Dallas starts the year with tailored offering for regional buyers

DALLAS — At the start of what looked to be an extended Dallas market due to the decoupling of the Total Home & Gift Show and Lightovation, home accent vendors put their best foot forward with items they thought would appeal to regional buyers needing to refill inventory after the holiday season.

Key design points remain the same: natural and mixed materials across all product categories, an earthy palette along with creamy whites, and lots of texture.

Although many manufacturers featured goods that were introduced at High Point Market in October, a few had new pieces to show. Uttermost, for example, had 125 new products across its three brands at this market, according to Scott Doyle, national sales manager. Forty Seven West highlighted the larger floor lamps its customers have been requesting, and more updated traditional looks. Surya highlighted its upholstered furniture offerings, which is a key initiative of the company and new to the Dallas market.

In the LUXE Gift section of the show, there were more handcrafted and unique items, such as the Scrap Pendant from Seattle-based Graypants, whose recycled cardboard fixtures are cut into a variety of nature-inspired shapes using either a knife machine or a laser and then treated with a fire-retardant material. Continental Home’s lamps, meanwhile, have bases made from reclaimed wood like dead teak branches (which do not rot) or old fence posts.

Nearly all lighting introductions will be unveiled today as Lightovation gets underway. Although the Total Home & Gift Market and Lightovation usually run concurrently, they had staggered openings this time around, and most of the lighting showrooms were dark or unoccupied last week. This forced many accent vendors who also offer lighting to rethink their market strategy: some are staying for the duration of the two shows and others arranged to have their sales reps come for one or the other and overlap slightly on the days in between. “We’re going to make it work,” said Uttermost’s Doyle. In January 2024, Lightovation and Total Home & Gift Market will take place during the same week.

But the highlight of this market was undoubtedly the 33^rd annual ARTS Awards, a black-tie gala co-hosted by ART and the Dallas Market Center that drew a large crowd happy to celebrate industry excellence across several product categories.