Fusion Designs Bets on High End Collections in Vegas

December 3, 2024  by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry   

While Fusion Designs has spent the last two years helping its dealers attract a new generation of shoppers interested in solid wood furniture with its entry-level Essentials and Essentials Plus programs, the company plans to turn heads this season with four new high-end dining collections, complete with chairs and hutches. All are the result of creative collaborations with world-class furniture designers, and all of the elevated looks combine soft contemporary design with enhanced seating comfort.

Among the four new dining collections to be displayed in Space B670, the Melbourne is crafted in rustic white oak with a 96-inch-long solid top table with a solid white oak base featuring striking molded curves at either end and a true mortis-and-tenon stretcher for support. Available in any of the company’s 35 finishes (four more are being developed with dealer reaction to be tested in Vegas), the collection includes a hutch with hardware cut from solid wood, and six dining chairs with upholstered backs. Suggested retail $12,000.

“Our dealers continue to look to us for the kind of higher end, hand-crafted and custom finished products on which we built the company, and they are not afraid of price, so it’s important that we stay out in front in terms of the styles and trends that consumers want most now,” said Marcus Bontrager, president. 

In fact, Bontrager said, the focus on soft contemporary design on display in Vegas is a response to a pair of dealer surveys that Fusion Designs fielded earlier this year. “An overwhelming amount of the results told us that consumers appear to be undergoing a very discernable change in design preferences, and they are seeking out more soft contemporary styles. We expect this change to become even more obvious in the year ahead as business begins picking up again.”

Mila is another new group right in line with that demand. Crafted in brown maple and shown in an oatmeal finish with an 84-inch table, the collection spotlights a pair of hutches, one with built-in wine storage, the other created for storage and display. Suggested retail is $9,000 for the table, one hutch and six fully upholstered dining chairs covered in performance fabric. “The emphasis now is on true comfort in dining chairs and with that in mind we’ve been steadily expanding our capabilities in upholstery, with more to come,” the executive said.

Rounding out the offering is Theo, a smaller 48-inch round table also with a new upholstered chair, crafted in brown maple and shown in a Harbor Gray finish); and Bennett, also 48-inch round, this time in oak with a natural finish and upholstered chairs shown in an onyx finish. Suggested retail for either, including table and four chairs, is $5,000.