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At High Point -- Bold colors brighten youth BR

By Marc Barnes -- Kids Today, 4/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

PowellKids’ Sunday Funnies collection brings bright colors, outsized proportions and a sense of fun to children’s furniture. The pieces look like they came straight out of a, well, Sunday comics page.

HIGH POINT — Youth furniture is continuing its evolution here, with new colors that reflect changing consumer tastes and variations on time-tested designs.

In the PowellKids showroom, the new Sunday Funnies collection is an eye-opener, with swooping, outsized lines, all in bright greens, blues, pinks and yellows. Anne Russell, vice president of merchandising, said the palette is based on the most prevalent colors in children’s apparel.

Russell said Sunday Funnies is a nod to Brianna’s Room, a discontinued line that featured a multi-colored patchwork quilt design. She said Brianna’s Room sold well during the six years Powell sold it, and initial buyer reaction to Sunday Funnies has been enthusiastic.

“We had barely unpacked it and we really started getting a great reaction,” she said. “It really looks like Mini Mouse’s bedroom, with a traditional base of a sleigh bed, but with a softer feel.”

The beds have an unusual bar across the footboard and on the sides of the nightstands, where a blanket or towel can be hung. Customers can outfit an entire bedroom or choose individual pieces as accents. The target market is girls between the ages of 3 and 12.

“This is an exciting collection,” said Russell. “This is new and it’s fun.”

At Pulaski Furniture, Jim Kelly, executive vice president of marketing and product development, said the focus this market is to modify and improve what has worked in the past.

An example is an Edwardian youth collection, a smaller-scaled version of Pulaski’s top seller in an adult Victorian style. Edwardian is offered in a medium-brown cherry finish and is targeted to teenagers. Kelly said the furniture could go with the teenager when they move out of the house, or could remain to be used in a second bedroom.

“We’ve gotten a good response, but it is hard to go wrong if you take the No. 1 seller and translate it into something else,” he said.

Another offering this market, a coffee bean stain that shows the grain of the wood underneath, has also proven popular.

But he promised that next market’s introduction of the Build-A-Bear collection, which will use information from moms and kids on how they would like to see a bedroom look, will be colorful and unique. Some of the ideas generated by marketing studies for Build-A-Bear found their way into some of the Edwardian pieces.

“We are becoming a market-driven company, because you have to listen to the consumer,” said Kelly.

Linda Owen, vice president of marketing at Riverside Furniture, said the company’s Spring Street youth bedroom combines sleep, study and storage pieces in a cottage contemporary style. The furniture is designed for use throughout childhood, and also in a first apartment.

Selected pieces are in pastel shades of white, blue and green, colors that were chosen based on what’s popular in home furnishings fabric selections.

“These are colors that can easily be mixed and matched to come up with some great color combinations,” said Owen. “These are very clear colors and this was popular — it was a huge success at premarket.”

Bedtime also takes consumer taste into account, according to sales representative Rit Matthis. Color is an example: In order of preference, he said, consumers are increasingly picking black, white, blue and red, in that order,

Matthis said many retailers will set up a loft system with pieces in various colors — and then will warehouse enough pieces so that consumers can mix and match.

University Loft also is telling a color story here. Kathy Carlson, national sales manager, said an in-line Mission youth bedroom in a merlot finish has been refinished in white to appeal to girls. The company also is introducing video rockers in greens, blues and yellows — and a Malibu tween-sized sectional series with washable colors in red, green, blue, tan and pink.

At Primo Furniture, John DeFalco, vice president of sales and marketing, said many consumers will choose chairs and sofa-sleepers to coordinate with beds and case pieces in youth bedrooms. Some of the sofas are used under loft beds, or are substituting for beds in kids’ rooms.

In color this market, small chairs including swivel chairs for TV viewing and gaming are proving popular in bright reds, yellows, purples and greens.

“Sometimes, we will bring the bright reds and blues, and then they will buy what’s safe,” DeFalco said. “But we are doing a lot of youth business in this.”

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