By Sandra Meineke
The founders are gone, but the vision lives on in the small North Carolina town
of High Point, home to one of the world
’s largest and most influential wholesale furniture markets.
As High Point Market celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, its promoters
look back at what the original founders envisioned and look forward to the
future.
Each spring and fall as many as 100,000 people come to the small city of High
Point from more than 110 countries to participate in a market that founders
hoped would
“excel all others” when they began in 1909. This biannual tradition is now so well established
that the High Point Market itself seems as natural and inevitable as the
changing of the seasons, so much so that one could easily assume High Point has
always been the world
’s home for home furnishings.
There was a time, however, when no one would have thought that High Point, North
Carolina, would ever surpass New York or Chicago to become the premier selling
venue for the wholesale home furnishings trade. No one, that is, except its
entrepreneurial founders who had already carved a growing southern furniture
industry out of the North Carolina woodlands. Market Authority President and
CEO Brian Casey summarizes the remarkable accomplishments of its first century
in this way,
“We have created one place where home furnishings professionals can find the
entire industry at their fingertips; a comprehensive market that can be
tailored to each individual
’s unique needs.”
Here are some brief previews of new items coming out of market and into the
furniture showrooms this fall.
Sofas
While the kitchen is often the home’s gathering spot, it’s no secret that the sofa is the focal point of entertainment, relaxation and
even sleep. A great sofa helps set the tone for a room According to furniture
dealers and manufacturers, there are six main sofa styles: traditional,
sleeper, convertible, recliner, sectional and home theater.
A traditional sofa or couch is a single piece of furniture without any
additional sections or features. A traditional sofa usually costs less than one
with added features. It is also lighter weight, so it can be moved more easily
than some other sofa styles.
On the outside, sleeper sofas look much like their traditional counterparts. It’s the bed stored inside that makes them different. Typically, traditional sofas
have a queen-sized sleeper while loveseats are twin-sized. Both are very heavy
to move.
With a convertible sofa, the whole sofa becomes a bed. There’s no internal mechanism. One of the advantages of the convertible sofa is its
ease of set up.
Recliner sofas are traditional sofas with a twist—one or more seats in the sofa recline, allowing the user to sit upright,
partially reclined or fully reclined.
Sectional sofas allow for a larger sofa without the hassles of trying to get it
through the door. The sections are manageable in size, and the pieces of many
models can be mixed and matched to create a complete new look.
Similar to sectionals and recliners, home theater sofas offer movie and TV buffs
convenient additions such as cup holders, slots for TV schedules and space to
put remote controls. Many models also have individual armrests, just like a
movie theater.
Chairs, Settees and Fabrics
In addition to a great sofa, every family room should have individual seating
that complements or highlights the style of the other furniture in the room. To
create a room you will enjoy living in
—and showing off—use eclectic textile designs and fabrics, bold paints and comfortable throws and
pillows.
Houndstooth prints, tartan inspired plaids, classic argyle and rich leathers
evoke a masculine style that is classic, confident and wears well.
