At the recent High Point Market, we attended a presentation by official High Point Market Style Spotters – home fashion trendsetters who identify top trends at Market. Touring High Point’s showrooms, Style Spotters post and curate their favorite looks to special Pinterest boards.

During this Competitive Intelligence/Trends Forecast, hosted by WithIt, featured Style Spotters highlighted what was new and fresh at the latest edition of the world’s largest furnishings industry trade show.

The Style Spotters included:

• Mitzi Beach, ASID, CAPS, NCIDQ: Beach is America’s number one expert on housing and interior design issues impacting the nation’s 80 million baby boomers. The author of “Boomer Smarts, Boomer Power,” she is a nationally renowned speaker and design educator.
• Michelle Jennings Wiebe is founder and principal designer of Studio M, a Tampa-based interior design firm.
• Gary Inman is an interior and furniture designer, design historian, lecturer, writer and disciple of beauty. Inman pens a blog, “The Art of Fine Living.”
• Jeanne Chung is founder and editor of the Cozy•Stylish•Chic blog.

Following are the top 10 things these home fashion trendsetters saw at High Point Market:

1. Lots of color, especially blood red, mustard, raspberry, navy, turquoise and gold
2. A combination of styles, like “funky conservative”
3. The use of different materials such as copper, gold, oxidized brass and onyx, and the use of unique metal finishes on furniture pieces
4. Plastics that have “taken things up a notch” and are not as chunky
5. Patterns and interesting combinations like a chunky geometric crystal or green and brown with pinstripes
6. Styles that channel a different time – think Queen Anne, Egyptian and Mid-Century; and styles that channel timeless fashion designers with inspired detailing like Chanel and von Fürstenberg
7. Rough edges and use of natural materials, e.g. real wood, rustic/natural/durable finishes and weathered/driftwood finishes that aren’t rough, but actually are quite smooth
8. New and exciting use of technology in furniture pieces like hydraulic lifts on desks and chairs, sexy swivel chairs and a side table with LED lighting that illuminates when the drawer is opened
9. The return of bar carts (smile)
10. The importance of connecting lighting to design, as it can truly make a difference: LED bulb dimmers are key, and lighting is being paired with minerals instead of shades

If you’d like to talk more about trends in the furnishings industry or if you have questions about what we learned at High Point Market, please contact me at kpanther@wrayward.com or leave a comment below.