Design Guy: High Point Furniture Market: Day 3

We started the day at Tommy Bahama (outdoor furniture, not clothes!). What we learned that it’s one of the most successful created Brands (there is no real Tommy Bahama) around the idea of weekend enjoyment, time off, relaxation, and everything else you can think of doing except working. Imagine such a corporate vision and philosophy. I somehow had the idea that it was inexpensive, not so. An outdoor sofa with the cushions will run you around $5K. What we liked was how closely akin their outdoor furniture is to indoor furniture.

Wood Outdoor Bobbin Chair; actually it’s Aluminum

The Furniture Market is always interesting because of the creativity we see, both good and bad, expressed in varied materials, often pushing the limits, or at least the boundaries of the ways in which then materials are used. Case in point, the Bobbin Chairs above.

Parchment Covered Dining Table

We saw parchment used to cover an entire table, instead of used for writing on. We saw Resin finished as metal, iron or pot metal finished to resemble Brass, Bronze, or Silver; Aluminum used to replicate wood; Plastic used as glass or crystal; Polypropylene (plastic bags) used as Sisal and Seagrass, and more.

Sand Cast Bronze Lidded Figurative sculpture; Cast Iron

Gold leafed Lamp on crystal base; Resin body and Lucite base

Bronze Stools; Bronze finished Resin

Alabaster Table Lamp; Cast Resin

Contemporary Stone Tic Tac Toe Set; Abraded Cast Resin

With all of these impostors, as good as they are I heeded a primal call from within to look at some organic product, like wood. I spied this huge live-edge Bench made from a very large tree. I felt I did have to tap my fingers on it to make sure it was wood!

Live edge Wood Bench

Another Bench was made from an interesting collection of limbs, cleaned and sanded, then gathered with an iron band and welded to an iron frame creating a bench. Yes, I did tap on this wood too! It was wood.

Wood pole and Iron strap Bench

Ahh…I spy more wood in the back of this showroom. Big blocks of burled wood cut into blocks, one a dining table and the other a stool. The natural voids of the tree, once occupied by natural sap, sap wood, or perhaps a smaller branch were filled with clear Lucite crystals floating in hardened clear Lucite. The effect was super cool. The effect on a broader expanse such as on the Dining Table Top, middle and bottom pictures, below, looks almost as some naturally occurring landscape viewed from afar…perhaps the effect of global warming? (Thanks for the $5 bucks Mr. Gore).

Wood and Lucite filled stool

Wood and Lucite filled Dining table

Wood and Lucite filled Dining table, close up

There seemed to be a renewed interest in ceramics as a result of the strong interest in mid-century furnishings and design.

TREND: Each day it became more and more apparent that Brass and Gold finishes, particularly polished Brass, were the metal to get ready for. I know, you just put in that Oil Rubbed Bronze faucet, and now you’re out of style again. Well, boo hoo, its now going to be polished brass, in short order.

Your balls on a tray; Frosty glass balls and lacquered brass

Pendant Lighting fixture in Satin Brass with alabaster (resin) shade

Lighting fixtures designed by Mary MacDonald in Mat Brass

A room setting that seems to revel in Brass: Brass framed Mirror with Brass and Glass Table Lamps

TREND: More Blue in Table Lamps, Ceramics, Furniture, and Accessories:

Before we get ugly with “Worst of Show”, have a look at these beauties:

A pillow collection from Tourmaline Home

Candlesticks of gold plated bronze (gold metallic paint on cast iron)

Over size Porcelain Mellon Vases in palest blue; will be most artful on simple pedestals; in stock at CH Santa Barbara in November

Cast Bronze occasional table in natural Verdi finish

Oval occasional table on walnut base with Shagreen printed leather top and detailing

Mouth blown glass vase in purest amethyst color

A trio of occasional tables in burnished brass with dark green stone tops

And a little humor before “Worst in Show”:

A Bird in Hand… ; Bronze finished cast iron with gold leaf iron

MacKenzie Childs woven Pagoda Chair with tasseled Ottoman; Adult size, woven colored synthetic material.

Now, for “Worst in Show:

Table Lamp infested with Dragonfly’s

Dining Table on steel base with wood, Lucite and L.E.D lights that flash and change colors

I don’t think there's a formal name to this style chair, and here’s to hoping there never is! Is the mannequin embarrassed to be standing next to this chair- she wears a mask