High Point Market Highlights April 2014

After five straight days of hoofing it through market, I hopped a bus to Lexington, Kentucky with the High Point Garden Club and the Bienenstock Furniture Library. We visited beautiful historic houses not to mention Keeneland. More about that later... meanwhile let me send you a round-up on High Point highlights from the April 2014 market. Below we have the ever gracious and talented Mariette Himes Gomez of Hickory Chair showing her classic, clean and completely elegant line of furniture.  We just cannot help leading with one of our favorite furniture companies in the world!!

Mariette's luxurious Syrie Maugham sofa recalls the elegance of the '30's and 40's with a silk satin fabric articulating the luxurious glamor of the era.

You need to wear this on the sofa! 

Mariette's Porter Divan dons a creamy leather with impressive trapunto detailing on the back illustrating the virtuoso workmanship executed by the artisans of Hickory Chair.

Alexa Hampton uses her showroom as a design laboratory. Absolutely no designer at market shows such range in style, but the extra push creates great anticipation from High Point devotees. It trains our eye to visualize the elasticity of her line in a seemingly unlimited parade of genres.

We were all in awe of the fact that Alexa created all of the collages and paintings in her showrooms. This year her inspiration came from a book that she read as a young girl in her father's library: La Réussité de la Decoration Française, vols. I & II.  Channeling the unmistakeably chic Gallic aesthetic, these rooms speak of old world luxury layered and collected from past generations through the present.

Suzanne Kasler revived these fabulous DeGournay panels from years ago. Known for her serene and feminine spaces, Suzanne adds exquisite dressmaker tapes, nail heads creating rooms that are livable, finished and fresh.

French inspired twin beds kick into the millennium with a slightly elongated headboard. A bold Phillip Jeffries painted graphic wall covering, hung on a single surface, energizes the space without dominating the scene. Bright tribal patterns with a casual striped area rug balance elegance with a low-key interesting collected sophisticated vibe. Suzanne's interiors are like meeting a famous person and discovering that they are highly companionable!

We love Chelsea House as their line ticks all our requirements for our online store and residential clientele. Great Prices--check...Great Workmanship--check....Great style--check.....Multi-tasking transitional pieces--check. Lisa Kahn is the guiding light of design in this atelier and we hit it for several days at market. If you don't go, its like going to New York and eating fast food--you'd be missing the boat!

There's a small new crop of 19th century reproduction casino chairs popping up in various showrooms. C.R. Laine's version has the best leather, scale and price of the few I'm grooving on lately. I start to think that I am crazy, but Shay Geyer did Style Spot it, so another set of eyes share my quirks. May I add that it is wonderfully comfortable as a dining, desk or occasional chair.

All of design and media land came out for the Mary McDonald launch at Chaddock. It was fabulous, and I hadn't been in Chaddock since they showed their fare up on Hamilton. Things have changed... I can only identify Newell Turner of Hearst and Mary McDonald in this image, but it was slammed with "The Talent." We loved seeing our old friend Jay Reardon, previously of Hickory Chair and current chairman of the executive committee at Chaddock also sitting on their board. Margaret Russel and her stable of editors was there as well as the Traditional Home girls. 

I was excited to meet David Easton and view his collection. He's a charmer that one, but in my humble opinion his work is in The Great Tradition, confirmed by the fact that he knelt down and kissed my hand. I was blushing.....

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High Point Furniture Market October 2013 Highlights

 Roaming through The High Point Furniture Market  over the last 30 years, we often find markets with no direction or articulation of vision. On the other hand, there are markets that are "tight--markets," where  a distinct palette and style emerge defining an era. Color has been nudging its way back and is in full fearless force again. We are seeing wonderful plums, turquoises, oranges, pinks, emerald greens mixed with abandon. Defining nail head patterns and contrast piping accentuate silhouettes as the designers showrooms illustrate how to mix mid-century, traditional, graphic patterns with English Chintzes for a millennial take. You could almost call it Sibyl Colfax goes to Hollywood. Alexa Hampton outdid herself at Hickory Chair this market. She was the epicenter of market chatter.

Traditional English Chintz cozies up with Indian boho designs and bold graphic mid-century patterns for a look that defines the fresh traditional aesthetic. Alexa's style lesson video is coming soon, once I edit myself out of it!

Mixing up patterns the dining room chairs creates a delightful motion within this dining area. Anchored by Alexa's stunning Gustav table, the lightness of the upholstery serves to balance the composition.  Across the street at Hickory White, Lillian August brilliantly interpreted her take on modern traditional, demonstrating how you can skew the look towards the more modern. In fact she named her 2013 market experience The New Era of Traditional Design. Below she mixes three different chair styles and fabric patterns, defining understated casual elegance. We are seeing so much of this in fashion right now.

We enjoy our visits with Lillian each market, as she is always gracious and generous in her discussions  of how her current inspirations define each facet of the showroom. As a life-long student and master of interior decorating, this year Lillian selected The Legacy of the American Women of Design and created glamourous iconic combinations that function for today's lifestyle. She was especially kind to our two Wake Forest University interns. She recommended we all read The Great Lady Decorators: The Women Who Defined Interior Design 1870-1955 by Adam Lewis. It should be in my mailbox tomorrow!

I cannot wait!

This new market introduction "The Karl" is a capitalist's dream. Glamourous, with classic Greek Key detailing this piece can be lacquered in any Benjamin Moore color. The style lesson is like a great recipe--use fresh ingredients in a simple way. With a statement chest, over-sized ceramic urn and an iconic sunburst mirror, Lillian August achieves an enduring stylish vignette that is unforgettable. She shows it as a pair flanking a mantle piece and the look is pure fabulosity!

Nobody, but nobody does better mirrors at market than Lillian August. May I add that the price points are excellent! Another fresh traditional showroom at market is Chelsea House. They do a perfect job styling mid-century, chinoiserie hip and the prices are jaw droppingly terrific.

Chinoiserie is beautiful with all styles of design and the bold graphic trellis patterns lend themselves particularly well to add architectural integrity to a space. That is why we are seeing more of it throughout the showrooms; they are on-trend traditional. This buffet/console has the perfect yin-yang balance of strength and grace.

I can tell you exactly why blogger pal Lisa Mende "style spotted" this classic architect desk by Lisa Kahn for Chelsea House. It is a huge look for the price tag and is utterly transitional--meaning it goes with everything. Note to viewers: You are looking at two desks, one in nickel and one in gold back to back.

As I scroll and scroll through over 2,000 images of 6 days of shopping High Point, I can definitively conclude some of the binding ingredients of this market, what designers understand and why trend is moving in this direction.  There is a confluence of beautiful furniture and accessories flowing from Grandparents to children to grandchildren. The savvy high end designers light the path, illustrating how to kick traditional to contemporary. This market clearly accents transitional solutions for intergenerational design schemes.

More Later!!!

Many of these items are not yet in our 

online store, so if you see a scheme or a piece that you 

would like to purchase call or e-mail. 

liz@dovecotedecor.com

336-705-1316

Junior League of Greensboro Show House 2013 Sponsored by Traditional Home Magazine: Miles Redd's Grand Reception Room.

We arrived for the press breakfast at Adamsleigh, the unbelievable remnant of the American Country House Movement, to view the resurrection of a home that had been virtually untouched since 1930. To read our last post on the architect, Luther Lashmit and other artisans on the property click HERE.

I showed the main reception room in the previous post, but wanted to juxtapose the dramatic Miles Redd, Oscar de  la Renta Century Furniture transformation. 

While we can see that Arthur Cassel Griffin, the original designer was adhering to the antiquarian precedents of an ancient structure, Miles Redd relevantly applies a graceful Chinoiserie style throughout the room. Open fretwork Oscar de la Renta chairs are ingeniously placed in the central area of the room allowing a clean, homogenous visual sweep of the room. 

Parsing the large space with a central table and chairs creates a functional gathering area maintaining the characteristic airy Chinoiserie effect without sacrificing the density of seating required for large receptions. Flow throughout is achieved by the repetition of the branching patterns on the rug, fabrics, wall panels, that the fretwork chairs echo. This room becomes engaging and complex by Redd's masterful mix of blues, complementery orange, bold large scale ceramic pieces and architectural pediments. The original architect, Luther Lashmit, had a predilection for octagonal windows, so Miles Redd nailed the vernacular in his mirror selection above.  

This is a characteristic octagonal window in a friend's Lashmit home in Winston-Salem. Many of the surviving homes feature this signature flourish. 

Early mid-century lighting combined with a modern abstract painting convey a light-handed sense of continuity and the evolution of decor over generations. This market more than any other market in years, reiterates a luxurious aesthetic through rich tactile fabrics, carpeting and precious veneers. Chinoiserie, popular since the 17th century French infatuation, has never gone out, but is more visible in the showrooms and has been reinterpreted by many designers. Where did we find the look around market? Let's start with Mary McDonald's beautiful linen chinoiserie wall panels. 

Chelsea House had a wide array of Chinoiserie on hand for buyers, as has been their tradition for decades. 

The prices are unbelievable!! 

Christine and I are never tired of Alexa Hampton's Susanna Table. Hickory Chair is a custom manufacturer, so we love seeing what Alexa does with this piece every market. Don't you love how you can add notes to your images in Google+?

Bungalow 5 speaks fluid Mandarin and Cantonese in their well curated line and demonstrated how to use it with neutrals several markets ago. Here is what they've got going on this market!

Bungalow 5 High Point April 2013

Worlds Away

Liz Gray of HGTV's Design Happens blog and I chatted about our collaboration on a Worlds-Away giveaway for the Feebie Friday post. Worlds-Away does a fantastic job with modern interpretations of Chinoiserie fret work, lacquer and pagoda designs. Finally, I have to say Mirror Image Home has a premium line of Mirrors with design legends Bunny Williams and Barclay Butera. We were delighted to find them in Market Square Suites and look forward to adding these items to our online store. 

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