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 by
Jacqueline Monahan
jaxn8r@msn.com
Photos by Judy Thorburn
World
Market Furnishes a Unique Niche in Eco-Friendly Design
From July 30-August 3, the World Market Center was host to 1300
exhibiting companies from 80 different countries who displayed the
latest in furniture, accessories, lighting and artwork. Canada, Latin
America, Europe, and Asia were represented with an astounding 11
exhibitors from Viet Nam alone.
The sprawling World Market complex includes Buildings A and B, plus
three additional pavilions inside large white tents. The Sands Expo
housed all of the Green and sustainable furnishings displays, which were
the hot trend of the exhibition.
A
sampling of standout exhibits, chosen for originality, variety and
presentation, are listed below in no particular order:
LumiSource, a 50’s and 60’s lighting store offers retro designs in
chairs, clocks and wall decorations. From Chinese carry-out box lamps to
a neon set of lips wall mirror to Mitt chairs (like sitting in a giant
catcher’s mitt) and lighted flamingo lamps (these with tufts of hair).
And the global Electra series features Buddha, dragon and Ganesh. Boom
chairs, incorporating speakers have interactive vibration motors
Feizy Rugs, (pronounced fay-zee) offers a wide spectrum of pricing
options. Hand knotted wool rugs could take 2-3 people 2 years to create.
Machine made versions can go for less than 10% of handmade prices.
Classic to modern in design and manufacturing techniques, there is no
shape, size or color specification that these folks can’t accommodate.
JBS Environments incorporates the wild and exotic with the lavish and
luxurious. You can envelope yourself with African motifs while lounging
in silk fabrics. Lions and giraffes can lounge about on glass and wood
tables. Look for surprising patterns and rich contrasts in wood and
fabric.
Human Touch massage chairs approximate a vigorous total body massage
that will leave you feeling nicely pummeled. Thankfully you can adjust
the intensity. No part of the body goes untouched by the grasp of these
chairs. They even offer a Zero Gravity chair, promising to reverse the
effects of all of that downward pull on joints and muscles.
Vintage Verandah introduced the Jane Seymour Home Collection by hosting
the actress herself. Seymour presented St. Catherine’s Court, Winding
Way, Grand Hotel and Coral Canyon accessories in the showroom, Inspired
by English countryside, cottages, a Mackinac Island resort and her
California residence, Seymour’s accessories incorporate her life and her
original artwork into pillows, handbags, nightlights, lamps, bookends,
and candle holders.
Jane Seymour
Dale Tiffany offers 2000 styles, the biggest selection. Stained glass
pours forth like multicolored honey and takes the most exquisite shapes,
surrounding angels and flowers and banker’s lamps alike. There are
Tiffany panels and arches and domes. There are hues and colors and
richness. This is the very best selection of Tiffany creations that
you’ll find anywhere. No wonder Louis Tiffany’s middle name was Comfort.
If this is your type of lighting you’ll be most comfortable in this
store’s midst.
Strobel Technologies offers prescription mattresses (toxin free) which
makes the bed sales tax free and tax deductible. Mattress toxicity comes
from the chemicals used to make the bed flame retardant, but has
potentially hazardous consequences of its own. Because federal law
mandates that all mattresses be made from flame retardant materials, a
doctor’s prescription is needed to buy a toxin-free bed. Used to make
the mattress flame retardant are such chemical agents as arsenic, boric
acid, silica glass, formaldehyde and ammonia. Since no labeling is
required the consumer doesn’t know what he’s sleeping in. Many
chemically sensitive customers opt for a prescription mattress, with
Strobel Technologies leading the way.
Going
Green
The big trend of the Summer 2007 World Market is
eco-friendly/sustainable furniture and products. 15000 square ft of
sustainable home furnishings were featured in the Living Green Pavilion
at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, with 35 manufacturers showing
who are committed to sustainable products and practices. The
professionals are working on making sustainable products available to
match a wide range of price points, but consumers themselves must push
for affordable green offerings because the current expense is a
prohibiting factor for some. It’s still a niche business now, but
predicted to become mainstream in the next decade as consciousness is
raised and demand grows, thanks in large part to the Al Gore
documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.
Some
companies at the forefront of the eco-friendly/green movement include:
Groovy Stuff - Already into the recycling groove, they offer furniture
made from tree roots into benches, antique wagon wheels into gliders and
farm plows into porch swings. They like to say they’re furniture for the
environment.
Tassajara Designs - Made from renewable materials and a non-toxic
environmentally friendly finish, their L'Attitudes collection offers
furniture for casual living areas, whether home or office. L'Attitudes
is a fusion of "green" materials and finishes and contemporary styling
and works well with almost any décor.
Eastern Breeze Home Collections – Many of their pieces are crafted from
recycled materials, blending artifacts and metals. Using the thrown
away, the antique or the recycled, every piece has a history. Old
railway ties and antique bike seats get new lives as contemporary
pieces. Most items used to be something else and now their life is
extended beyond taking up space in an ever-shrinking landfill.
Bamboo
Bamboo is a plentiful and renewable plant that loves to propagate.
Described as the wood of the poor (India), friend of the people (China),
and brother (Viet Nam), bamboo grows in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and
Latin America. It provides pillars, walls, window frames, rafters,
ceilings, roofs, flooring, room separators, fencing, and paneling. The
giant, woody grass’s stem or culm reaches full height in a short period
of time and has a rapid rate of growth. It has immense vitality, and one
species can grow over 4 feet in 24 hours. It takes only 60 days for new
shoots to reach mature height and they push through the ground already
in full diameter. One species survived a ground zero atomic blast at
Hiroshima and sent new shoots up after a few days.
The cost of its growth cycle is only half that of red cedar. The money
and resources saved in using this material make it a very eco-friendly
choice for future sustainable furnishings. Used and found wood in
general are also being looked at in an effort to stop excessive logging
and deforestation.
The semi-annual Las Vegas Market is the world’s fastest growing trade
show for home furnishings, now at 3.8 million square ft of showrooms and
exhibits is expected to reach 12 million square ft. by the year 2013,
which will make it the world’s largest trade fair complex. Putting into
practice what it has been advocating, the Winter 2007 show resulted in
70% of the Market’s waste being recycled.
Look out High Point, North Carolina. Not only is Las Vegas in the house,
but that house is solar-powered and filled with sustainable furniture
and bamboo flooring. Its porch swings are made from wagon wheels and its
benches from railroad ties. For furniture trends and forecasts the Las
Vegas Market just might get those industry heads to turn west for a
glimpse of the best.
http://www.daletiffany.com/
http://www.easternbreeze.com
http://www.feizyrugs.com/
http://www.groovystuff.com/
http://www.interhealth.com/
http://www.jbsshowroom.com/
http://www.lumisource.com/
http://www.strobel.com/
http://www.tassajaradesigns.com
http://www.vintagev.com/
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