HIGH POINT — Bruce Macdonald has an issue with HGTV.
The founder of Bruce Andrews Design, the design firm he founded in 2014 for bespoke furniture that’s made in America, believes too many home shows emphasize the quick and easy, both in terms of the redesign projects and an emphasis on price over true sustainability when it comes to the furniture involved.
“I’m ashamed HGTV hasn’t come up with a way to customize a home and take eight to 10 weeks to do it,” Macdonald said during an interview at October High Point Market. “It’s about (catering to) Millennials who want to buy quick and easy and renovate quick and easy.”
That approach, he said, can lead to too much furniture and related foam and chemicals going to landfills. Macdonald would like to see more attention paid in mass-media formats to the longer-term benefits of buying a quality piece of furniture that’s built to last — a sofa that can be recovered and still be used for multiple generations, for example.
“Furniture can be natural, gorgeous and economical for the long term,” he said. The cost “doesn’t have to be outrageous if you consider how long it will be used. … Millennials need to think about what they’re buying.”
Looking ahead, Macdonald said leading edge furniture design will be “guided by modernity.”
“People will want luxury that makes their life easier; look at iPads, wireless connectivity,” he said. “We’ll see streamlined mechanisms and technology in furniture. They’re making incredible fabrics and carpets that are made from recycled plastics or tires, better leathers that are great quality and last longer.”
He predicts furniture more feminine in shape “because the power of the household is the woman.”
“The luxury will come into play for her more in function and design rather than sophistication,” Macdonald continued. “The future is furniture for living spaces, not drawing rooms.”
I’m Powell Slaughter, senior editor at Furniture/Today. I returned to the publication in January 2015 after nine years of writing about furniture retail strategies and best practices at a monthly magazine focusing on home furnishings retail operations. Prior to that, I spent 10 years with F/T covering wood furniture, the last five of those as case goods editor. Upon my return to F/T, I developed coverage of the logistical and service aspects of the furniture industry as well as following the occasional, home office and home entertainment categories. In April 2018 I took over the upholstery category, with responsibility for coverage of the fabric and leather stationary and motion upholstery, recliners and massage chair categories.