Mission, European Traditions, Star At Unfinished Furniture Association Trade Show

Furniture World Magazine

In more than 450 booths, manufacturers at this year's Unfinished Furniture Association (UFA) National Convention & Trade Show reaffirmed their love affair with American Country, expanded the prominence of Mission style, and beguiled buyers with a new array of romantically traditional looks, from French Country to Plantation. Metallic accents were everywhere, adding decorative punch. In the Mission-style category, a distinctly urbane bedroom from Woodland featured pale woods punctuated with Beidermeir- inspired red, black metal insets. Black metal spiked the style of many American Country pieces as well, looking best in pale popular or beech or warm honey maple. Several makers brightened country-style cupboards with metal grillwork in brass, punched tin and punched brass insets in fanciful patterns, and other metal accents. A clean, classic take on American Country proved its versatility and buyer appeal, and freestanding kitchen furniture continued to gain ground. Woodcraft industries combined both these trends in a simple, nicely crafted kitchen island that earned it this year's Best New Product award by retailer vote. Mastercraft embellished its new kitchen island with handsome Mission-style fretwork, and John Greenleaf offered a slim new island to fit anywhere. More variety in woods, from maple to mahogany, added upscale appeal to product introductions. Zoltan, whose co-owner is a certified interior designer, brought design center quality to the Show with her beautifully hand-carved, serpentine chest, side chairs and game/dining table, all in solid mahogany. Berkshire Furniture offered new sideboards and dining groups in its finely crafted Federal, Shaker and Mission collections, all in exceptionally lustrous maple. Classic ladderback chairs and farm tables were still big favorites, but exciting new profiles were also in evidence. The common denominator seems to be a sense of romance. Any heroine would have loved American Moulding's generously-scaled newel-post bed in hot new plantation style, and an antique buff would have been tempted by Dawson's barley twist embellished curio. Charming juvenile seating and tables, perfect for personalization, appeared in many booths, and Woodmaster of S.A. blended romance with clever storage in a juvenile bed with Alpine gingerbread "roof" and lots of bookshelves. Oversized dining suites, and massive master bedroom groups flagged the trend to much larger houses. But the wide array of kitchen islands and other storage ideas addressed the need for more, and more portable, storage for smaller homes. Noteworthy were a new, modular stacking storage system from Woodmaster of S.A. that allowed a whole wall of storage combinations to be built up and dismantled as needed; counter-height, but bistro-inspired casual dining groups from Whitewood; and, from Upper Canada Woodworks, a coffee table that converted quickly into a dining-height table or a cot-sized sleeper. Throughout the Show hall, finishing manufacturers offered a host of product enhancing paints, stains, and specialty finishes of every kind and color, from "authentic (pre-aged) colonial" hues to softer, "antiqued" tones, and from vivid crayon-box colors to a wealth of natural wood tones. With most items shown unfinished, buyers could inspect workmanship and grain closely, then choose finishing products to customize for clients or as add-on sales. UFA's National Convention & Trade Show is sponsored annually by the Unfinished Furniture Association. 7 10 E. Ogden Avenue, Suite 600, Naperville, IL 60563, phone 630/369-2406, www.unfinished.org.