Retail merchandising

Meridian Furniture Expands Sales Force in Southeast and Midwest

wgoodson — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 13:59:09 +0000

Meridian Furniture Expands Sales Force in Southeast and Midwest wgoodson Fri, 09/06/2024 - 08:59

Meridian Furniture has increased its sales force to cover 13 additional states. Areas of the country with expanded representation include: Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, North and South Carolina, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.

According to Mitch Hodges, Vice President of Sales, as a fast-growing brand, Meridian Furniture continues to attract A+ sales professionals who are able to help retailers curate a fashion-forward line. More than 10,000 skus can bring excitement to sales floors and attract new audiences, while also leveraging the brand’s dynamic platform and speed to market, company officials said.

Meridian’s inventory-rich model (the company is more than 90 percent in-stock at any given time) is coupled with the ability to ship goods from its 400,000-square-foot warehouse in New Jersey — just 24 hours after an order is placed — with white-glove delivery and drop-shipping options, according to a news release.

“We have been growing exponentially on the brick-and-mortar front in large part because of the sales team we are building,” Hodges said. “Each of our sales representatives not only comes to the table with deep experience with independent retailers and their markets, but also intimately understands the omnichannel reality in which dealers must operate in order to be successful today.”

In advance of the High Point Market, Meridian is spotlighting its sales team on social channels like Instagram with posts showcasing the reps and their territories including: Steve Emold (Illinois and Wisconsin); Jerry Lloyd (North and South Carolina); Danielle Carlson (Ohio and Indiana); Paul Ciciarelli (Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and New Hampshire); Dale Kaminski (Tennessee and Kentucky); Brooks Roughton (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana); Nick Byers (Texas and Oklahoma); Jackie Brown (Louisiana and Mississippi), and Chuck Thiele (Minnesota, and North and South Dakota.)

“Our goal is not only to make retailers aware of the expertise available to them in their markets, but also to celebrate their contributions to the growth of this company and that of our customers,” Hodges said.

Meridian Furniture supplies leading retailers and designers with upholstered furniture designs and case goods for nearly every room in the home. With a constant flow of new product in multiple categories, in stock and ready for delivery, the company is leading the way in trend-right goods that appeal to how consumers want to live and shop today, according to a news release.

Destination Retail Spaces and the Impact of Lighting

dfalvey — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 12:32:45 +0000

Destination Retail Spaces and the Impact of Lighting dfalvey Fri, 10/28/2022 - 07:32

Restoration Hardware, now rebranded as RH, has opened the ultimate retail space in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. Starting in 2016, they have beautifully restored the Bethlehem Steel Building, built in 1917. That building had been vacant since I moved here in 1976. This is definitely a new kind of experience of how to sell furniture, lighting and accessories. It feels like you’re walking into a grand hotel.

You are welcomed in by a friendly staff member who offers to give you a five-minute tour so you can get oriented. The entry rotunda has a beautiful coffered ceiling. The dramatic chandelier cascades down 8 feet from the center of the round ceiling. By using 2400° kelvin LED bulbs it has a very warm incandescent quality of light.

Opt for a white wine or champagne if you are prone to spilling.

The first surprise is that there is a high end restaurant in the center of the main floor.

The second surprise is that there is a wine bar right off of the entryway. Visitors are encouraged to purchase a glass of wine and tour the five levels of showroom spaces. My recommendation is to grab a libation and make your way up to the rooftop garden and enjoy the panoramic view of San Francisco and the Bay Bridge. Then descend slowly from floor to floor, visiting all of the spaces. I would allow yourself at least an hour. Don’t be afraid to take a seat in any of the rooms and soak up the atmosphere. You can drop off your glass on the way out.

The huge mirror doubles the impact of the hanging fixtures in this living room space.

The showroom spaces are set up as complete rooms. All the furniture, lighting and accessories are in place. Each piece has a subtle QR code so that you can learn more about the product and pricing.
The first room I stepped into was the living room. Everything is enormous. The chandeliers are 48 inches in diameter, while the shades on the floor lamps are 36 inches in diameter. These are perfectly suited scale-wise to the space, but it would take a pretty big home to accommodate the grandness of these fixtures.

The accent lighting comes from a recessed track system which looks very clean. The LED track heads provide a good punch of light even though the ceilings are 16 feet high.

Portable uplights create leaf patterns on the ceiling.

The next room was the dining room. It too has a gigantic pendant fixture. I like how the shades were at two different heights and that it felt like three different pendant fixtures even though it was hung from a single junction box. Like in the living room, the accent lighting comes from the adjustable track system.

I did notice that there was a generous use of portable up-lights throughout the building. This created some nice shadow patterns on the ceiling.

Don’t be afraid to tuck the base of the floor lamp under the couch.

I do like the use of pharmacy lamps with opaque shades as reading lights. They project the illumination down onto your work surface without drawing attention to themselves. The LED light source keeps them much cooler than their original counterparts which used incandescent or halogen bulbs that could be extremely hot to the touch.

Lots of control without glare.

The bedroom also made use of a tabletop version of a pharmacy lamp. It was very flexible, allowing a person to direct light exactly where they wanted it without disturbing the loved one in bed next to them.

A modern day Versailles in the RH hallway.

The connecting hallways were quite elegant. The series of matching pendant fixtures were hung low enough to create a more human scale to the space. I liked seeing the fixtures reflected in the polished stone flooring.

Go big or go home for the lighting in this opulent staircase.

In the center of the building is a huge spiral staircase. There is a diffuse glass skylight at the very top and from the center of it a 15 foot long chandelier visually descends to the first floor. Each landing is marked with huge torch-like wall sconces. Whoever was doing this design really understood scale.

The rectangular shape of the step lights compliments the railing detail.

The stair treads themselves had additional light coming from step lights that were recessed into the wall for a nice clean architectural look.

The backlighting takes away some of the visual weight.

One of the showstoppers was a pair of what looked like huge lids to a grain silo. They floated slightly off the wall and were backlit so there was a beautiful corona of illumination all along the periphery and a sweet little glow of light in the center.

Bottom Line: As shopping malls are falling out of popularity, what RH has done is to create at destination retail space. Go for the food and cocktails…stay for the furniture, lighting and accessories.

All photos by Randall Whitehead.

Winners Announced in Show Us Your Howard Elliott Contest

dfalvey — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:52:06 +0000

Winners Announced in Show Us Your Howard Elliott Contest dfalvey Wed, 04/03/2019 - 19:52

This year marked the 4th edition of Howard Elliott’s Show Us Your Howard Elliott Contest. Contestants submitted photos of their design installations or retail showrooms using Howard Elliott products for a chance to win one of two $500 prizes.

Entries were divided into two categories: Interior Design and Retail Showroom. “I do not envy the judges this year. We received our largest number of submissions in the history of the contest!” says Brian Berk, President of Howard Elliott. “Entrants spanned the continent; from Canada to Central America!”

The judges included Justin Shaulis - Interior Designer & HGTV Star; David Santiago – Interior Designer, Influencer & Opera Singer; Diane Falvey – Editor-in-Chief of Furniture, Lighting & Décor; Saxon Henry – Author, Journalist & Content Stragiest for Adroyt & Modern Salonniere. “It was nice to see the pride everyone had in using Howard Elliott products and how terrific they looked in different situations,” stated Saxon.

Winner of the Interior Design category is Haneen’s Haven with the Gold Talida Mirror. Haneen is one of the bloggers on the Spring 2019 High Point Design Bloggers Tour. “I actually recently started following Howard Elliott and realized that’s who the mirror belongs to! Which was a pleasant surprise! This photo was featured in the Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Ideas Issue this past winter,” stated Haneen Matt.

Runner-up in the category is New Perspective Design from Cary, IL with the Tennessee Mirrors. “We used two Tennessee mirrors in this dining room to frame an area for a large piece of artwork and a settee," says principal designer Angie Gardeck.

Winner of the Retail Category is Home Gallerie Interiors of Lima, Peru. In their showroom you can find Howard Elliott accessories providing the perfect finishing touch to each vignette. Home Gallerie received a unanimous decision in the category. “This merchandising setting feels like you're walking into someone's living room. For consumers who have difficulty visualizing how something could work, this does the work for them. I'd just go in and buy everything in this space,” said Falvey.

Home Gallerie, in Lima, Peru, was the retail merchandising winner in Show Us Your Howard Elliott

Runner-up in the category is The Indigo Pearl in Waxhaw, NC. Their feature product is the Howard Elliott Leather Sling Chair. Introduced earlier in the year, The Indigo Pearl has taken an immediate love of the design and shows off the versatility of the chair in various design settings.

To see all of the entries of the contest, follow the Howard Elliott’s Pinterest Board dedicated to the contest.