Cabinet sales decrease 6.4% in Jan.

Cabinet sales for January 2010 decreased 6.4 percent compared to sales for January 2009, according to the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association monthly Trend of Business Survey.
Stock cabinet sales decreased 11.9 percent, semi-custom sales increased 5.6 percent and custom sales decreased 11.9 percent.
Survey participants include stock, semi-custom and custom companies whose combined sales represent more than 50 percent of the U.S. cabinet market.

It’s not you, it’s your furniture

Do you suffer from periodic creative droughts? If so, your furniture may be holding you back.
Steelcase’s Turnstone division recently launched Campfire, a line of informal office furniture inspired by familiar indoor and outdoor spaces for small businesses. The seven-piece furniture line boasts a paper table with a glass surface similar to a white board or a paper pad top for ideas on the go. Furniture groupings have kicky names such as Island, Base Camp, Oasis and my favorite Shanty. The big lamp is reminiscent of a beach umbrella, the big table is similar to a kitchen table and the big lounge is, well, you get the picture.
While Campfire is designed to foster creativity and teamwork— chatty co-workers can be the biggest creativity buzzkillers. Will small businesses owners bite or just go work in the park for inspiration?

Glitzy out, functional in

Without the large appreciation in home values between 1995 and 2005, kitchen and bathroom design has become more modest. Meanwhile, residential architects are continuing to report declining business conditions, according to the American Institute of Architects Home Design Trends Survey for the fourth quarter of 2009. The survey focused on kitchen and bathrooms.
This survey indicated that functionality is now preferred to more and larger kitchens and bathrooms in U.S. homes. Households are planning more importance on products that promote energy efficiency. Products that are adaptable in the use of space for seniors and people with accessibility concerns are also becoming more important.
Overall, homes continue to be smaller on average than they were during the past 10 years, says Kermit Baker, AIA chief economist. "But since kitchens remain the nerve center of the home, doing more with less space is a key consideration. "Integrating kitchens with family space remains a design priority."
Baker says that homeowners want areas devoted to recycling, pantries, computer workstations and spaces devoted to recharging cell phones and PDAs. The most popular kitchen products and features in the most recent survey were: recycling center (52 percent); larger pantry space (47 percent); renewable flooring materials (46 percent); renewable countertop materials (46 percent) and computer area/recharging stations (43 percent).
In the bathroom, Baker says that homeowners are moving away from glitzy features such as steam showers and towel warming drawers/racks and instead are looking for water-saving toilets, radiant heated flooring and LED lighting options. Popular bathroom features included water-saving toilets (63 percent); radiant heated floors (52 percent); and accessibility/universal design (50 percent).
Although it is too early to think that the residential market has fully recovered, there are two encouraging signs in the survey. Overall business conditions are far better than they were a year ago at this time, and there is improvement in those housing sectors that need to lead a broader improvement in the housing market: remodeling and alterations of existing homes. Both segments were reported to be growing.

The sliding furniture scale

Somewhere there’s a “yo, mamma” joke in here, but I’m going to take the high road.
For years, furniture manufacturers have been slyly designing furniture (the chair-and-a -half and monster sized sofas) as the world’s population gets bigger. Some smart furniture companies are cashing in on this growing trend.
For example, Norwegian company Ekornes offers reclines in three different sizes— small, medium and large. The large chair can hold up to 300 pounds. The selling point of these chairs is that different sizes offer a personalized fit for various body types. As this niche market expands, (no pun intended) look for other manufacturers to join the fray and up the design ante.

Own a piece of the ‘King of Pop’

Twenty-two pieces of lavish, over-the-top furniture commissioned for Michael Jackson’s Kent home are hitting the auction block.
Unless you live in a cat house in Nevada or are a legend in your own mind, I’m not really sure if this hand carved, gilt wood, three seat sofa topped with crown, upholstered in red velvet with metallic thread crown over double headed eagle embroidery makes sense. The retail price of this gem, a mere $73,000.

Get in my belly!

Talk about temporary furniture—these chairs are made out of bread. I’m not sure how sturdy they are but they sure do look delicious.

Dec. '09 furniture orders increase over Dec. '08

The latest Smith Leonard Furniture Insights study reports new orders were 12 percent higher in December 2009 compared to December 2008.
For December, approximately 62 percent of the participants reported increased furniture orders over the same month a year ago. The 62 percent is up from 51 percent in November, 41 percent in October, 33 percent in September and 20 percent in August.
For the 2009 year, new orders declined 13 percent. At the end of June, year-to-date orders were down 20 percent from a high of 22 percent earlier in the year.
Some 91 percent of participants reported lower orders for the 2009 year.
In other trends, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had increased in January, declined sharply in February, and now stands at 46, down from 56.5 in January.