Whew! We're home from a whirlwind few days down in High Point North Carolina for the Furniture Market. Before I was in this business I had no idea something like it even existed. High Point is literally a little city of showrooms. In the 3 days we were there we didn't even see half of it. But we did get to my favorite restaurant, Printworks Bistro, at the Proximity Hotel:
{Seriously the most gorgeous restaurant ever: light, airy, fresh & completely unexpected (see the Louis dining chairs in chartreuse toile??) They have curtains separating the dining areas and hanging boxwood balls and textural drum shades add interest. The colors are perfection (go green!! ;) and the food is HEAVEN.
We found some really amazing new-to-us companies & artists:
{
Owen Mortenen creates works of art out of the natural things he finds on walks. }
I'm crazy about his Golden Raintree Studies made out of seed pods found from a tree that grows in Utah:
Natural & organic-feeling yet totally modern. To read more, click
here.
I loved this sconce by Luna Bella:
Some of the showrooms had the most amazing displays:
{Luna Bella}
{Spicher and Company}
The next few are of the Karen Robertson Showroom:
I loved seeing so many of these detailed pieces jam-packed on the walls. Totally jaw-dropping and they made me want to do a beach house STAT.
and switching up to...
{Halo Styles}
As far as showrooms/ booths at Market go, I really love going into the "more is more" type showrooms that are jam-packed because they feel like trasure troves. Even if they're not at all my style, I appreciate them. Check this one out:
{Genesee River Trading Co.}
And another view of the same showroom:
I loved some of their old games tables & kitchsy things.
The best part is, I was with my partner in crime pretty much the whole time sans-kiddos. (Although we did really miss them!!)
And we got to see some of our favorite people!!
{Me & Michele of My Notting Hill. Michele was one of a group of bloggers invited to Market to see all of the lastest & greatest. She sweetly invited me along with her to an Architectural Digest party as her "plus 1" where we saw lot of big designers & industry people including one of my favorites Margaret Russell. I also met Bunny Williams (more like stalked her as she was leaving the party and she seemed to be one of the kindest, most genuine designers I've met. She asked what my name was & where I was from (go VA! If you know about Bunny, you might know she's from Charlottesville, VA) and } and was just very nice.
{scaaaary red eyes on me with my friend Paloma of
La Dolce Vita & Visual Comfort. Paloma is also an old blog friend & I've loved watching her career evolve. She's now the director of marketing for Visual Comfort, one of the best lighting companies in the industy. }
{Roxanne Lumme, one of my good local design friends. We ran into so many people from home!!! }
{Me with one of my first & closest design buds,
Eddie Ross. My camera ended up going out on me that night and I didn't get a group shot Dave & I with both Eddie & Jaithan. We're always all pretty much laughing the entire time we hang out. }
I also got to see bloggers (but didn't get pics with- arggg!) Erin of
House of Turquoise, Stephan of
Architect Design , Jen Sergent, and Traci of
Traci Zeller Designs. We got to hang with Traci for a while at a party one night & it was so good to catch up. At a Hearst Magazine party we saw our good friend Matthew Talomie of Elle Decor & got to meet the team from
Elle Decor Magazine, who were all really sweet & down to earth. We also ran into a bunch of DC Designers & friends throughout the weekend: Patrick Sutton, Erin Paige Pitts, David Mitchell, Victoria Sanchez, Barbara Franceski and Sally Steponkus. It was SO much fun.
We got a TON accomplished at this market. I found so many new great sources for projects that I can't wait to use. Even though I'm exhausted right now I'm feeling pretty charged design-wise.
