Market report #1: My dogs are barking edition

Before I left for High Point Market last weekend, the one most consistent thing I heard was "wear comfortable shoes!" and "your feet will be sore!" - and truer words were never spoken!

 You know you're bored waiting for a plane when you start taking pics of your sore feet!

But first, let's backtrack a bit. A little over a month ago, I received a lovely invitation from the Highpoint Market Authority to join a group of bloggers for a special tour of several of the showrooms and attend some fun parties. Touring and partying - right up my alley!

And so last Sunday, I left Boston at an early hour (that's Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod as we flew over) on the really very short flight to No. Carolina. Our group was staying at the Sheraton in Greensboro, which was overrun with teenagers - a group of dance competition girls and brainiac boys showing off their technology achievements - quite the combination.

 (photo courtesy of Proximity Hotel)

After dropping my stuff at the hotel, I met up with two of my cousins who live in Greensboro and they took me to the beautiful Print Works Bistro, which is attached to the Proximity Hotel, a LEED Platinum Certified Hotel. The restaurant is done in sort of an industrial chic meets garden party style. The food was delicious and I actually ended up eating dinner there as well. Clearly the place to see and be seen during Market week. The food was as delicious as the people watching.

(photo courtesy of Beach Bungalow 8)

We hit the ground running on Monday morning with a press breakfast featuring interior designer Jamie Drake, who gave an excellent talk about styles and trends in conjunction with Swarovski, the event sponsor. Jamie also sat down with Megan and I after the breakfast for our first ever in-person Skirted Roundtable interview.   It was a thrill to finally spend time with at least one of my SRT partners! We missed Joni terribly as well. Jamie was a delight and I'll have that podcast interview up early next week, I promise.

Our little group of bloggers - which included Cassandra of Coco + Kelley, Holly of Things That Inspire, Rebecca of Materials Girls/NY, Heather of Habitually Chic, Stefan of Architect Design, Marisa of Style Beat, Megan and I - were broken into two groups and set running around High Point visiting several showrooms and lunching with Alexa Hampton, Suzanne Kasler, Thomas O'Brien, Kate Hable and Mariette Himes Gomez at the Hickory Chair showroom.  Check out all the blogs above for their great coverage as well!

I'll have more in-depth posts to come, but here are some highlights from each of our showroom visits:

Alexa Hampton chats with us about her collection for Hickory Chair. Check out Megan's blog for a great video she shot of Alexa describing the evolution of her collection.

 

Suzanne Kasler's new Suzani inspired fabric at Hickory Chair is very fresh and colorful. Unfortunately, my group had to run before we could hear her talk about her collections, but everything was certainly gorgeous!

Our next stop was the Sligh Furniture showroom which specializes in entertainment centers and home office furniture.  Their line is very traditional and quite beautiful, with a lot of technology built-in. Ever changing technology needs must keeps companies in this line very busy keeping up. With so much of our equipment becoming every smaller (laptops, iPads, flat panel tv's), entertainment and office furniture has evolved as well. I particularly liked their small scale furnishings for home office:

Their furniture comes equipped with docking stations and even a "Smart Eye" feature on media cabinets which directs the infrared clicker beams inside the cabinets, behind nice wooden doors. (there's a smarter way to put that, but you get my drift. No need for ugly mesh covered doors so as not to block the clicker beams).  Some of their models also have built-in cooing fans to ventilate hot equipment.

Off we went to the Theordore Alexander showroom where we were treated to a tour of all 43,000 square feet of English reproduction furnishings, made in Asia but from traditional British methods and materials. TA's line includes the Althorp Collection, which is a licensed collection of reproductions of furnishings in the ancestral home of Princess Diana. In order to maintain the property, which is still privately held, Diana's brother, the current Earl Spencer, has licensed this extensive line. Our guide at TA was very careful to explain that they try very hard not to tread too heavily on the Diana connection (she is buried there, after all), especially this year with Prince Williams' wedding. You could tell they take their connection to the estate very seriously.

We were all incredibly charmed by the detail of some of the pieces in this collection, like this amazing desk that was more of a doll house. The attention to detail and craftsmanship were stunning.

We also met the Keno Brothers, Leigh and Leslie, who are debuting their own signature line this season with TA. We weren't allowed to photograph their new furnishings, but I can tell you that they are very unexpected and modern.

 

Our little group with the Kenos (me, Leigh, Marisa, Leslie, Megan, our tour TA tour guide Lizzy, and Cassandra)

Off we went out into the 80+ degree and windy day to the Hooker Furniture showroom, which featured quite a collection of the traditional furnishings one expects of the brand, but also some new, fresher looks in their Sanctuary and Mélange collections as well.

Our final stop on the showroom tour was over to Century Furniture, which is something like 80,000+ square feet. We didn't see it all and I'm afraid I gave our tour guide (whose name I can't remember) a horrified look when he mentioned it. By this point, we were all hot, sweaty, blistered and exhausted and speaking for myself, I was worn out! But the showroom, the most diverse on our tour,  certainly revived our spirits as did the thought of the party that they were setting up during our tour.

This little chaise, part of their garden collection, charmed several of us and I expect you'll see it on more than one blog post. We all wanted to get in and have a snooze!

Century was the last official stop on our tour and it was time for the partying to begin. I will admit that I was hearing the siren call of a hot shower and comfy bed, but I'm glad I didn't poop out too early! Our whole group reconnected at Century over wine and tasty food while lounging on a pretty comfortable sofa. We then went over to the Elle Decor party that was held at the Eastern Accents and then on to the Architectural Digest party at the beautiful JH Adams Inn.  It was a beautiful evening and one where were could sit out in the back terrace and relax. Some of the more energetic in our group went out dancing (or something crazy like that!), but the rest of us went back to the hotel and chatted and laughed over wine and pizza into the night.

I'll have more posts to come soon, plus our interview with Jamie Drake. In the meantime, a big thanks again to High Point for inviting me to participate in this unique opportunity - it was wonderful and y'all are full of Southern hospitality and charm!

All photos, except where noted, by Linda Merrill.

If you would like my help on your design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks!

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