ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605080017
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: marketplace
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
If you've been going nuts trying to find furniture that will accommodate your new 17-inch color computer monitor and tower, don't settle for a fold-up card table.
Home-office furniture that's computer-friendly yet fashionable was a hot category of goods at the recent International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, N.C., the furniture industry's twice-yearly showcase of new products.
Furniture manufacturers and retailers are finally realizing that millions of Americans have home computers and need somewhere to store them, said Louis Scutellaro, president of Roanoke-based Passport Furniture.
"We're doing a lot of computer furniture," Scutellaro said. Passport offers computer hutches that will hold lots of computer equipment but look like fashionable lowboys when not in use. That's especially important these days, he said, when many people are moving into smaller homes and cannot devote a separate room to their office.
"The furniture has to be very adaptable," said Bill Cubberly, vice president of sales and marketing for Stanley Furniture Co. of Stanleytown. In the past, he said, many home-office lines have been aimed at executive types - who may or may not have computers - rather than students and and others who use their PCs at home every day.
With their mix-and-match pieces and built-in power sources, the new home-office collections from manufacturers including Stanley, Passport and Bassett Furniture Industries Inc. are less formal and heavy than their predecessors.
Start looking for the new pieces in retail stores next month.
The market also had something special for those of us who have been tempted to jump those velvet restraining ropes at Monticello and try out the Founding Father's furniture for ourselves. Sam Moore Furniture Industries Inc. of Bedford introduced its reproduction of a chair designed by Thomas Jefferson, commissioned by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation of Charlottesville.
"It's quite an honor for a local company to be chosen for something like this," said John Boardman, Sam Moore's president and CEO.
The Jefferson project took four months to complete, Boardman said. The furniture company sent engineers to Monticello to create drawings and design a mock-up of the chair. They even developed a process to tint the leather using the same vegetable-dye techniques popular in Jefferson's day, he said.
"It's an authentic reproduction of Thomas Jefferson's design," he said.
The solid-mahogany chair will be available in three finishes and features four leather colors: black, brown, hunter green and burgundy.
"We didn't sell a lot of them because it's a very unique item," Boardman said. But several high-end catalog merchants were interested in the piece, he said, which also will be sold through the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Sam Moore plans to add to the Jeffersonian line this fall.
Most furniture manufacturers don't expect 1996 to be a terrific year. They know that consumers are a bit reluctant to spend money on furniture if we don't have to, after piling up so much credit card debt last year.
So buyers from furniture retail stores tended to be conservative in their purchases, said Gerald Birnbach, president of Rowe Furniture Corp. of Salem. "But I feel sort of good about the fall," he said. The rough winter weather trapped us in our homes and gave us plenty of time to stare at our old furnishings, he said.
"What was it that Satchel Paige said - `Don't look around or you might see somebody gaining on you'?'' Boardman said. "I just focus on Sam Moore. But I am under the impression that everyone was satisfied with the market."
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Dynamic Desktop Systems by Bassett Furniture Industriesby CNBInc. is a collection
of 10 computer-friendly pieces with built-in power centers, CD-ROM
storage compartments and keyboard trays. color.