Back from High Point Market: what caught our eye this fall
Back from High Point Market, and my step counter still hasn't forgiven me.
Twice a year, designers from all over the world come to High Point, North Carolina, for a first look at new fabrics, finishes, lighting and upholstery, months before any of it reaches a showroom near you. It's no secret that designers love High Point. It's our Super Bowl, and we're lucky enough to get it twice a year.
This October was a special one. Jen DiGuardi, our Partner and Lead Designer, Daniel Silverman, our Lead Designer, and I spent two and a half days on the floor together. It was our first Market as a team, and we walked the showrooms from first coffee until our feet gave out. Every step of it was for our clients' homes.
Why we go
For us, High Point isn't window shopping. It's where the real work of sourcing happens.
A first look. We see new fabrics, finishes, lighting and silhouettes long before they reach stores, so your home leads instead of follows.
Real relationships. Meeting face to face with our vendors and workrooms gets us better answers, smarter lead times and the inside track on new collections.
Quality, verified. We sit on it, flip it over and check the seams before we ever recommend a piece for your living room.
And every piece gets the same test: how will this live in a South Florida home? Strong sun, salt air and humidity are hard on the wrong fabric and the wrong finish. That's exactly what we were there to sort out, so our clients never have to find out the hard way.
Lighting as sculpture
The lighting this season stopped us in our tracks. Pleated linen shades, hammered brass, and glowing alabaster sconces that read like jewelry on the wall. These weren't fixtures that disappear into a ceiling. They were pieces with presence.
We often say that lighting is the last thing most people think about and the first thing everyone notices. The right fixture sets the mood of a room before anyone sits down, and in a South Florida home, where natural light pours in all day, it matters just as much after the sun goes down.
The sit test
Rounded, deeply textured upholstery in warm, earthy color was everywhere we turned. Think soft curves, generous seats, and a weave you want to run your hand across.
Every chair we consider gets the sit test. Not a glance, not a photo: we sink in, lean back, cross our legs and see how long we want to stay. The pieces that earned a second look were the ones that held us, with deep seats and a curve that supports without stiffness.
Our rule of thumb is simple. If you'd happily stay for a second cup of coffee, it belongs in a South Florida home.
Walls with something to say
High Point had no shortage of walls with personality: a wall-sized botanical mural, a bird-and-leaf wallpaper in golds and browns, a soft abstract in blush and grey, and three sculpted black panels that read like architecture. Our favorite smile of the trip was a set of four wonderfully tongue-in-cheek still lifes of an avocado, butter, cereal and a fried egg.
Art is where a room finds its personality. It's often the piece that makes a home feel like yours, and not like a showroom.
Good design has room for fun
Some of our favorite moments at Market were the playful ones: a game table dressed like fine furniture, a foosball table finished in warm wood and brass, a mirror framed in a bold black-and-white inlay, and tall cobalt glass candlesticks that caught every bit of light. A home should be beautiful, and it should also make you happy to be in it.
Bringing it home to South Florida
We came home with full notebooks, sore feet and a long list of new favorites. What matters most isn't what's new. It's what will still look and feel right in your home five years from now, after plenty of sunshine and a lot of dinner parties. That's the filter every find goes through before it gets anywhere near a client's living room.
Over the coming weeks, we'll be weaving what we saw into the projects on our boards, from Boca Raton to Delray Beach and beyond. Follow along on Instagram and Facebook for more from Market.
Planning a project this season?
Whether it's one room or the whole home, our team offers full-service interior design from concept through installation throughout Boca Raton and South Florida. Tell us what's on your list, and we'll show you how it could come together.
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