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January 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Accessories on January 29, 2010
Jason Phillips of The Phillips Collection was named top product designer in the 2010 ARTS Awards.
The ARTS Awards, presented each January during the Dallas Total Home & Gift Market, is the
premier awards program for the decorative accessories industry and recognizes excellence from
retailers, manufacturers, sales representatives and designers.
Don McEvoy, founder of Don McEvoy and Associates, was honored with the Academy of Achievement Award for his significant contributions to the decorative accessories industry.
Distinguished presenters, Clodagh and Joe Ruggiero, joined market center executives and ART
team leaders in recognizing the winners. Bill Winsor, president and CEO of Dallas Market
Center, and Cindy Morris, COO of Dallas Market Center offered opening remarks. ART was
represented by executive director, Sharon Davis, and 2010-2011 ART president and Hall of
Fame retailer, Bill Fortson, who also presented awards.
"It's always an honor to celebrate the accomplishments of such outstanding members of the
decorative accessories industry," said Dallas Market Center President and CEO Bill Winsor. "Congratulations to this year's winners of the 21st annual ARTS Awards."
Manufacturer winners included: Palecek, accent furniture; Loloi Rugs, area rugs; Global Views, decorative accessories; Blissliving Home, Home Textiles; Visual Comfort & Co., lighting fixtures; Seasonal Living, outdoor living, Distinctive Designs, permanent floral; Barbara Cosgrove Lamps, portable lamps; Beatriz Ball Collection, tabletop; and Paragon, wall decor.
Sales representative honors went to: Brittain Cherry, Ogburn-Cherry & Associates, East/Atlantic; Derrick Ricketts, CODARUS, Midwest/Southwest; and Laura Fast, OneCoast/Homestyle, West.
Ma Maison in Mexico City was named top International Retail Store; and Bravado Home & Design, Portland, Ore., was named Rising Star Retailer.
Furniture store ARTS Awards went to Albert's Interiors, Newton Square, Pa., in the East/Atlantic region; HW Home, Boulder, Col., Midwest/Southwest; and Homescapes Carmel, Carmel, Calif., West.
Home accent store winners included Ambiance Interiors & Gifts Inc., Suwanee, Ga.; Burlap Horse, Boerne, Texas; and Grace Home Furnishings, Los Angeles. Lighting showroom honors went to Southern Lighting Gallery, Augusta, Ga.; Light by Design, San Antonio, Texas; and Western Montana Lighting, Missoula, Mt.
January 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on January 29, 2010
Sawyer Furniture in Prichard, Al., was destroyed by a fire Wednesday night, WALA-TV reported this week.
"The fire wasn't actually that big when we called," said Owner Leonard McCants in the report. "By the time the fire department came, it had gotten out of hand."
McCants was uncertain about plans to rebuild.
January 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on January 29, 2010
Case goods, occasional and motion leather vendor aspenhome, Phoenix, has teamed with Style Network's "Clean House" team to remodel the bedroom in the California home of Alex and Renee Medel.
Their current bedroom furniture was oversized and overpowered their new bedroom leaving no room for them. Aspenhome and Clean House replaced their old furniture with aspenhome's Chateau de Vin bedroom collection.
To see a segment, click on the aspenhome Web site and click on the bottom right arrow to scroll over to the "ah on TV" icon.
Clean House, now in its 8th season on Style Network, is a home makeover and interior design show that cleans up and renovates homes of families unable to control their household clutter. The design team encouraged the Medel family to let go of their excess clutter by holding a yard sale to raise money for their makeover.
Designer, Mark Brunetz, used those funds along with money from the show and the bedroom set from aspenhome to create a new bedroom retreat for the family.
"We were very happy to help the Medels. aspenhome's Chateau de Vin bedroom furniture fit perfectly in their new retreat," Renee Loper, director of Marketing Communications for aspenhome. "The Clean House design team did a great job pulling it all together."
January 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in on January 29, 2010
The year 2010 marks the 66th anniversary of the founding of Hickory Springs Manufacturing Co. It's also the 50th anniversary of the Hickory, N.C.-based company's manufacture of flexible polyurethane foam.
When interviewed for Hickory Springs 60th Anniversary oral history, Bob W. Bush Sr., who retired as vice president-sales in 2002 and died this month at age 78, remembered the company's early years in foam. When latex foam was king in the 1950s, Hickory Springs began bringing in latex molded slabs from up North. Bush, at that time an always-on-the-road salesman for the furniture and bedding spring company, began looking for "a plastic foam that would compete with latex foam."
He visited Tennessee Eastman in Kingsport and spoke with its sales manager, who agreed to assist with experimentation and shipped several hundred pounds of raw material to Hickory Springs' plant in the Hickory area community of Brookford. Company founder Parks Underdown agreed to fund Bushs trials to the tune of a thousand dollars.
"So I went to Duke," Bush recalled. "My chemistry professor was Dr. Brown, a lady. And Dr. Brown, I thought, was very sharp and I told her what I wanted to do and would she like that for a project. I couldn't pay but a thousand dollars and I would buy whatever chemicals she needed. And she said, 'Oh, we have all those. She had to bring it before the department board. Well, she got approval in about twenty minutes. So they did, and they worked on it and worked on it and it didnt work. But that was where it started, so then urethane foam, which was what we know today, came along, again from Yankee producers, from companies like General Tire and Rubber and Sheller Globe, we started buying it, probably around 1957 or '58."
As Bush remembered, "DuPont was the big maker of one of the ingredients at that time, so we called for their salesman who came in and said, 'Well, y'all arent big enough to be in the business.'"
Shortly thereafter, an Allied Chemical salesman who lived in Charlotte helped put Hickory Springs in the flexible slabstock polyurethane business. He recommended a chemist from Miami who had worked for Hudson Cushion Foam. Ken Fontaine signed on with Hickory Springs on the basis that he could make foam for "x dollars and he could do it in ninety days," Bush said.
The move put Hickory Springs in the urethane foam business, around May of 1960.
Fontaine made pretty good foam. We were able to sell it, but we were selling it at a loss. We lost our rear. It took us several years to figure out exactly which way to go to keep
from losing money. But we did.
Now with foam production plants in Arkansas, Georgia, California, Oregon, Mississippi and North Carolina, Hickory Springs has several flexible polyurethane foam events planned for the first half of 2010, including an Earth Day ceremony and other programs still in the planning stages.
One of North Carolinas largest employers, Hickory Springs is a privately-held company with more than 50 manufacturing plants in 16 states and China. Hickory Springs manufactures component parts for the upholstered furniture, bedding, automotive, packaging and other industries.
January 28,
2010 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Green on January 29, 2010
RugMark has been awarded with the Building Economic Alternatives Award, given by Green America to recognize groups or individuals that are leading the movement to use the economy as a tool for building a more just and sustainable society.
RugMark was chosen for this award in recognition of its work through the GoodWeave certification program to end illegal child labor in the carpet industry while offering educational opportunities to increase opportunities for children in South Asia. The certification standard will soon include green benchmarks to reduce water and air pollution related to rug washing and dyeing, along with living wages and improved working conditions for of-age workers.
"It's a thrill to give this award to RugMark," says Denise Hamler, director of Green Business programs at Green America, which works to promote social justice and environmental sustainability through economic action. "They have been a huge force in ending child labor in South Asia for 15 years, and with the GoodWeave label we see that they are embracing the true meaning of 'green'--one that means environmental and social responsibility. We are proud to salute the important work they do."
Through its GoodWeave program, RugMark certifies that rugs sold with the GoodWeave label were made without child labor. Since RugMark began in 1994, illegal child labor in the handmade carpet industry of South Asia has decreased by 75 percent, from an estimated one million to 250,000 child workers. To date, RugMark has rescued more than 3,600 children and deterred hundreds of thousands more from exploitation on carpet looms, offering rescued victims rehabilitation, education, vocational training, and other services; more than 9,000 emancipated and at-risk children have attended school with RugMark support.
For the last 20 years, Green America has given the BEA Award to an organization or individual whose outstanding work deals with the green economy issues covered by the previous years Green American (formerly Co-op America Quarterly). Nominees are proposed by members across the country and voted on by the staff at Green America.
"We are pleased to accept this award," said Nina Smith, executive director of Rugmark USA. "It is a great recognition of both our past and future work, which will include an enhanced set of values coinciding with the expansion of the GoodWeave label to include humanitarian and environmental certification criteria."