Monday February 26, 2007
Home furnishings shows are known in the home fashion industry as the most important events of the year and are held twice a year in San Francisco and major cities throughout the United States.

In the trade we call them: Winter and Summer Markets.

Just recently from February 17-20, the 2007 SF Winter Home Furnishing Show took place. The main event was held at the San Francisco Mart in cooperation with the SF International Gift Fair at the Moscone Center.

The San Francisco Mart, Northern California ‘s premier wholesale design center is a historic building in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center area. It serves as a home furnishings and home accents center and is open to “the trade only”.

Meredith Mc Namara (Marketing and Events Manager), Bill O ‘Laughlin, (Cheshire Cat Catering), Tina Starnes (Buyer Service Manager), and Roseann Carini (General Manager SF Mart).

sophie-winter-design-staff.JPG
Pemanent Staff, from left, Larry Strong, Pamela Ross, Paul Woods

Over the course of four days, thousands of design professionals, architects, furniture and gift retailers visited the SF Mart. Their goal was to shop, to keep up to date with the latest trends and attend great educational seminars.

They found more choices and more innovative lines as new permanent showrooms opened just in time for the event.

sophie-winter-design-brown-couch.JPG
Showroom at the SFDC

sophie-winter-design-angie-and-sophie.JPG
Sophie azouaou w/ Angie paterson: Manager of New Century Pix

- Nationally recognized home decor and Christmas decoration leader Pacific Rim opened a 6,500 Square foot showroom.

- Transitional Design was also a newcomer and exhibited many of its modern and practical furniture lines such as AICO, Barrows, Butler Specialty to name a few.

- Decima Island Design displayed its beautiful Indonesian and Asian furniture.
Existing showrooms brought in new lines such as:

sophie-winter-design-gail.JPG
Gail Belz: Manager of Kessler Showroom

sophie-winter-design-counches.JPG
Velvet and chenille sofas form Omnia showroom

- Kessler who recently completed a remodel of their showroom and who added lines such as beautiful florals by Dalmarko Designs, Global Accents and tropical floral from Padma ‘s Plantation.

- Direct Designs Homes added five new lines to its repertoire: DIA, Howard Elliott, Oggeti, Robert Abbey lighting and Surya.

sophie-winter-design-temporary-exhibitors.JPG
Temporary exhibitors

Ten temporary bed linens, home accents exhibitors showed their beautiful and colorful design collection as well: Art Talks, Back to the Picture, Bradley Brand Furniture to name a few.

At a glance: the new 2007 collection is promising, interesting and fun and more and more companies are green and eco friendly.

o Rattan, bamboo, grass weave are emerging and raw wood is making a big come back.

o Colors are bold such as red, orange, yellow, purple and pink.

o For fabric texture is the word: brocade, satin, silk and velvet chenille fabrics were prominent in furniture as well as in bed linens.

o Tropical and practical is the trend now. Glamour is out.

sophie-winter-design-gay.JPG

With over seventy five showrooms that carried more than one thousand lines, three outstanding seminars by leading experts and nationally recognized speakers such as Barbara Wold, Laurel Tielis, a one panel discussion on topic: “Reaching the Gay Consumers” moderated by Ken Burd (director of advertising sales at gay.com) with panelists Robert Miller (principal of Miller design) John D’Alessandro (executive director of the International and Gay & Lesbian Association), Kevin Goebel (product and management for gay.com’s local scene), and cocktail parties every evening, it is no wonder the 2007 SF Winter Market was such a HUGE success!

Note: the SF Mart is located at 1355 market Street and is open to design professionals and retail buyers year- round. It is also open to the public twice a year for the sample sale.

For more info you can call: 415.552.2311 or visit the SF Mart website: www.sfmart.com

sophie-winter-show-7.jpg

sophie-sophie-column-mug-4.jpg
Sophie Azouaou is an Interior Designer, Color Specialist and ASP. She is the owner of SophiSticate Interiors. She also writes for several San Francisco Bay Area Newspapers. Visit her at SophiSticates.com, email sophie@sophisticateinteriors.com, or telephone Sophie at 510-410-3574.

source : www.sanfranciscosentinel.com

---