Four Hands Wins Third ARTS Award

Furniture World Magazine

Austin, TX-based furniture company Four Hands received its third award for accent furniture at the 18th Annual ARTS Awards presentation at the Dallas Market Center on Saturday night, 1/20. The award is presented annually by the Accessories Resource Team. Entrants are voted in by their constituents. Judges are selected from throughout the furniture industry, this year including Kelly Ryan Kegans, Senior Decorating Editor of Better Homes & Gardens and Christi Proctor of “Trading Spaces” among others. Awards are given out to retailers, sales representatives, and manufacturers. The Accent Furniture award is the only furniture award presented, the remaining manufacturer awards going to various accessories categories. It is generally regarded among the most prestigious awards of its kind in the industry. Judging is based on a 40-page binder prepared by the entrants, including company history, philosophy, marketing, and no more than six product examples. Winners represent those companies that consistently demonstrate the most unique, exciting approach in all that they do. Among products submitted by Four Hands was their Baroque chair, winner of a 2006 New Product of the Year award from HOME magazine, as well as some Receiving the award on behalf of founder Brett Hatton was newly named Four Hands President Matthew Briggs, who acknowledged the company’s design team, which spends months each year traveling the globe in search of new ideas, and its customers. “The products selected show our commitment to staying on the cutting edge of fashion,” said Briggs, ”and we could not do it without customers who are willing to take chances with us.” Impressively, three of Four Hands retailers were also up for awards, including winner 24 e of the East/Atlantic, and Academy of Achievement lifetime award winner Judy George, Founder/CEO of Domain. “I felt like we had arrived as a company when we received our first ARTS award,” says Hatton, “This honor reaffirms that we are still on the right track.” This was the third ARTS Award win for Four Hands in the last five years, having also won at the 14th and 15th annual presentations (2003, 2004).