Spring high point market: designers having fun--and it shows.

Was that kitchen island being shown by Hooker at the High Point market in April? Yes, but flip up the top of the Mountain Laurel island, pull out a counter surface, and you have casual dining space for six.

And that triple credenza from Century--alone, it looks like a piece for a large hall or great room, but surround it with its companion pieces in Century's Shakespeare home office and it takes on a file-cabinet role.

Thanks to the ingenuity of designers creating this year's new furniture, what you think you see is not necessarily what you get. An exterior can conceal the true function of a piece, sometimes to reflect the style of a collection, or sometimes to save space by malting one piece serve several purposes.

Discovering hidden treasures, however, was only part of the fun of April's International Home Furnishings Market, April 22-29, in High Point. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, designers presented what some said was the broadest, most exciting array of new products in several years. "Famous name" introductions included the first home furnishings licensed by Liz Claiborne. Presented by Lexington Home Brands, Liz Claiborne Home includes three collections, 125 pieces in all, in a relaxed, traditional style with feminine touches like floral motifs.

Bernhardt Furniture has embraced, rather than shunned, its two-year association with home-arts guru Martha Stewart, recently convicted in an insider trading scandal. Bernhardt added 67 pieces to the three collection line, including 36 case goods to the "Lilly Pond" collection, based on Stewart's coastal home on Long Island. That makes 322 SKUs in all, and Bernhardt spokesperson Heather Bloom said there's more to come in 2005.

Not to be outdone in star-power, Century looked to its longtime association with celebrity designer Oscar de la Renta and to British royalty. De la Renta created a collection of garden furniture based on Chatsworth, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Many of the weather-resistant tables, garden seats and chairs have a lacy, cobweb pattern. They are made primarily of solid Honduran mahogany and finished in green, white and ecru CenShield Gloss, a paint used on ship hulls.

Eight hours of sanding between coats of lacquer went into the finish, said Shawn Bolick, Century consumer/advertising coordinator. Other pieces are stained in CenShield Stain, a plasticized finish.

European Influences

Other designers also found inspiration in Europe. Kincaid patterned its entire 35-piece Tuscano collection after an 8-foot-long antique European work cabinet. Corbels and wide rails distinguish it. "It's got a lot of character," said Director of Design Tim Annas. Refectory tables where "the leaves never leave the table" are not usually part of Kincaid collections, but he felt Tuscano's semi-country design called for one, and it is included.

Bassett went for two French interpretations, Louis Phillipe and country French, in its Continental Sketchbook. Country French is available in five finishes including dark and light wood stain, plus red, blue and white paint. "We've positioned ourselves as customization," said corporate communications director Jay Moore.

But Bassett's was not the only bright design. Riverside's Splash of Color featured a bright pink coffee table and several companies mixed light and dark shades to dramatic effect. Broyhill's Urban Cottage comes in three finishes--Charcoal, Buttercream and Celery--and consumers are free to mix and match.

Versatility in Home Office

Consumers are not just being given finishes to choose among. They are being given versatile pieces that will look good wherever they want to use them in their homes.

This was particularly evident in the home office arena. "No longer is it a matter of having a computer at home; it's about having your own computer and using it wherever and whenever it's convenient," said Phil Haney, executive vice president of marketing/sales for Stanley Furniture.

Bernhardt's Martha Stewart line includes what appears to be a cedar chest at the end of a bed, but is in fact the compact Newburgh filing cabinet, complete with an interior compartment for stationary. Introduced as part of the Turkey Hill collection last October, it's just now hitting retail.

Century entered the home office market in a big way with three collections: Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Victor Hugo. They offer a buyer "total flexibility," Bolick said. A hutch can be ordered with three doors, two doors, shelving, and/or cubbyholes for paper and CD holders. Desks can be L shaped, U shaped, in a wall unit or standalone. "People build a million-dollar home, they want the fine furniture (m the home office) they're accustomed to (elsewhere)," he said.

The emergence of laptops has contributed to the trend toward using home office furniture in other parts of the house, and it may be driving the new prominence of writing tables or desks. Stanley had one such desk in its sleek retro Beau Nouveau collection and offered two versions in its more traditional Wainwright collection.

Handy Features

Tables, both occasional and dining, came with all sorts of handy features. Memrie Table, a gateleg table in Martha Stewart's Lily Pond collection, has a small foot-print when not in use. Its light finish is "combed" to reveal even lighter, irregular streaks. The look is achieved by pulling a comb through wet paint in a technique borrowed from the 18th century, said Bernhardt's Bloom.

As part of its Wainwright collection, Stanley showed a circular table expanded by the addition of leaves to the perimeter. Century also showed a square table that remains square when expanded, by the addition of four "fence-post" leaves in the middle.

Both shelves of an end table in Stanley's Beau Nouveau revolve in Lazy Susan fashion, as does the top of a cocktail table in the same collection.

Youth furniture showed the same flair and ingenuity as the other introductions, but it was hard to peg some items as strictly youth.

Stanley's Young America showed a daybed with softly scrolled back and arms in a Louis Phillippe-inspired collection. It comes in three finishes and features storage drawers underneath.

"This piece could be used in a sunroom," said Glenn Prillaman, head of the Young America division. Most of Stanley's youth furniture, he said, could go with children into their college years. Customers are given choices of several size beds; through the years, a double bed has been the best seller, he said.

Versatility was apparent in other ways as well. Unscrew the knobs on Pailiser's youth white Brooke bedroom, first introduced in October, and you can flip the front panels of drawers to reveal green or violet. Knobs on O'Sullivan Furniture's RTA collection feature NASCAR drivers with young consumers getting their choice of images ranging from Bobby Labonte and Jeff Gordon to Tony Stewart and Elliott Sadler. They also receive five larger decals that can go on other pieces in the light-finish, six-piece collection. "A lot of people think it's really neat," said Lance Hardman, product manager. Two pieces were added to the NASCAR bedroom, which debuted in February.

For some manufacturers, the April market continued a trend of expanding past the usual bedroom, dining, home office, entertainment and occasional pieces. Hooker, which pioneered in offering designer sink cabinets two years ago, this spring added tall linen armoires for the bath. A double bath vanity with his and her sinks, a companion bath etagere, and a vanity stool were all part of Pulaski's Venetian collection, which also includes casual dining and occasional furniture. Bassett debuted three versions of bath vanities, a demilune added to its existing New Traditions collection, and two rectangular vanities in Louis Philipe and country French styles.

Sauder Woodwork went into bath furniture in a big way this April, displaying prototypes of two complete baths, Brookstone (light finish) and Broadway (dark finish). Between them, there were a total of 10 storage prates, and Brookstone featured sliding frosted-panel doors to maximize space.

Sauder also added to its Garage Boss line of garage storage, and O'Sullivan, which has been making Tuff Duty and DuraStore garage storage under a license from Coleman, brought out another Coleman garage system, Renegade. It also brought out its own less expensive product called Versa Store, which has a paper rather than a resin finish.

The expansion into new categories, like the blurring of lines between categories, seems to be a trend without end. Explaining Young America's decision to aim some of its entertainment storage pieces at the increasingly popular game or recreation rooms, Prillaman said, "It's the first. time we've ever gotten outside the bedroom."

His motive is the same one driving other manufacturers' diversification. "It's an opportunity to take oar retailers into one more room in the house," he said.

RELATED ARTICLE: Home theater choices expand along with screens.

Manufacturers of home theaters rely on three basic designs to accommodate the current explosion in TV sizes and shapes. But whether they are making stands, entertainment centers/armoires or wall units with piers, they are jazzing them up with all sorts of new looks and handy features.

In those "one-size-fits-all" home theaters made to adjust to different TVs, versatility is often accomplished with a bridge and towers. But every company, it seems, is showing its own imaginative version.

In Riverside's Mirador, the bridge is an elongated triangle that seems to float above twin towers, vaguely suggestive of a pagoda.

Among the wall-unit choices in Sauder Woodwork's new Bradford collection, one version has a back wall on which a plasma screen can be supported. The wall is removable if you would rather configure the unit in a different way.

In Bush's Mason Hills collection, puck lights in the end of a bridge beam down through glass tops on twin audio cabinets. illuminating the display areas below. They remain stationary when the bridge is lengthened or compressed.

Equally ingenious devices help homeowners hide a TV screen when not in use. The entertainment center in Tuxedo. part of Bush's Eric Morgan line of assembled furniture, uses tall sliding doors to reveal and conceal either a TV or storage towers. Sauder's Murano has the same feature.

Stanley, Sligh and Hooker all use remote control technology to let homeowners raise and lower screens from slots in cabinets. In Stanley s version in its Wainwright collection, the screen rises in front of a bookcase.

In another center, Sligh aims for audio excellence. A patent-pending, curved back panel soundboard is designed to project sound toward the audience. The TV is suspended from the curved insert on a bolt-mounted universal TV bracket. O'Sullivan consolidates cords through a single back column on many of its Home Architecture entertainment designs. Screen height can be adjusted through that column. A new prototype from the company is E13, a stripped-down combination of just as much aluminum and glass as is needed to support a plasma screen. And O'Sullivan's new Symbiosis also makes use of aluminum, this time in thin corner channels into which panels are placed by the consumer. It's both lightweight and easily assembled, said O'Sullivan product manager Lance Hardman.

"Six steps, 16 fasteners, and you're finished," he said.

--Hannah Miller