Propsective on the High Point Furniture Market

I thought this was a humorous account from reporter, John Boyle. This story is John's account about the High Point Furniture Market that takes place in North Carolina. His account is very accurate about the size of the show and the world wide draw of designers, buyers and decorators to the event.

Here's what I know about furniture: I like to sit on it while I'm watching TV.

And I like it to last a really long time so I don't have to shop for it very often.

So you can imagine what a rube I looked like in High Point last week at the semi-annual Furniture Market, which draws 80,000 attendees from all 50 states and 110 countries, according to the American Home Furnishings Alliance.

We're doing a series on furniture starting later this month, and I drew living rooms, so it was my duty to patrol the market in search of the latest styles.

My wife, Grace, found this amusing, as we haven't replaced our family room furniture in 15 years. Upon my return, I tried to convince her that dark floral tapestry is making a comeback, but she wasn't buying.

I expected a crowd in High Point, but I had no idea it would be the jet set one. Walking the streets or getting on elevators it was common to hear people jabbering away in Italian or Japanese, with all the men wearing the latest suits and the women dressed to the nines in heels and dresses.

It really is fashion week for the furniture industry.

Donald Trump was down there promoting his new line of furniture, some gaudy stuff with gilded tassel combovers. OK, I don't really know what it looks like because we were busy meeting real celebrities, like Paul Burrell.

All right, so I didn't exactly know who Paul Burrell was. The PR flack for the Highland House furniture line, Virginia Kennedy, had told me that Burrell had a line of "country English" furniture and that he believed that every proper English country home had to have a large round ottoman he calls a "poof."

So naturally when Burrell strolled by and she introduced us, I said, "That's a good-looking poof you got there," pointing at the one nearby.

He kindly commented that every proper home simply must have one, all the while thinking, I'm quite sure, "How do these media nincompoops get in here?"

It turns out Burrell was Princess Diana's butler, served the British royal family for a couple of decades and has written a couple of books. He's more than just a poof-master.

I moved on, quickly.

It was astounding just how many of these fancy showrooms High Point has. The market, which ended Sunday, uses 188 buildings, and it "displays enough furniture to reach the top of Mount Everest and back -- 150 times," according to the press material. More than 2,600 exhibitors display their wares.

We stuck to the main core buildings downtown and still saw enough furniture to reach to the top of Mount Mitchell and back 33 times, according to the soreness of my feet.

In the Showplace building, we toured the American Leather showroom, and it looked like a palace. Some of the stuff was pretty reasonably priced, but my favorite piece was a sleek leather recliner -- yes, I'm partial to recliners -- with a built-in swing mechanism. It was appropriately called the "Comfort Swing."

"Isn't that amazing?" said the flack guiding us through American Leather, Jennifer Green, a striking blonde whom I also deemed amazing.

Sitting in the chair was like riding a huge pat of floating butter. And the price was just right: $3,500.

At any rate, I learned an enormous amount about furniture, which I'll share in the special section. In the meantime, I've vowed not to compliment anyone on his poof ever again.

This is the opinion of John Boyle. E-mail him at jboyle@citizen-times.com.