I confess—sometimes, at furniture markets, I wander past showrooms filled with snazzy upholstery, case goods to die for and crazy holiday tchotchkes, feeling sorry for myself. A smorgasbord of trends and styles on display—and I get to look at mattresses.
But this week’s High Point Market was different. The smaller mattress industry players now occupying the limelight here, seemed to step up the style. And with more time to linger at this quieter bedding show, I was happy to soak it all in.
For instance, at Shifman Mattress Co., the walls of their new showroom (315 Fred Alexander Place) were painted my favorite Crayola shade, burnt umber, which provided the perfect contrast to lushly upholstered, creamy mattress sets and headboards. Toward the back of the space, the stylish Vintage collection offered a tasteful new take on ticking stripes. Handsome.
Over at the International Home Furnishings Center, the display at the Gold Bond showroom pulled in passersby. Gold Bond’s Brilliance collection of Vytex latex mattresses with Innofa e-Covers (wraparound knits with intricate designs) drew the eye. The successful collection has a new sprung model using Leggett & Platt Quantum Edge wrapped coils, and the beds looked good on a softly quilted foundation.
At Five Star Mattress, I felt young again. On select beds across its lineup, Five Star added 1980s-inspired dark, ornate damask covers. These #throwbackThursday looks “originally meant for the rent-to-own segment, are doing really well with those retailers who clamor for color,” said Five Star’s Paul Sullivan. (OK, I don’t know if Paul is on Twitter, but I am, and I do enjoy looking for that Twitter hashtag.)
There was a lot of mattress remodeling going on at Paramount Sleep—to good effect. Among the attractive redesigns, the A.H. Beard Classic collection had 100% natural latex “lumbar quilting,” while Nature’s Spa got a nifty, monotone striated knit. The most exciting look, to me, was the Back Performance bed with a busy checkerboard border paired with a solid, horizontally quilted foundation fabric.
The Eclipse International and Eastman House showroom had plenty of eye candy. My favorite was an Eastman House model that evoked springtime. It was designed by new licensee Heritage Sleep, and principal Terry Spears was on hand to show us the bed. It uses patented Zoned Quilt Technology, which is highlighted by a cleverly designed and unusual knit panel in cream and green.
In addition to mattresses, we saw new pillows, bed linens and other bed accessories at High Point Market. Sleep Savvy sent show-related video and photo tweets which can be found by typing #mattress #hpmkt in the Twitter search box. And read BedTimes’ and Sleep Savvy’s complete report from the show in December print.
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