Maybe one of the more famous people we did not meet at High Point, but certainly it felt like Joanna Gaines was everywhere!
Twice a year thousands of vendors and buyers gather in High Point, North Carolina to preview the coming season’s latest introductions to the furniture industry. Although Keith and I design most of the items we sell it is always instructive and illuminating to see what the trends are, and it’s also terrific fun to purchase items that complement the British Cottage Collection. After all how many people get to pay themselves to shop?
Along the way we also pick up words of wisdom and design ideas from some of the leading designers and innovators in the trade. Here is Windsor Smith— a leading force in the Los Angeles design industry whose elegant interiors are a masterful mix of elegance, modernity, tradition–and yes–comfort. Next to her is Carl Dellatore, editor of “Interior Design Mater Class: 100 Lessons from America’s Finest Designers on the Art of Decoration” published by Rizzoli this October. If you buy only one book on design this season–this is it.
Down a few flights of stairs were Barclay Butera and Kathy Ireland–also powerhouses in the California design world. We have always loved how Barclay manages to meld beach house cool with an English manor house sensibility, and we all know that anything former model, Warren Buffet confident, and entrepreneur Kathy Ireland touches is sheer gold. When she says color is making a comeback; we listen.
Fortunately we are so on trend, because we had already purchased this fabulous couch and chair at Hickory White.
Not sure you will see a salmon pink wall anytime soon at British Cottage, (and I will source the Benjamin Moore color for those of you who have asked), but the couch and two chairs should arrive in a few weeks. We like to buy the Hickory White floor models. Why not take advantage of their professional design savvy and add to our inventory at the same time?
And in for a penny, in for a pound as the pundits say, we also bought this couch and chair, again in a rosy hue.
But fear not, we did not go completely pink, we also purchased this lovely, royal blue velvet sofa and two complementary armchairs.
Usually it is all work and no play for us at Market. Cocktails are free and flowing throughout the showrooms, but we have found drinking and shopping is a volatile combination that results in expensive mistakes. And while there is always fabulous entertainment in the evenings, we never get to go; we are simply too tired from walking at least ten hours a day at the show to venture out in the evenings. Fortunately for us, on a late sunny Saturday afternoon Maggie Rose was practicing for her upcoming performance, and we got an advance preview.
I like to end my blogs with a recipe, but food is beside the point at the High Point Furniture Market and largely forgettable except for one item:
Salami Roll Ups
It was late in the day, actually early evening, and we were trying to squeeze in one last show room before we went back to our hotel. We watched as a 70+ year-old woman, with hair like all Keith’s aunties in England had back in the days when a perm meant tight curls in an unnatural color, walked slowly up the stairs with a plate of appetizers.
Perhaps she had some connection with the staff and was delivering a special treat welcoming them to High Point, rewarding them for a good days work? I have no idea. But we were starving, and offered a sample we were thrilled to say yes.
Cue the flashback! The last time I remember having a salami roll up was back in 1969 when a friend’s mom hired a bunch of us to prep and serve hors d’oeuvres at a cocktail party she was hosting on Chappaquiddick. My mother was more the Wispride on a Triscuit kind of gal so I thought these roll ups were just about the most wonderful things in the world–and very exotic.
Fast forward to today, and I can say while a Salami Roll Up is not the chicest of treats, they sure do taste good.
Here’s the recipe:
Take a quarter of a pound of good hard salami thinly sliced. Put a small wedge of cheddar cheese and a sweet pickle on top of each piece of salami. Roll and secure with a toothpick. Serve.