Wall decor vendors upbeat about 2007

Looking to fresh classics, sculptural decor and textures to drive business

By Jenny Heinzen York, Cinde W. Ingram and Susan Dickenson -- Home Accents Today, 2/1/2007

With so many players in the business, the state of the wall decor industry can be challenging to summarize, but overall, most vendors reported a solid 2006 and are very optimistic about 2007, based on early results from the winter markets.

Dave Meyer, CEO of Willow Green, said because wall decor is the most recent category the company has added, it is still on a rapid growth track. He said wall decor accounted for about 40% of the company's sales in 2006 and he is expecting that to reach 50% this year.

"We are still new in wall decor, but our line is 100% proprietary and we can create all our own art," Meyer said. "Wall decor has taken the leadership in helping us develop our lamps and accessories as the inspiration we use."

Wall decor also serves as the inspiring force at other multi-category producers, including Art Dreams Home. Kathleen Koszyk, president and creative director, said, "Wall decor is the foundation I build everything around," which has driven the young company's success.

"I really want my products to bring an emotional connection," Koszyk said. "It doesn't matter how many times you turn a product if you are not making that emotional connection with your customers."

Many of Art Dreams' wall decor pieces, which include plaques, paintings, mirrors, sculptures and three-dimensional pieces, are designed to layer and be used in clusters so it encourages her buyers to re-merchandise their floors frequently and also end customers to create their own combinations.

"People look at wall decor with entirely different eyes than before," she said. "The customer is more sophisticated and willing to take a little more of a risk. They want their homes to say something about them."

Lisa Choate, vice president of sales, marketing and product for CAS, said wall decor is a category that can move quickly to respond to trends.

"Wall decor can capture a trend faster than any other category," she said. "It's the easiest way to change the tempo of a room without spending a lot of money." She also said it has to move quickly in order to stay ahead of the aggressive competition from the big-box retailers.

"Every six months you are required to be current and timely," she said. "Customers are more attuned to art because the mass world has done such a phenomenal job. It forces us to continue to find ways to differentiate what we do to the customers."

Choate said the strength in her business is the continuing move toward new classic styling.

"Contemporary was such a driving force for so long, but there is a movement back to botanicals, more classic looks and innovative styling."

Artmax designers Richard Chan and Jay Mortensen look to fashion trends when determining where consumer tastes and preferences are headed. "Tastes change every month," Chan said. "Our team of four designers introduces an average of 90 to 110 new styles a year, and at times it's hard to stay inspired.

"Our work is sold at the Atlanta, Vegas and High Point markets, so we use it as an opportunity to see how new pieces are received by listening to and talking with the customers," Chan said. "More often than not, it's the size — they want something bigger."

"Our best inspiration almost always comes from totally unexpected places," Mortensen added. Mortensen and Chan cite a strong organic trend with more water-inspired blues entering the picture. "The public is really focused on the environment and the talk about global warming," Mortensen said.

All of their work for Artmax is three-dimensional wall sculpture. "Framed art is hard to sell and flat is just boring," Chan said.

Joseph Shirian of Graphics International also is adding more wall sculptures to his collection. "Anything more molded, or made from wood, metal, with darker tones and finishes. Everyone wants something unique and this year we're planning to double the collection." Graphics International's inventory is 60% wall decor and 40% accessories. "Last year was one of our better years, helped by our two-week delivery time. Others take six to eight weeks."

At Paragon Picture Gallery, the company is looking forward to a strong 2007, following a "very challenging year for retailers," said Malanta Glassco-Knowles, vice president of marketing. She said the strongest sellers so far this season are series of four, six and nine.

"In the past, everyone wanted really large pieces, but are buying the sets now instead," she said. Also important are alternative wall decor, innovative mirror designs and dimensional styles.

"Traditional has been very important so far in 2007," said Glassco-Knowles. "The new looks bridge the gap between contemporary and true traditional, so it's a very safe category for the retailers."

Jerry Sharlin, chairman and CEO of New Century Picture Corp., said 2006 was the best year in the Chicago-based company's 21-year history. When asked what is driving its growth, Sharlin said, "the right customers. We do proprietary lines for quite a few major retailers." Model home and hospitality business also offer sales growth opportunities, he said.

"The business is changing," Sharlin said. "If we had to rely on the furniture store business today, we'd be a much smaller company. The business is now designers, or reincarnated furniture stores that don't have to have an inventory or a big rent or overhead.

Sharlin said last year's increase was 13% with amazing profits and he expects the growth to continue this year. "We've done our homework," he said. "We've done our budgeting and we're looking for at least a 15% to 20% increase again."

Still a strong contemporary wall decor source, New Century finds its retail customers are always looking for something different. For example, Sharlin pointed out huge sculptural papier mache leaves that have proven to be big sellers during the winter markets. "Customers know the inventory on your floor better than you do," he said. "They know what's new and they know what's been hanging around."

Another reason for Sharlin's confidence is a new modestly priced product line called Picture Hits, with large pictures that retail for $199 or less. "We've done a program called 'By Invitation Only' for major retailers with multiple stores. We've got a gallery that we built in our factory. We bring the customers in and put them in a nice, high-end boutique hotel. Roll the red carpet out. Spend time together and bond, because at market you don't get a chance to offer them a great dinner. And the next day we present the full line to them, 700 items. It's been very, very successful. We brought in eight customers in December. Some of the top retailers that we've done no business with or some business with, and every one of them that saw the line wrote big orders. It's a wonderful way to do business, the old-fashioned way.

"Showrooms are a fortune. Artwork is a funny thing. You have to show a lot." Sharlin added he thinks showrooms confuse customers by displaying 2,500 SKUs.

Dave Petruno, Roma director of sales and marketing, described its 2006 sales as great and said he expects the growth to continue. "The last three markets that we've had have been better than the years before," he said. "A lot of our images that we peg are our own images and we have our own artists, which makes a difference." Combine those factors with the company making its own molding and it creates unusual offerings not available from other vendors.

"We consider our wall decor custom-framed art because we supply molding also to the framing shop," Petruno said. "We don't compromise when it comes to what we show and what we sell to the higher-end store or the designer or the framing shops. We're not competing on price, we're just out there to do our own thing. There are a lot of people out there who prefer to have good quality framed art, and that's who our customer is.

"I think what's driving the growth is we have our own look that no one else has," Petruno said. "We're not carrying the same prints that everybody else has; we're not fighting over the price everybody else has and we don't do the big box stores. Our customer base is the independent retailer, interior design firms and furniture stores — those people who have single stores and sell better merchandise.

"Right now our molding is really hot in the framing industry. People are attracted not only to the image but to the molding," he said. "We have a line of olive wood veneer, real olive. There's only one man who produces it; we have the rights to sell it to the world and it's doing really well."