REVIEW

Las Vegas Market 2010: Vegas Kids

27.08.2010

Designer Hugh Elliott review Vegas Kids - the youth furnishings show at Las Vegas Market....

Vegas Kids is a great title for a furniture show sector theme and in the US youth furniture is an area of the market that has not experienced the same levels of recession as other zones of the American home. Indeed in the US, sales nationally are forecast to grow by just under 15% over the next five years.

Recent studies in the US have shown that parents are spending less on themselves but more on their offspring. In addition this sector is benefiting from the grandparent economy. A 2009 study by grandparent.com found that grandparents are living longer, working harder and accumulating more wealth. They are also spending around $23 billion annually on gifts for grandchildren.

Hooker Furniture, a $350 million turnover company, recognised the potential of his sector to boost sales, and after careful research have recently added youth furniture to their ‘Good, Better, Best’ segmented portfolio. Their ranges can offer longevity through more grownup styling so that the furniture still has appeal as children turn into young adults. In the case of their innovative Opus collection (pictured) , they have developed drawer line coloured panels to offer customisation and the potential for the cabinets to grow up with the user.

According to Jack Richardson, president of La-Z-boy owned Lea Furniture, the focus of a children’s room purchase is the bed with price points from $399 - $1999 and an average spend of $2000 on the room. Lea’s products were largely aimed at the ‘tweens’ – 8-12 year year olds, and had cartoon favourite Sponge Bob on board. However they had designed their furniture so that the easy removal of the character and glow in the dark ‘slime’ trim and handles would allay potential teenage anxiety and so prolong the useful life of the furniture.

Lea’s Nickelodeon Rooms collection offered cabin bed solutions and slide away day beds that could be re-accessorised with cushions/fabrics, etc, again with longevity in mind.

Elsewhere there were the inevitable character endorsed products – perhaps Capt’n Sharky from the Ark Group (pictured) offered the most fun with his unique play boat and ‘planked’ nautical themed cabinets.

US designer Susanna Salk delivered one of the many seminars during the market week to give her view of the children’s sector and the message was one of increased sophistication for kid’s rooms. Parents are decorating their children’s rooms in a much more considered and grown up way and the interiors can still be fun and stimulating, but don’t necessarily need to be overtly childish.

I would be interested to know if the same attitude to spending on children’s furniture exists in our own market. No doubt we will find out as we enter the post VAT increase era in 2011.

Click here to read Hugh's review of Alfresco Spaces at Las Vegas Market

About the author: Hugh Elliot