Furniture Firms Court
Generation X, Y Buyers

December 01, 2004 -- Michael Hamra just moved to a 19th-century Boston condominium with high ceilings, dark moldings and mahogany paneling. But instead of buying the same neutral, conservative furniture he grew up with, the 36-year-old restaurant owner spent $22,000 for jazzy items that include a crimson-trimmed rug, scarlet bedding, and a $3,800 yellow couch with red pillows. Traditional furniture just wasn't unique enough, he says: "It all looked the same, mainstream. I don't want anything I can see in anybody else's home."

As Baby Boomers age and start thinking about downsizing their houses, furniture makers are switching their marketing focus to the 20-something and 30-something homeowner. It's a shift in tastes and target that's having a considerable influence on the look and design of new furniture. To court Gen-X and Gen-Y shoppers, several high-end furniture companies better known for traditional designs are branching out with jewel-bright upholstery colors, geometric or polka-dot patterns and oddball shapes -- some so quirky they seem almost like an Austin Powers send-off of the '60s.

Berkline/Benchcraft LLC, known for its overstuffed sofas, just introduced sleeker designs in shades they copied from the sports-car industry -- "lipstick red," "daffodil" and "violet." (The company is largely phasing out fuddy-duddy plaid, says Cabot Longnecker, vice president of the Morristown, Tenn., company.) Santa Fe Springs, Calif., accessories maker Toyo, which mostly crafts Victorian-style vases, recently added three lines of polka-dotted pieces.

Alvar chair and ottoman Rowe pair costs $1,150

What do these buyers want? To try to find out, Flexsteel Industries, a mass-market furniture maker in Dubuque, Iowa, turned to research conducted by the company that owns Wrangler Jeans. That company, VF Jeanswear in Greensboro, N.C., conducted a series of focus groups with buyers in their 20s and 30s and concluded that they're seeking "clean and crisp" casual styles and heavily textured fabrics like boucle, corduroy and American buffalo.

As a result, Flexsteel and VF entered an agreement to create a 71-piece line of Wrangler furniture, including a narrow "bachelor's chest" for $675 and a $5,000 couch that's thinner, to make it easier to fit through doors. When the line hits the stores in the spring, it won't be advertised in shelter magazines, but in fashion magazines, on MTV and on the Internet.

Not all retailers are convinced that flashy furniture trends, strikingly similar to the ones their parents outgrew in their youth, will catch on with young adults used to sedate, coordinated neutrals. "Their appeal could be limited," says Kathy Christensen, who buys for a Bremeister, Wash., furniture store, and is skeptical of the trendier furniture. Pottery Barn, too, the ubiquitous mass-marketer based in San Francisco, is still emphasizing shades of brown and beige.

'Infinity' sectional This piece by Weiman costs $7,000

"A sofa's not like a shirt that you can take back to the store if you make a mistake," says 34-year-old Eric Kuhn, chief executive officer of an online textbook bookstore -- who nonetheless recently spent $50,000 furnishing his one-bedroom condo in Washington, D.C., with modern-style pieces.

Here, a look at the new look of homes for the under-40 consumer:

Candy Colors

One of this season's most popular upholstery fabrics, microsuede, can easily be dyed any color. That's expanded many furniture makers' palettes this season.

James Zilian's Lamp $750 lamp comes in 'cold milk' color

Natuzzi, known for its high-end Italian black leather sofas, this year will add three shades of purple: "lilac, lavender and pinot noir grape" that evoke "the romance of the Mediterranean," the company says.

Almost everything that popular Boston designer James Zilian does, on the other hand, is pure white. "Young buyers want a clear, in-your-face message," says 28-year-old Mr. Zilian, whose new $750 ceramic lamps, in the color "cold milk" appear in such trendy shops as Nest in New York and Shelter in Beverly Hills. His geometric designs, he says, are meant to appeal to a generation raised on the simple, supersize advertising logos of places like McDonalds.

'Astro Rug' HStudio's $2,385 wool rug

As color has become more prominent in design, bright dots and circles (also popular on fashion runways this season) have popped up on everything from Todd Oldham's $10 throw pillows for Target to Shlomi Haziza's $2,385 area rugs for HStudio. The pattern continues at Zodax, a Panorama City, Calif., firm, which is embedding circles of bamboo in black wood to create $170 cocktail trays, and at Marquis Collection of Beverly Hills, where corncobs and octopus suckers decorate its $200 white stone vases.

Says designer Todd Oldham: "Polka dots are always fresh and youthful." First introduced in design a century ago, "They pop when they're used in bright colors -- think Wonder Bread -- but sophisticated in tonal colors."

'Moondance' Dresser Stanley Furniture pairs a cushioned seat with a dresser for $1,100

But not everyone is on board. "There's no way I'm going to buy polka dots," says Eric Lasso, a 29-year-old real-estate securities salesman, who just furnished his first home in Altamonte Springs, Fla. Unimpressed with the bold geometric shapes he saw in some stores, he bought a $2,000 solid-color sage couch.

Sculptural Shapes

As manufacturers expand their offerings in color and pattern, they're also experimenting with shape. New pieces coming out are more abstract than traditional furniture: A lampstand may be a cube, while sofas are elongated, armless or curved more like sculpture than seating. Many pieces marry two unrelated functions, such as Stanley Furniture's cushioned seat built adjacent to a chest of drawers, or a TV console set into a bureau.

Many pieces are also smaller in scale. According to the U.S. Census 2003 American Housing Survey, first-time home or condo buyers live in spaces about half the size of the standard 2,000-square-foot suburban homes.

McLean, Va.-based Rowe Furniture's best-selling "Mini-Mod" collection, introduced over the summer, has sofas less than 80 inches long, 16 inches shorter than standard. The collection's patterns of Celtic-style swirls and lopsided squares have been miniaturized too.

To younger buyers, mobility is key. Amie Thuener, a 30-year-old New York accountant, bought a slim-profile $1,500 walnut "vitrine" from Crate & Barrel because it's lightweight and fits easily through doorways. "That's important for a person my age," says Ms. Thuener. "I don't always have an idea where I'll be living next."

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