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From Home Furnishing Business

Bassett Shifts Focus to Traditional with Newbury at HPMKT

April 21, 2025  by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry   

Characterized by warm tones, artistic finishes and thoughtful storage details, the collection marries traditionally inspired silhouettes with soft, rounded shapes, and creative textures, patterns, and materials. White oak, grasscloth and pencil rattan figure prominently. Also key: a textural, gesso finish on some of the cases using a thatching technique that resembles the warp and weft of fabric.

Grasscloth is incorporated throughout the line in unique ways, such as a subtle chevron pattern with a warm white finish in the backs of bookcases and on the front of credenzas. In the bedroom, a blue striae-patterned grasscloth is used on nightstands and dressers, with a warmer, neutral grasscloth also available as an option. Hand-forged hardware in distinctive bee-skep shapes rendered in polished nickel with an antique patina was custom designed to complement the warmer neutrals.

Among the collection’s many stand-out pieces are a sculptural console reminiscent of stacked Jenga blocks, a credenza, cocktail and console with reeding details, rounded cabinets with glass fronts available in either white oak or gesso finish with grasscloth detail, and a cocktail table with drawer storage that can be accessed from both sides.

Merchandised accessories pull Newbury’s concept together and enable the statement pieces to live in any environment, whether traditional, modern, or more casual and relaxed. Among these, a bedding ensemble was developed specifically for the collection, an Indian block print incorporating sage greens, mustard yellows, and saffron spice tones with a variety of layers ranging from a striped coverlet to a quilted duvet.

“Newbury represents our vision of traditional design reimagined—fresh, relevant, versatile, and meticulously detailed,” said Anne Spilman Souter, who as Bassett’s creative director oversaw all elements of Newbury’s development. It is also the first major Bassett collection that bears the imprimatur of Souter, who herself led a successful NYC design firm prior to joining the family business five years ago. 

“The current times are stressful, and our research consistently told us that people want to exhale when they get home, surrounded by the things they love. We wanted to achieve a feeling of warmth in a comprehensive collection that could easily be personalized, with individual, sculptural pieces that could live within the collection or be used on their own,” the executive said.

Indeed, she continued, “We thought a lot about how the pieces, could or would be used in different rooms, and not just living, dining and bedrooms, but also entries and vestibules, the kind of common spaces that call for one fabulous piece.”

Suggested retail pricing on the collection ranges from $349 for an occasional table to statement pieces at $2,199.