High Point: Thayer Coggin

I was so pleased to be sponsored by Thayer Coggin for High Point this year, and was even more delighted to meet some of the family members who were instrumental in the original company and its designs. Thayer Coggin is celebrating their 60th Anniversary this year.I’ve seen plenty of bad Mid-Century Modern design in my day and get a queasy feeling when I am around too much Danish teak furniture. But I have to say that I was really impressed with Thayer Coggin’s pieces. First up, the colour palate is fabulous! Gone are the sickly olives, nubby browns and harvest golds of yore. All have been replaced by bright clear shades of orange, pink, blue, green and yellow.

I was worried that some of the chairs were too deep for me, but Rosemary who kindly showed me around, told me to try each chair, and they all fit beautifully! She said that Thayer Coggin engineers the chairs so that a 6’ 5” man and a 5’ woman both are comfortable in the chair.

The upholstery is beautiful on these pieces, and the attention to detail is so well thought out. This sectional piece has L-shaped corner cushions which don’t slip or fit badly. All of Thayer Coggin’s pieces are made in America and some pieces are crafted by the same companies which have been working with them since the company was founded.

I loved the sinuous shapes of Thayer Coggin’s furniture and the scale of the pieces.

Amazingly, some of the pieces have been in production continuously since the beginning of Thayer Coggin, especially some of the pieces designed by Milo Baughman like the Button Up sofa.

It was amazing to me to see the entire long wall filled with samples of fabrics and leathers in myriad shades and hues that Thayer Coggin could use to make a custom piece for you.

A colour like this luscious pink!

I thought this sofa with the lucite ends was terrific. It came in a one, two or three cushion size.

And it was super comfortable. If it hadn’t been 11:00 in the morning, I might have taken a kip on the couch!

Thanks again to everyone at Thayer Coggin for my warm welcome and for enlightening me about what classic mid-century modern furniture is!

You can find more information about Thayer Coggin and their furniture here.

Happy Halloween!

My friend Megan Arquette did this to her yellow lab a few months ago, and I’ve been waiting to do something similar. What better day to give Connor some eyebrows than Halloween!

He refused to look at me because I was laughing so hard I could hardly hold the camera still.

I am such a mean mom. Good thing I don’t have kids.

From our house to yours,

High Point Trends

I took more than 1,000 pictures in the three days I was in High Point and wading through them gave me an idea of some of the trends we’re going to see in the next year or so.

I am always reminded of the scene in The Devil Wears Prada where Meryl Streep’s character talks about how ceruse became the colour that’s showing up everywhere.

To me, the market is like that. I see pieces one season, and then three or four seasons later, they’re showing up in the mass market stores. It’s really fascinating.

So here’s this year’s ceruse.

Tufting. One of the showrooms told me that three years ago, they had three tufters, and now they have 60!

Nailheads. They can really add a lot of definition to a piece.

Terrific hardware. This can take a piece from being dull to dynamite!

Chairs with a twist on an old design

Curved sofas

Lucite detailing

More to come!