It has been 20 years since I started in the retail furniture market, and in that time there has been a huge shift in manufacturing. Production that was once dominated by the United States and Eastern Europe is now shifting more towards Asia, and the trend will continue. With no help from the high Euro dollar, companies that formerly sold their wares in a very competitive market have fallen to cutting corners and following suit with Chinese production. Don't get me wrong, there are some very strong companies like the Ekornes Stressless line from Norway that have fought off any changes in there quality line of seating groups and recliners, but they are the shrinking exception. The good news is this. The Chinese production has gotten better and better with modern automation and the need for cost conscious production around the world.
Continue reading "Asian Furniture Competes in World Market" »
For many years the furniture industry has worked to develop durable and price effective upholsteries for the general consumer market. Of course if money is no object, premium leathers and fine fabrics are available in a multitude of colors and textures. For the average person a much more usable and cleanable covering is usually required. When guiding consumers at the retail level I always inquire about traffic levels and expectations to create a happy experience. One of the commonly used fabric options of today includes micro fibers. When I was first introduced to this seemingly to good to be true option I did have my reservations, but time has proven the product to be a very good alternative.
Continue reading "Micro Fibers Give Furniture Longer Life" »
If you're looking for a sleek, exotic look perfectly suited for smaller apartments and living spaces, Oriental-styled furniture is a definite option to consider. Chinese and Japanese offerings have had a great influence on Western furniture and modern design. Bedroom furniture pieces such as the platform bed and futon, as well as stacked chests and trunks are examples of Asian-inspired furniture that is practical and compact, and at the same time stylish and sophisticated.
Lacquered surfaces are a key attribute of the Chinese furniture style, creating luxuriantly deep finishes that are paradoxically subtle and striking in their elegance. Comprised of ebony, teak and rosewood, Chinese furniture often bears an inlay of semi-precious materials like lapis lazuli, jade and mother-of-pearl. Symmetrical construction, miter joints and copper, brass or pewter brackets are often employed to create a clean profile that enhances a modern, cosmopolitan living space.
Space-saving savvy puts Japanese-inspired furniture high on the list of city dwellers and dorm room denizens alike. If you love your sleek, streamlined platform bed and couldn't live without your stowaway futon, you owe your admiration to the ingenuity of a culture that traditionally shuns large, overwrought furniture. Other recognizable items that hail from Japan include the stacked Tansu chests and Nagamochi trunks. Like Chinese furnishings, furniture influenced by Japanese design is defined by its joinery, with master artisans taking years to learn the construction of these complex, durable joints. Great pride is taken in the general lack of nails or glue that holds the structure together, and in the joint's shock absorbing properties.
Much contemporary furniture owes its inspiration to ancient Oriental designs. The beauty of a piece was found in its usefulness and construction. Simplicity of design was valued more than ostentatious and gaudy overindulgence. The same can be said for today's modern furniture, especially bedroom furniture, where sleek and simple equals stylish and sophisticated.
Submitted by: James Allen
TAGS: Furniture Styles and Trends
So now we are ready to use the internet to widen our scope in looking for furniture. Think about the ground that can be covered on Ebay during the week or at off times when we cannot go out on our own time and look at furniture in person.
Let's face it. More and more people are using the internet for all kinds of shopping. As mentioned in the previous article, should I consider buying furniture online through Ebay, large items like cars, furniture and real estate are being sold through online auction each and everyday. Obviously, we need to get into the game to compete with the other shoppers. We also need information to increase our knowledge of market prices to ensure that we are receiving the best deal and doing and adequate job of comparing prices and determining fair market value.
I signed onto the internet and went to Ebay. I typed the word "sofa" and came up with 1,790 items. This is too many items for me to browse through in a timely manner. A tip is to narrow the search by using other key words. An example of more keywords would be typing in "leather sofa" into the search box. I received 684 items on this search. I typed in "black leather sofa" and received 108 search results. As you can see more keywords will often narrow the results into a much more manageable number of items.
There is a checkbox under the search box that says "Search title and description". A normal search on Ebay just checks the words in the title for a match. When this box is checked, the titles and descriptions are searched. "Black leather sofa" returned 197 search items with this box checked. This can be a good tool for sometimes finding items that are not titled well. Since many Ebay users just rely on title searching, you may find some items that have less traffic looking at them and therefore, may sell at a lower price.
Another strategy is to think of more specific terms other than the industry norms like sofa, couch, loveseat, recliner, etc. Modern, traditional, contemporary, Barcelona and other terms can further narrow the search results. Keep in mind that when using these terms, you may miss out on some items that you are actually looking for. There is a trade off between the number of results and how much time you have to spend shopping.
Focus on traditional upholstery & case goods
GUANGZHOU, China -- A slew of highly traditional upholstery and case goods competed with their contemporary counterparts at the 19th China International Furniture Fair here last month.
Both genres appeared to strike a chord with Chinese and international buyers, who came out in force to shop the event.
The show ran March 18-21 at the 2.6 million-square-foot Chinese Export Commodities Fair Complex in Guangzhou. Roughly half of the floor space was devoted to furniture while the rest was for home decor and housewares. Nearly 400 furniture exhibitors showed, most of which were from China.
Show organizers said attendance at this year's event had topped 53,000 by the second day, with nearly 72% of them from China. Official results for all four days were not available at press time.
Last year, the show drew 115,089 visitors, 77% of whom were from China.
Many exhibitors catered to the domestic market with traditional and cottage style furniture popular in China. However, a number of manufacturers also actively pursued export markets, including Europe, the United States, the Middle East, Korea and Japan.
One busy exporter is Baifuhao Furniture of Zhejiang, which sells traditional style dining and occasional furniture made with fancy-face veneers and rubberwood solids. Exports account for about 95% of revenues, with much of its sales to the United States, Canada, the Middle East and South Asia.
Hong Kong-based Gainwell Industrial Ltd. showed a variety of mostly traditional and cottage style occasional, dining and bedroom furniture items, some of which had trendy finishes and mixed- media elements such as metal and glass. Much of its business is export, with the U.S. representing about 20% of total sales, according to company sales associate Jimmy He.
French and other European styles figured into products at occasional and accent furniture maker Fujian Minhou Minxing Wea Ving Co. The pieces, some of which had iron bases, or a two-tone effect with cherry tops and antique white legs, appeal largely to U.S. and Canadian mass merchants and home furnishings specialty chains, which together account for about 80% of sales, said company representative Sharon Zheng.
Continue reading "China International Furniture Fair mixes traditional, new" »
