What's In, What's Out at home accents retailers?
Our annual home accents In & Out list of retailer picks is meant to shed some light on what themes, colors, merchandising mindsets, styles and products are selling… and which aren't. The responses of various retailers, polled in mid-December, represent what's going on in a variety of different geographic areas, price point ranges, product styles and economic climates.
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Home furnishings store openings, expansions
Boston — Susan Thomas Home opened in November. The 7,000-sq.-ft. independently owned store, located at 100 Highland Avenue in Needham, is the first of several independently owned Habersham Home retail boutiques, galleries and to-the-trade showrooms scheduled to open over the next two quarters. Habersham Feathers, the first complete Habersham Home Store, will open in Scottsdale, Ariz.
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Rug vendors pull out all the stops to maintain sales
According to the findings of Home Accents Today's product potential report for the rug market, sales for the category will increase over the next five years by 12.6%. Long before those numbers begin to rise, however, rug manufacturers are going to have to contend with the near-term economic and operational challenges presented by recessionary fall-out, retailer consolidation, dealer financial v...
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Nourison Home's Mina Peykar takes on new challenge
When the youngest of Mina Peykar's children started first grade, she began looking for something to fill her free time. Her husband, Alex, the president of Nourison Industries, suggested she put her creative talent and sewing skills to work making decorative pillows. “He said, 'take my needlepoint rugs and try cutting them,' so that's how I got started,” she said.
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Home Accents Universe shrinks during tough 2008
The fact that our Home Accents Universe Study is a biennial rather than an annual event translates into a longer time period in which economic conditions can change. When we published our 2006 Universe Study, for example, the economy was still strong with predictions of continued growth. A lot has happened in two years.
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Big Cartel offers stores a DIY, inexpensive e-commerce option
While interviewing a retailer for the current issue of our Garden Decor supplement, I learned about a relatively easy and inexpensive do-it-yourself way to set up an online store. Called Big Cartel, it's perfect if you want to test the e-commerce waters without investing a lot of time or money. It's also a good way to go if you only want to sell a few products (up to 100) and can't justify the...
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Retail rescue
The million dollar question among retailers these days: “How do we drive sales in this economy? What gets more people into the store?” This month, the members of our Designer Insight panel share their thoughts — what's worked for them in their own businesses and what entices them as shoppers.
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Home furnishings store openings, expansions
Houston — The Design Source, a collection of five showrooms, is opening at West Ave, Houston's new walkable urban village. Though marketed as The Design Source at West Ave, the showrooms will each have their own identity and aesthetic. Ligne Roset, which currently has a Houston location in the nearby Rice Village area, will have the largest space at approximately 6,000 square feet.
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Richard Cable Interiors: Design engineers for the home furnishings market
Before sharing their design and retail experience with the community of Huntsville, Ala., Richard Cable and his partner, Brian Davis, sold sandwiches. It was a vocation that differed greatly from the 10 years they spent as managers at Domain, the Boston-based home fashions chain, but it was what brought them south.
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Vipp launches in U.S.
Danish design company Vipp has entered the U.S. market, bringing with it a new bath and towel collection and a promise of more to come.
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The Contrarians
When the popularity of a certain style or product category inspiresa retailer to expand, it usually takes shape as a new vignette, gallery or store-within-a-store. For Michael and Lindy Di Paulo, owners of Homefest in Denver, Colo., it took shape as two stores-outside-the-main-store, all three located within the same small retail center.
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Habersham moving into retail
Habersham announced plans to open several independently-owned Habersham Home retail boutiques, galleries and to-the-trade showrooms during the next two quarters. Tom Skipper, vice president of sales for Habersham, said the move into retail and to-the-trade partnerships is a natural evolution for the 36-year-old company, which earlier this year added upholstery to the Habersham Home lifestyle co...
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John-Richard opens first retail showroom in Nashville
High-end furnishings manufacturer John-Richard celebrated the grand opening of its first retail showroom Oct. 7 in the affluent Nashville community of Belle Meade. CEO Alex Malouf said the move was driven by a motivation to get more of the company's product in front of the design trade, and to grow brand recognition among consumers.
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Made of mettle
In 2001, John Shilling purchased Artisan House, famous for the metal wall, floor and tabletop sculptures its designers and crafters have been making since Jerry Fels and Curtis Freiler founded the company in 1964. Fels and Freiler, in fact, combined their names to become C. Jeré, the “fictitious” artist whose early signed vintage pieces fetch thousands of dollars from collectors.
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Creativity, optimism, fresh product keep retailers in the game
I share the sentiments expressed this month in our Best of Market edition by our editor in chief, Jenny Heinzen York, about the surprisingly upbeat market that just ended in High Point. The home accents vendors definitely had lower expectations coming in, but they remained positive and wrote orders. A couple I spoke with at the end of the week even reported that sales were up over the spring ma...
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Décor & You honors Russ Jones of OneCoast
OneCoast consultant Russ Jones received Décor & You’s “Most Valuable Partner of the Year” award. Jones led 100+ designers from the company on a tour of the Las Vegas Market in July.
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Increased awareness fuels growth in green home accents
Increasing consumer awareness continues to grow the green segment for manufacturers of home furnishings. Buyers have learned what to look for, and with wholesale clubs, furniture chains and department stores getting into the green groove, there's more to choose from. Greater interest among the accessories, lighting and rug categories led to the Sustainable Furniture Council's August announceme...
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ART Conference attendees 'makeover' Charleston retailers
Four Charleston retailers agreed to let attendees at last month's ART (Accessories Resource Team) Conference spend one afternoon making over their storefront window displays. The event, which took place during business hours, was the designated team activity and competition for this year's annual conference, themed “Southern Inspiration” and held Aug.
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