Playing house at High Point.

A writer with taste eclectic furnishes a house with October Market selections.

LET'S PLAY' HOUSE. You can be the dad or mom and decide where we'll live, but I'm the furniture groupie, so I get to pick the furnishings. Fair enough?

We'd better have a sizable house with ample rooms. You probably know how I prize furniture for its traditions, history and production artistry. And with the bountiful offerings of the Fall International Home Furnishings Market in High Point from which to choose, my shopping list may never end.

Do you have the checkbook? We're on our way.

Celebrating Past, Present and Future

Stickley's best-selling 21st Century Collection strikes a chord with furniture disciples who appreciate both Arts & Crafts and Contemporary styling. The pieces reveal classic Mission style design elements such as spindles and unique joinery, but are streamlined in weight and appearance.

Fourteen additions to the collection celebrate past and present while anticipating future life styles. Here we find a clock that tickles our fancy and puts us squarely in the mood for the heavy-duty shopping to come.

Stickley designer Bill DeBlaay, himself a furnituremaker, looked closely at the square -- a recurring motif in the furniture designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh -- and created a lattice-door tall case clock that reflects the Scotsman's influence. Like Mackintosh, DeBlaay plays games with squares of dark and light. The eight-day clock has a black dial with ivory numerals and ebony inlays and case of solid wild black cherry from the Adirondack regions.

Century Joins Preservation Effort

Do good and get something nice in return. How can we pass up the opportunity to contribute to the effort to preserve priceless Venetian art while selecting a dramatic daybed and serpentine chest for ourselves?

Century Furniture has joined the international effort to restore, preserve and protect the wonders of Venice, with the introduction of its historic Venice Collection. A portion of sales will be donated to benefit the Save Venice Inc. trust.

The collection is classic Century -- great design, finest materials and trademark craftsmanship. The furniture incorporates elements from Venetian palaces and private residences, simplified and re-interpreted for contemporary homes. Elements include softened and worn finishes, decorative handpainted overlays, cast metals and antique mirrored surfaces.

Paris c. 1920

The Twenties. The War to End All Wars was over. It was an era hungry for glamour, luxury and romance. The strains of Gershwin and jazz ... lavish entertaining ... l'esprit moderne ... a certain joie & vivre attitude pervaded the designs of architecture, art, home furnishings then ... and now, inspiring Paris, Bernhardt Furniture's newest contemporary furniture.

The 45-piece Paris collection pays homage to the designs of the Art Deco ebeniste, Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann. The armoire we've chosen is elegantly simple. Its solid cherry and veneer doors and case are stained a rich Cabernet and touched with softly polished silver.

The collection also includes four dining tables: two rectangular and two round. A unique waterfall top edge on the rectangular leg table flows into a faceted leg. The other rectangular table has a silver-finished inverted bell pedestal. Round tables are glass with arching wing-like metal spans anchored in a wood base, or wood top with pedestal formed from four classical columns.

Bill Blass Collection

Bill Blass may or may not know how to design furniture, but he surely does know how to collect it. Pennsylvania House unveiled 50 pieces in solid cherry and oak directly inspired by the furniture in the fashion designer's Manhattan apartment and Connecticut country house. Blass accumulated the pieces over a 30-year period.

Pennsylvania House president Ken Fonville said the collection reflects the best of classic 18th and 19th century traditional designs, simplified in a distinctly American way. Several designs were inspired by a single piece -- a 19th century Scottish bench featuring triple arches and a cartouche.

An English baroque bench inspired the unique William Kent Conservatory bell, which we shall reserve for royalty. It should adequately impress them. But, we must not' stand here gawking -- other rooms are waiting to be furnished.