Suzanne Kasler's Inspired Interior at High Point

Someone commented after they met Suzanne Kasler that didn't expect her to be soft spoken. I said she didn't need to talk loudly since her designs speak volumes for her!

I feel like most people associate Suzanne with pink so it was fun to see this orange space in the Hickory Chair showroom, especially since it's my favorite color! Actually, Suzanne was quick to point out that the room is really neutral with orange accents.

I didn't realize until we saw some sold signs in one of the showrooms that you can buy the floor models. I was very tempted to buy Suzanne's Ansley Chair that was upholstered in burnt orange leather. It's so me! If I did buy it, I wouldn't be able to shove as many bags of fabric samples under it which is what I do with the current chair in my apartment that it would replace! But I guess I could return the samples!

I think this photo is going to go in my future house binder of ideas and tear sheets. It's just perfect!

Suzanne had recently returned from Paris fashion week she said she was thinking about her new collection that will debut in the spring at High Point in terms of a new fashion collection. I cannot wait to see it! I'm sure it will be gorgeous!

She was also on hand to sign her new book, Inspired Interiors, that was just released. I know I always feel inspired after speaking with her and seeing her interiors and I already love the book.

It was fun to peek at the bulletin board after everyone left and see that it was filled with Suzanne's real invitations!

I especially loved the colored push pins with all the names of the grand tour cities. All of the designers take pride in their spaces and come in early before the High Point Furniture Market starts to help style their furniture and accessories. It speaks volumes about their attention to detail and dedication is probably another reason why the Hickory Chair showroom is always a favorite!

Photos by Heather Clawson

High Point Highlights

I'm back from my first trip to the High Point Furniture Market and I had an amazing time! I am exhausted but exhilarated and inspired! I owe a big thank you to Furniture Brands for allowing me this wonderful opportunity! It was fun to meet the other bloggers on the trip, Cassandra from Coco + Kelly, Paloma from La Dolce Vita, and the life of the party, Franki from Life in a Venti Cup, and her better half, Jim. Of course, the best part was meeting the amazing designers in town including Bill Sofield and Thomas O'Brien, as well as seeing the lovely Suzanne Kasler again. One of the main highlights for me was meeting Alexa Hampton who was debuting her new pieces at Hickory Chair! We were seated next to each other at dinner Monday night and I had a great time talking design and life with her! Alexa has the best personality and is so passionate about her collection that it was hard to get a photo of her in focus when she was walking us through the showroom this morning! She really knows her stuff and it clearly shows! I loved everything! I can't wait to go though all my photos and share all the highlights with you but right now I'm off to bed so I can recover from all the fun! Bon nuit!

Suzanne Kasler for Hickory Chair

This is my last Hickory Chair related post, I swear! It was actually supposed to be my first but I decided to wait until after my trip to North Carolina to post it. I mentioned previously that I attended a lecture at the D&D Building where Suzanne Kasler spoke about how her new furniture line evolved from her antiques picked up in Paris. She started with sketches based on her favorite pieces and later Hickory Chair came to pick up the antiques to use them as models. All of them were rescaled and modified to create the line which can be further customized by designers through the finishes, fabrics and trims. And as we learned from the Hickory Chair factory tours, they are even better made than the originals!

Alexandra Side Chair

Frederica Bench

Woodward Bench

Antoinette Table and Anastasia Bench

Amsterdam Side Chair

Not Your Grandmother's Hickory Chair

The original motto of Hickory Chair was "chairs made better than seems necessary" and the motto today could be "furniture made better than seems necessary." I wasn't that familiar with Hickory Chair before my visit to their factories and showroom and now I can't imagine how I designed without them! But what I thought was a simple tour turned out to be so much more than just about furniture. Everyone who was a part of this trip which is called Hickory Chair University was deeply impressed by the company's attention to detail and quality but also their lean manufacturing process and employee pride and ingenuity. There is so much that I learned while there that I wasn't quite sure where to start. But since someone already pointed out yesterday that the furniture didn't look like the Hickory Chair that they knew, I thought we should start with a look at the showroom and the really gorgeous furniture that they produce!

There really is something for everyone at Hickory Chair and if you don't see what you need, you can have it custom made. The tag line under Marketing Director Laura Holland's email reads, "If you can describe it, we will try to MAKE it" as well as "MADE not manufactured." I'll get more into how the furniture is made in my next post and how this is a company that isn't manufacturing a hundred of the same piece on an assembly line but making your furniture as you order it.

You can customize almost any piece and choose from 19 wood finishes; 24 paint finishes in weathered, vintage or rustic technique; 12 special paint finishes including gold and silver leaf; special handpainting by an artist; Antique Rub or Solid striping; hardware in antique brass, antique bronze, antique silver or Customer's Own Hardware (COH); 8 different skirt options; and monogramming of initials, words or motifs (your family crest is not a problem). I also forgot small, medium and large and deluxe nail trims in a myriad of finishes which can be places over 36 different colors of gimp or ribbon. Oh, and there are over 800 fabrics to choose from or you can send in your customer's own fabric. I haven't even mentioned the Silhouettes program where you can choose different arm styles, legs, custom depth and height, skirt or no skirt, casters or no caster, etc. The options are dizzying and exciting!

The styles range from American, French, Asian and European and have been designed by some of the best in the design world including noted American antique dealer and scholar Albert Sack, and interior designers Alexa Hampton, Mariette Himes Gomez, Thomas O'Brien and Suzanne Kasler.

I don't want to come off as someone who drank the Kool-Aid or who is only writing about Hickory Chair because they sent me to visit their company. I think you all know by now that as a New Yorker, I'm not easily impressed and that I only write about companies, designers and products that I can honestly endorse. I don't think any other furniture company could ever invite me to view their operation after Hickory Chair because I don't think anyone could come close to their quality and construction.

I have shopped at Aero in New York, Thomas O'Brien's Soho store but I never knew his furniture was made by Hickory Chair. I also have it on good authority that Chelsea Bed seen here was purchased by a certain interior designer for a certain house in Washington, DC. If Hickory Chair is good enough for the President, then I think it's good enough for you! It probably isn't a coincidence that they chose furniture that is made in America.

I saw a gentleman in the factory making this Beaufort Chair with caning and will share the photos soon.

I also heard that the Candler Bed by Suzanne Kasler was ordered for a certain white house. Hint hint. Oh, and someone likes ikat. Other designers have ordered this bed with shorter headboards, headboards only and also with a headboard and footboard the same height to make a daybed. I told you the sky is the limit.

Suzanne Kasler's line is all based on antiques that she found on her travels through Europe, mainly Paris. These pieces here look like they are finished in antique ivory but I really love her designs in Weathered French Grey. They are to die for!

Hickory Chair Creative Director, Ron Fiore, was challenged with styling the 5,000 square foot showroom and he accessorized this wall as a chic ladies bathroom. The mirrored dresser here could also be ordered without the mirrors or just a mirrored top or front. If you can dream it, they can make it.

In addition to regular mirror, you can special request antique mirror as well.

I'm not sure if this was the chair but one of them on the showroom floor swiveled but Hickory Chair offers eight different styles that swivel including low profile swivel chairs that don't require an added skirt now.

This breakfront has thirteen panes in each door that supposedly represent the thirteen original colonies. Ron Fiore had the artist hand paint Roman numerals and striping on the doors. You could also replace the mirror with glass as another option.

I didn't see this screen in the catalog but it looks gold leafed which is also a special painted finish option.

These Linwood Arm Chair by Suzanne Kasler are one of my favorite styles, especially in the Weathered French Grey finish. The Collier Dining Table features a quatrefoil stretcher that has become Suzanne's trademark.

Someone heard a rumor that Hickory Chair will soon start offering upholstered headboards and they pointed out that since they can upholster a screen, they should be able to upholster a headboard.

The Knole Sofa looks a little more modern upholstered in this fabric and can be custom made to measure from 28 to 120 inches as can all the sofa styles!

You can see another example of the special hand painting available from the artist at Hickory Chair. I also loved this striped fabric on these chairs #3235-34. We were asked for our "wishes" at the end of the last day and I forgot to ask for fabric names. As a visual person and interior designer, I can't remember numbers but I can remember a name!

This "sofa" was made by combining a left arm facing and a right arm facing sectional sofa end. The pieces lock together and are perfect for those New York apartments with small doors and freight elevators...or no elevators!

Many, if not all, the other participants in this Hickory Chair University owned a store or a showroom and this showroom was designed to look like a store in the mid-west when it was set up.

I can't believe that Hickory Chair can produce so many different styles of furniture and options and I'll get into how they do it in the next post.

The posts on this bed can be unscrewed so you can take them off and screw the finial into the footboard or switch them to make them shorter or taller in the front or back.

The Hallings Secretary by Thomas O'Brien has to be one the most iconic and popular items by Hickory Chair.

You can get a sense of the space of the showroom in this shot. It was fun to see the fabric and finish choices Ron Fiore made and how he put them all together.

This New Hampshire Bowfront Chest is part of the Albert Sack collection and is a reproduction of the original circa 1790-1810 chest.

These were another favorite chair especially with the striped fabric on the back. You also never have to worry about crooked fabric or unmatched seams. Hickory Chair will always center a pattern and match all sides.

I think you can see again in this photo the range of styles of furniture options and finishes and upholstery styles. As I mentioned before, I'm not easily impressed but I was blown away by Hickory Chair. I owe a big thank you to President Jay Reardon and Laura Holland for inviting me down to North Carolina to show me what they can do. I had a great time and can't wait to show you the real behind the scenes look at where the magic happens in the factory! But y'all gotta come back later for that ya hear!

Business, Branding, Blogging and Booze..not necessarily in that order

First, I want to apologize for not posting yesterday. As you can imagine it's a little hard at times to juggle my client work with writing the blog and having any semblance of a personal life. That's why I love talking to other designers about how they started their own business because they all went through the same things and always have great advice.

I got together with June House Beautiful cover star/interior designer David Lawrence last night and he definitely motivated and inspired me. David and I used to work for the same designer, not at the same time, and he understands having so many things to do that sometimes you don't even know where to begin. The business of design is not easy and he really stresses the importance of being organized and getting your business infrastructure in place before you even begin working with clients. He spent a lot of time on the business side of his operations and just four years after he went out on his own, he has the cover of a magazine and a beautiful new showroom/office. I will definitely be listening to everything David tells me!

Sometimes I feel like I landed in business school with no idea how I got here and no idea what I am doing. There is a reason why I majored in art history and not business so I appreciate all the people who have been kind enough to answer my questions, give advice and pass on references of professionals who work with designers. One of my goals has always been to write about my experience and what I've learned so I can help others who want to start their own design businesses. I spoke with a design business consultant and we might partner up on some posts so look for those in the future.

I also attended a great lecture this morning at the D&D Building about branding that was moderating by Newell Turner of House Beautiful magazine. The panelists were Keith Granet of Granet & Associates, a management consulting firm for the design industry that I didn't even know existed, as well as interior designers Suzanne Kasler and Amanda Nisbet. Granet helped both designers set up their product lines and the how that process works is fascinating. I will definitely be putting together a more in depth post about how Suzanne developed her new furniture line for Hickory Chair and Amanda's lighting designs for Urban Electric and both of their new fabric lines.

One of the questions after the lecture was how you get to the point of having product lines and magazine coverage and everyone agreed that you need to build relationships. You may be a great designer but if you don't put yourself out there and meet editors and others in the design community, how is anyone going to find you. Everyone teases me about going to lots of parties but for me it's just as much about work as it is having fun. I couldn't do half of what I do if I didn't get out and meet other designers and interesting people to profile, events to discuss, and exhibitions, artists and authors to support.

I actually have a lot of great things on the back burner that I have to write about and post so I am hoping that I can get caught up over the long weekend. But first I have some client projects to finish and an event to attend. Remember what they say about all work and no play...

Photo from Suzanne Kasler

Suzanne Kasler: Inspired Interiors

I'm seriously going to have to move in order to make room for all the wonderful new books being published this year! Suzanne Kasler: Inspired Interiors will be released in October 2009 by Rizzoli and I can't wait. I can already tell it's going to be a good one from the cover!

Art in Design

One interior designer who I think has a great eye for art is Atlanta based Suzanne Kasler. I've always admired her work but have surprisingly never profiled her on the blog. Her style is definitely traditional but never stuffy and I think sometimes that might be due to the modern abstract art that either she chooses or her clients collect. Either way, I love it and all the interesting details in her interiors...even the all the pink!