Now that we're back home after a whirlwind weekend at High Point Market we've been able to reflect on everything we saw. As we skimmed through the photos we uploaded we noticed a number of trends. These are four of our favorites.
1. Everybody's Feeling Blue Pantone may have proclaimed tangerine dream as the color of the year, but it was blue that I saw repeated most often in showroom after showroom. Clockwise: Martha Stewart wore a blue shirt dress at the launch of her fine furniture line. Multi-hued blue chair at Drexel. Teal velvet sectional at American Leather. Blue slipcovered chairs at Lee Industries.
2. It's in the Seams it Seems Designs are starting to have some fun with seams. I noticed this flange seam used on sofas at both Lee Industries (left) and Natuzzi (right).
3. Life in Contrast Contrast welting popped up all over the place. Clockwise: Red welting on a gray sofa at Natuzzi. Yellow velvet high back sofa with gray welting at Drexel. White welting on patterned chairs, also at Drexel. Purple welting on a khaki sofa at Mitchell Gold Bob Williams.
4. When the Going Gets Tufted Button tufting showed up on both classic and more modern designs. Clockwise: Tufted gray velvet sofa at Dwell Studio. Tufted wing back headboard at Mitchell Gold Bob Williams. Leather tufted chair, also at Mitchell Gold Bob Williams. Button tufted wingback at Julian Chichester.
Images: Jason Loper and Maxwell Gillingham Ryan

Nomade Express Slee...
interesting!!
"going gets tufted" ~ cute!!
I like all of these except for the seam trend -- that reminds me of last year's (?) "fashion details on furniture" trend that I thankfully haven't seen go mainstream. It was enough when every stiletto and dress had an exposed zipper, ya know?
My particular favorite is the piping. I absolutely adore piping on clothing as well as furniture -- I think because it's a great clean, streamlined way to highlight tailoring and add interest without looking too fussy or dated. Tufted is also a great textural element, but I like *reasonable* amounts of tufting when it comes to extremely modern furniture. It's hard to describe, but I hate when I see tufted done wrong.
Turquoise is my favorite color and the color I painted my home office. I know it's a fleeting trend for many in the design world, but bright bold blue-based turquoise has been my signature shade since I was 13 years old and I inherited a '70s Hang Ten top from my mom which was made of vibrant turquoise polyester. I think I still have it somewhere, though it's threadbare and see-through and reeks of decades-old synthetic fabric. Anyway, I don't think most people who buy vibrant blue furniture are going to be thrilled with it in ten years. But a gray chair with turquoise piping? Much safer.
We're seeing more of that teal and saturated acid colors. Am posting the colors soon. I have so many pictures, its hard to process.
Best,
Liz
Great roundup. I too went to the High Point Market and was amazed at all the wire-cage design going mainstream. Along with rivets, both small and huge.
I also was at High Point and noticed that weathered and bleached wood seemed to be a huge trend, on display in a great number of showrooms. Agree with the wire cage and rivets noted above, which I think is a part of the larger industrial trend.