, she said -- then was inspired by other antique pieces during travels with her family to the island of Capri.
A poster bed that looks at first glance like bamboo is instead steel with a tortoiseshell finish.
"Bassett wanted me to do a metal bed," Madden said. "I wasn't crazy about the idea. We talked, and I finally said, `Do you think we could ever pull this off?' "
Indeed, they did.
Color Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / Urbana's red Flying Carpet Chaise by Hank Wu. About $2,800 Cdn. ; Color Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / This dresser from Drexel Heritage, the first piece completed in the new Nine Elms collection, will retail starting at $12,500 Cdn. ; Color Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / Think creatively -- tables and chair don't require four legs. Mulholland Brothers calls this new 24-inch cube with leather handles a pillow. ; Color Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / From Thomasville's Asian- inspired Visaya collection, this glass-top dining table has a solid oak base softened by woven banana bark (bakbak) panels, about $2,000 Cdn. ; Color Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / Tusk table from Baker's Bill Sofield collection, $1,200 Cdn. ; Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / This bed by Mitchell Gold features leather on the head- and footboard. From $2,600 Cdn. ; Photo: Knight Ridder Newspapers / This Thomasville cocktail table comes with removable trays, $1,400 Cdn. ; Photo: This writing desk by Century Furniture is a good example of the fusion trend in the decor world. The piece combines elements of French and English country with an Australian ruggedness. About $4,500 Cdn. ; Photo: Thayer Coggin's Delano banquette features a high back and clean lines, about $4,100 Cdn. ;
Copyright Southam Publications Inc. May 5, 2001