On Monday 10/20/14 I went to High Point Furniture Market for the day and made the rounds. A summary of my day....
4:20 a.m, leave my house, arrive in High Point at 8:30 a.m.
Started off at the Bradington Young Showroom, I was unable to get in despite two attempts an hour apart. I was denied entry as they have a new (ridiculous) policy that dealers have to be escorted by their Sales Rep. I refused to wait around in the lobby for more than two minutes and moved on to other showrooms, so no B-Y report this trip. For you Bradington Young fans, sorry..nothing to show you.
Stopped by Gat Greek Furniture as there are a few people that asked about it here on the forum. VERY nice people, I liked them immensely. Located in Berkeley Springs West Virginia. I would have loved to buy from them but their product is a bit too much machine-made production done for my store. If you like the look of it, then I think its very solid and well made, it just wasn't for my store is all.
Went into lots of showrooms the next few hours. Oh boy, were they hungry at Market - if you dared even lift your eyes up to look at something an order-taker with a clipboard was right on top of you. A little too aggressive overall for my preferences, I sensed some level of desperation for orders at the show and it was off-putting. A better approach in my opinion would be "Welcome, have a look around and enjoy the showroom - we're here if you have any questions". That was definitely not the tempo, however.
In the "Made in America" section of Market Square, I came across a Mom N' Pop Startup doing outdoor mahogany furniture. The workmanship is top-shelf, I'd not seen anything like this and especially at these prices. Turns out Gary, the owner and maker, was a production foreman at Century furniture and when things got bad during the Recession, he decided to start this little company and build these pieces. Best I've ever seen in the category so I bought some for the floor, though I generally don't carry outdoor furniture. "Froggy Bottom" is the name of his company. I have some photos taken of the pieces I will share as well.
Went into McKinley leather furniture and spent quite a bit of time there. Their sales rep has been trying for three years to get me to come in and carry their product. It's a smaller company, with the father having been in the business for many years and his daughter runs it now. At first skeptical, I spent quite a bit of time looking it over and its done right. Solid wood (maple, ash) and 8-way hand-tied spring decks and the best part is - at basically Bradington Young price points. I made an opening order and it will be on the floor in my store and available for me to sell nationwide to my forum customers as well. I don't have pricing info and samples yet, but will get them sometime in the next 30 days or so.
And ladies - get this - they have some small scale recliners that sit wonderfully - I'm always on the hunt for high quality motion furniture for my under 5' 6" clientele and they have it.
Last stop of the day was of course, Hancock and Moore, Councill, and Jessica Charles (all are in one showroom). They really did their showroom up even better than in years past, with Councill now mixed in with the Hancock and Moore product rather than using old props (coffee tables and end tables, etc) that were featured in the past. No one does it better than Hancock and Moore, their designs are brilliant and the execution is flawless. They really push the envelope in what can be done in furniture - especially in leather - and after seeing thousands of pieces throughout the day that were cookie-cutter, its refreshing to go into the H&M showrooms and see their unique way of doing things.
Left High Point at 6:30 p.m. and home by midnight. It was a long day!
I cannot post the links to my photos at this time, sometimes the forum goes all funky and requires a server reboot to do so. Once that is done, I'll post the photo links here..
Last edited by drcollie; 10-23-2014 at 06:13 PM.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
OK, rebooted the forum server and this should work now....to see the Councill and Hancock and Moore complete photo set, go to this link - it takes too long to try to post them all here so this is much easier and quicker:
http://s1217.photobucket.com/user/dr...l?sort=3&o=204
This will work best for you if you TAB LEFT through the more than 200 photos. That will put them in the order they were taken and display the info tag AFTER the item in most cases. There is a zoom in feature on Photobucket as well, if you have difficulty reading the print on the tags....
Enjoy!
Last edited by drcollie; 10-23-2014 at 05:27 PM.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
The standouts from Hancock and Moore....
I ordered two new sofas at the show, because I thought they were both superb. And I wasn't going to order any floor stock!
The first one is the new Reunion Sofa, which Alan Price designed and as he said to me "This is the sofa I made to be the ultimate. I took everything I know about building one and rolled it all into one design. This is a lifetime buy sofa, you buy it once and you will never get another because this one will last a hundred years or more, and its the best sitting sofa I ever made, too." It's the sofa Alan made for himself - how could I not buy one? This one has some tricks, too. There is a removable top on the arms, held in place with some very strong magnets. When you want to watch a football game, or have drinks, etc, you simply remove the leather or wood armtop and now you have a surface that is sacrificial. When you are ready to make it look pretty again, you have a choice of either a leather top, or finished wood top to put back on. Both come with the sofa. you can see in the third photo I have it set up with leather top on the far side, wood top on the near side. My order on Monday was the 11th one for this sofa, so other dealers liked it as well.
Now, onto the back of this sofa. Here's something you don't see every day...a solid shelf on the back, one that can take the weight of four 250lb men sitting on it if they so choose to do so. Put lamps back there, books, or let people sit on the shelf at parties, you can't hurt it, its structurally built into the sofa. See the roll of leather on the back shelf? That's Italian Belt Leather, that they use to make Armani belts with for men's pants. Alan buys it and uses it as decorative trim on this piece. Look at how thick it is!This does not come off, however the sofa will fit through a 35" doorway, front legs do come off if needed. This is a VERY heavy sofa, that's all solid wood. The tag is MSRP, so don't go by that....
Last edited by drcollie; 10-23-2014 at 05:29 PM.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
More standouts from H&M:
I came around the corner and saw this sofa and bought one for stock in 30 seconds. It's just drop-dead gorgeous and many of my lady customers have been asking for something like this. I ordered it just as shown, its stunning. It might just be the most beautiful sofa I've ever seen from a style standpoint and its in a GR 2 leather. Note the high end premium wood finish on it, worth the extra cost on this piece. The sit comfort is just as good as it looks, too.
You don't often see me rave about barstools. This new one though, it's perhaps not to everyone's style - I nearly walked by it. But its so comfortable, and with the wrap-around arms it gives you the a great spot to rest your elbows on it. If you want a great barstool you can sit in for two hours and read the Sunday paper in, this is it. It does, swivel, too.
And I ordered a Sundance Recliner - because its the hottest one they have now, this seems to be the 'go to' recliner for men right now. As I have a Sundance Sofa on the floor already, I took one in the same Portfolio Claret to have a sofa / recliner ready to go for my local customers. The one I have coming in is manual operation, but you can buy these in both plug-in and battery powered as well. Now the # 2 seller in the line ....
Last edited by drcollie; 10-23-2014 at 05:22 PM.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
The Froggy Bottom outdoor mahogany pieces. I ordered (2) stationary chairs, (1) coffee Table, (1) side table. These are all done n Solid Mahogany with a marine varnish on them, and finished just as beautifully on the backside as the front, and the chairs sit great. Chairs will be around $ 900 apiece, the side table about $ 400, the coffee Table around $ 700. For the amount of material in these chairs and the work fully finishing all four sides of every slat, and the top flight joinery, I think these are a bargain and i expect the prices to rise on them as the craftsman gets established. These can be shipped anywhere, and should be used under an awning or a porch, not bare full-time outdoor exposure. 100% solid Mahogany, Stainless steel fasteners, USA made, hand-crafted. What more could you want in a high quality piece? This is not that Pacific Rim imported that is made of junk Asian mahogany - its the real deal, South American mahogany.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Here's a few shots of the new McKinley leather i will be carrying. I'm excited to carry this line as its high quality, very aggressively priced and has solid hardwood frames (not plywood). This will fill a niche for a lot of folks that want Hancock and Moore, but need to stay in a lower price point. Made in the USA - of course.
Small scale ladies recliner (below).
Superb sitting office chair...great look. Right at $ 1K.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Duane, thank you so very much for posting these!
Simply gorgeous! My wife & I have been looking through your photos for about an hour now - I don't even know where to start talking about what we liked!
It is such a great service you provide - thanks again!
The best part about sharing the Market Photos is that you get to see things that you would NEVER put together in a store showroom yourself. It's simply too much risk of the unknown. Some of these combos I wouldn't even attempt to do myself for a customer - just too risky. However when you see them made up, some of them are flat out stunning. That's why I photograph the tag on a lot of items, so if you say "I want it like in the photo", we can re-create it as we have the specs for the build. Perhaps the only thing that was a total snooze at H&M was the new 'build it your way' program, which I took some photos of but its just so well......plain......that it didn't inspire me to want to get any of it. I can get plain pieces from over 300 makers at Market, everyone does ordinary. You get Hancock and Moore because you want exceptional !
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
I am no longer shedding a tear for your having to spend your day off going to Market. You clearly got to spend the day with fantastic looking furniture and certainly invested with dividends to follow on behalf of your day-job. Wow, makes me want to buy a bigger house so that I have room for some of those gorgeous pieces. I think deskjockey should give you a call and arrange for that Sundance recliner before it is Going, Going, Gone! (great style, lumbar support and Town & Country Program - can't beat it)