Young lifestyles, budgets get nod at market: case goods, upholstered furniture--even beds--get a youthful look at the Fall High Point Market.

If you are a young married person trying to stretch a budget, or a city single trying to stretch space, you should be able to find plenty of new furniture next spring to meet your needs. The same is true if you are the parent of a teen or tot.

In an effort to stretch their appeal as wide as possible, many manufacturers at the High Point International Home Furnishings Show, held Oct. 14-20, targeted specific ages and lifestyles--with the major emphasis being the young.

They did not neglect the wider range of customers, showing a variety of styles ranging from Century's playful Zen Home to Hooker Furniture's romantic 75-piece Intimate Home collection. But they made sure that less expensive, more flexible alternatives existed in their higher-priced lines.

Thinking that young couples may treasure the traditional look their parents loved, yet not have the space nor the funds for its mainstream lines, Thomasville came out with its downsized, entry-level Kirkwood Place bedroom collection.

Through its collaboration with artist Bob Timberlake, Lexington Home Brands courted two opposite ends of the income spectrum. The team introduced Studio Traditions, an entry-level collection in the Timberlake design vein, in addition to the high-end Collector's Palette, a selection of seven finishes available on 18 World of Bob Timberlake pieces, seven of them new.

Ride 'em, Cowboy!

Flexsteel also had young, active families in mind when it launched a collaboration with jeans-maker VF Corp. called Wrangler Home. Intended for living rooms and dens, the case goods and upholstered pieces are designed to have the casual, relaxed feel of a pair of jeans. They will be in Flexsteel stores by February and are on view at a specially-constructed Wrangler Home in Greensboro, NC.

Palliser, which launched its EQ3 super-contemporary line for young consumers several years ago, added a new collection of bedroom, dining, entertainment and occasional rabies in rift-cut white oak. Called Bossa, it stresses simplicity and storage and features platform beds, a hot item among designers this year. The mattress fits directly on the bed, without box springs.

Bedding Down

For space-scarce city living, where furniture has to serve several functions, Stanley introduced Moondance, a contemporary piece with a warm blonde mahogany finish. Platform beds showed up in several Moondance versions.

The tots-to-college age market also has been one of the bright sales the last several years. Hooker joined in this year with SmartKids Youth Furniture for Life brand a blend of domestically manufactured goods and imports. "We feel we can leverage some of the strengths of our domestic manufacturing by offering immediate delivery, excel lent quality and broad selection in youth [furniture], while blending in imports for some of the more price-sensitive pieces," said Paul B. Toms Jr., Hooker chairman and CEO.

At Market, Hooker showed four 30-piece SmartKids bedroom collections at upper-medium price points.

Stanley's Young America line, which has served the youth market for some time, at this market gave teens a sleek collection of their own called Teen Bungalow. It is made of cherry, with a retro look. Though Stanley made nursery furniture before, Young America came out with an entire Stanley Baby collection, including changing tables and cribs.

European & Asian Appeal

Pulaski, which struck gold several years ago with its Antiques Roadshow collection based on the public television program of the same name, has forged another media link. Cristina Saralegui of Miami. whose Spanish-language talk show is seen by 100 million viewers in Latin America, Europe and the United States, joined with Pulaski to present Casa Cristina. Based on her lifestyle and home, it combines elements of traditional European, Mediterranean and Latin design. It also includes a 30-piece youth collection.

Century's Zen Home has a faintly Asian cast, with a platform bed made either of split peel rattan of cluster maple veneers. Other pieces include a Z-shaped occasional table and a shiny, silver-leaf chest.

Eclectic Looks for Any Age

Distinctive designs that targeted no specific age included Bernhardt's sleekly contemporary Park West, which made the most of highly-figured santos rosewood veneer.

Pennsylvania House continued its collaboration with jazz singer Steve Tyrell, Chis time in the romantic "Steve Tyrell's Southern Roots Collection." It draws on his childhood memories of Memphis and New Orleans, with designs including a Victorian-inspired Courtyard View, made of wicker and intended for indoor/outdoor use.

Century also targeted the indoor/outdoor market, but with furniture in an opposite style: a stainless-steel and cushion design called Gulf Stream. It was designed by Richard Frinier, whose Andalusia won Best of Show for Century at the Casual Furniture & Accessories market last September in Chicago.

Storage pieces also got a new look. A piece from the past, the writing table, was resurrected as a handy support for laptop computers. Pennsylvania House showed its Plantation Writing Table, which appears to be an end table, but swings open to reveal a writing surface and seat.

Stanley's Moondance has a double-decker writing table for small spaces. The two-piece set has storage space above, with additional storage and writing space located below.

An optional "storage secretary" designed to sit atop a lateral file cabinet, is designed by Sligh Furniture to help mark its 125th anniversary. While its small drawers bring to mind old-fashioned writing desks, the "storage secretary" also functions as a recharging station for personal digital assistants, digital cameras and mobile phones.

RELATED ARTICLE: Boom in big screens lures John Elway, host of competitors.

TV continues to loom large--literally--in furniture manufacturers' minds as large screens become more affordable.

Designers continue to develop ways to support and enclose the newer screens, from Sligh's patent-pending Multi Flex home entertainment cabinet that expands horizontally and vertically, to Bernhardt's Broadway storage console, a 62-inch-wide cherry-veneer frame holding storage compartments and open shelves.

Bush Industries took note of what it called the "convergence" of home computers and entertainment, offering two collections that include coordinating office and entertainment pieces. The Laurel Court and Charlestown collections are aimed at homes where computing and entertainment technology are interdependent and in close proximity, the company says.

"Besides all the options that these collections give consumers to configure their technologies in the same of adjacent rooms, these collections also are offering retailers new opportunities," said Jim Schmidt II, Bush rice president of marketing and merchandising. "Office superstores are creating incremental sales opportunities by offering SOHO and audio/video furniture, and consumer electronics stores are expanding their home entertainment to include home office."

Sauder Woodworking included entertainment, home office and bedroom furniture in a new collection called Old Europe. The company also tweaked existing collections with new media pieces that provide storage and accommodate large-format, flat screen TVs.

An entertainment center, credenza, hutch and storage unit were added to Sauder's country-casual Bradford collection. The Mission collection got an entertainment armoire, and a vertical multi-media center was added to the Heritage Hill group. A hutch suitable for 42-inch plasma screens and a credenza for tabletop screens were added to the cottage-look Harbor View collection.

One of the items in Hooker's romantic, 75-piece Intimate Home collection is a hand-painted entertainment center adorned with lattice work. It also is designed to accommodate the latest video and audio technology.

While other manufacturers added comfort and style to home entertainment, Bassett Furniture also added star power. The company teamed up with Football Hall of Famer John Elway to offer Elway Home, a collection of home entertainment furnishings featuring Sony large screen TVs.

Available in December at Bassett Furniture Direct Mores, the collection covers the whole nine yards in setting up a home theater, giving consumers a choice of six large screen TVs and furniture in three styles: contemporary, transitional and traditional. Case goods include: entertainment centers with a choice of audio piers, media storage and bookcases, occasional credenzas, console rabies and cocktail rabies. Seating includes: recliners, rockers, chaise lounges, sofas, loveseats and sectionals.

Elway, who led the Denver Broncos to victory in Super Bowls XXXII and XXXIII, helped design the line. "For so long I was the home entertainment," he said. "Now that I am retired and have the time to enjoy large screen entertainment, I want my home to be the place friends and family come to."

RELATED ARTICLE: Youth beds on a roll--a slat roll.

The youth beds that Stanley's Young America division introduced at the October market come in a variety of sizes and styles, from the sleek, retro look of Teen Bungalow to the scalloped moulding and deep, rich colors of Summerhaven. All have one thing in common--a super strong mattress support system developed by the company and now standard in all Young America beds.

Called a slat roll system, it features 14 slats connected by nylon strips. Each slat is screwed separately to the side rails of the bed. The roll takes the place of the three slats formerly shipped with youth beds and the "bunkie board," a piece of foam covered plywood that customers bought from other sources to cover the slats, said Young America's Glenn Prillaman, senior rice president for marketing and sales.

Creating the slat roll for bunk beds gives Young America a measure of control over how the bed is ultimately put together, Prillaman said. "We felt that 14 slats was better than three. We knew that would provide a better foundation. We consider that part of responsible product development."

When the slat roll debuted in 2002, it was so well-received that Young America decided to extend it to all its new beds at no charge.

The slat roll eliminates the need for a box spring, Prillaman said. In space-squeezed youth bedrooms, many beds have storage or a trundle bed underneath, and the slat roll ads as a barrier between them and the mattress.

Young America is also expanding its use of another safety feature, the anti-tip restraint kit for attaching the back of a 40 inch or higher chest to a wall.

"You have different needs and uses for kids' furniture than you do adult furniture," Prillaman said, "and different challenges. A child may not realize the consequences of climbing up the drawers to reach something on top."

Young America started shipping the kits two years ago, not only with bedroom furniture, but with furniture for other rooms where children may be unsupervised, such as playrooms and even bathrooms.

"There is a trend toward safety playing an increasingly important role in youth purchases," Prillaman said. "Mothers, and parents in general, have always been interested in safety. What's driving that trend is awareness. There's more and more literature focusing on it. There're more [ways] through which today's parents can learn about safety features available in the products."

The Internet also plays a role, he said, in making Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines readily available to any consumer. "It raises the awareness of the average consumer."

--Hanna Miller