Las Vegas Winter Market 2016

Sometimes team building means falling backwards into people’s open and confidant arms, and sometimes it means shopping and drinking at the Las Vegas Market in sin city. In case you don’t know what the market is, basically twice a year Atlanta, New York, High Point and Vegas invite all wholesale furniture and accessory makers to come, set up a showroom, and showcase their new wares (or their old staples). Congruently, there are a lot of parties, networking and general hob-nobbing during those four days. Many companies debut new lines, collaborations, and designers, while buyers and retailers place orders, or make relationships for future orders. You can’t really buy anything and leave with it. But, you do a lot of photographing product and exchanging business cards (and, if you are a retailer, you place large orders).

This market is way more geared towards designers or large retailers, not so much the smaller gift stores out there. We arrived early Monday morning of last week, and spend the next two days going showroom to showroom.

So, I figured I’d walk you through some of our favorite pieces and showrooms. The Vegas Market is definitely less about indie makers and small innovative designs companies. It’s more about pretty furniture, fabrics, lighting and accessories that would be sold at most of the home stores we go to in LA.

Some of the pricing is SHOCKINGLY low, but the kicker is that you have to place large orders in order to get the discounted pricing. For instance, that grey sofa below I think is around $500 IF you buy 5 of them (they often have a minimum order). I actually don’t remember if that’s the case for that particular sofa, but the idea is that buying in bulk is cheap, and if you are a designer you get a hefty discount (but not necessarily wholesale).

It’s both sad and wonderful that vintage things we all love so much can become so accessible through mass production. I’ve been collecting brass and wooden fingers/hands for years, and now, looky-loo, here they are. This is not a bad thing, it’s just how things go. But, you know it makes it a bit less special, even though I’m happy that it means it’s way more accessible for folks. It’s kinda the way it works, right?

Speaking of new pieces being inspired by vintage – MidcenturyLA has had this dresser for a while which I LOVE, but it’s $3k, which is a lot to spend on a small dresser (see my thoughts here). The new version of the dresser wasn’t that much cheaper for consumers – although the scale of the new one is bigger and better for most spaces.

Here is where I demonstrate how that lamp knocked off my shirt pattern. Rude.

There were many things that I was confused about how I felt. Take the credenza here for example:

If I had found this piece at the flea market I probably would have freaked out and bought it, but as a new piece I was less sure about my love for it. Now that I’m staring at it out of context, I do think that it could look BEAUTIFUL in the right environment – a large modern, minimalist home full of neutrals and high end accessories.

That there is a miniature tabletop pool table, that I loved. I actually bought a similar one at the flea market a while ago for Brian’s man cave. When I proudly brought it home to show him, he looked at me super confused with a, “why would a grown ass man want to play miniature pool?” look. Which is probably accurate and totally hilarious.

Remember the other day when I mentioned that I might be in the market for a new sofa? Well, I love the current one in our living room, it’s not the kind of sofa you want to lounge around on all day and I think because of that we don’t spend as much time in the living room as I want to. Anyway, this sofa below is insanely comfortable and the kind you don’t ever want to leave. It has a separate pillow top and down back cushions but I don’t think I can do white because while I love our Sunbrella fabric, it isn’t exactly soft washed linen that you wanna curl up on. Which got me thinking – what if this sofa were in indigo???? Then I’d kind of get my blue sofa back??? I feel like my living room is starting to feel a little less exciting without as much color. So, for spring we may need to bring some of that color back into the space to spruce it up.

This coffee table was a standout. It’s super simple, pretty, and looks stunning in person with brass, black and marble details. It’s from a new company, Ave (pronounced like Ave Maria), which had some very pretty things.

While we were there, we were also definitely on the hunt for a vendor that sold pretty washed linen things (and yes, that has been, and will always be a big trend, but right now it feels EXTRA trendy) and we found some pretty awesome options for far below the usual retail price of $200.

You can tell how shocked we were with the wholesale pricing by the look on Brady’s face. Keep it cool Brady… Keep it cool.

I love this finish of furniture (below), hell I love the whole line they have in it. They called it “grey wax” but it looked as light as pine, without the yellow tones. It is a beautiful clean finish without feeling too stark or cold.

Nobody ever disliked a leather and brass chair over here at EHD.

This is going to be my desk chair now. Or should I say throne.

I also loved this simple bench. I don’t need it and it might be annoying for guests to get in and out during dinner, but it could be so pretty. At least on one side of a dining table. What are your thoughts on beautiful furniture that makes you happy but is not exactly the most functional? Yay or Nay?

In case you are wondering what tiny thing is that I put in that tiny backpack of mine, it’s my breast pump. I had to plop down in the middle of the hallway a couple times during our visits (obviously covered and in a very quiet and not busy hallway) to do that milky work. So annoying. And then yes, I had to additionally carry around a tiny cooler for my liquid gold.

I would love to use both of these tables soon:

And then I’ll wear my black and white shirt, and set up that matching lamp, and I’ll look like an insane person.

Speaking of crazy, that night (well, both nights) we went out, Vegas-style. The first night we went to David Copperfield, which is both entertaining and kinda a ripoff.

But, we had a great time, and gambled ’til the wee hours of the night (team building stuff, ya know?!). The second day we scoured the market for what we may have missed the first day, saw some talks about social media (which are always interesting), then had a more chill night which included a lovely dinner at Blue Ribbon.

Back to pillows . . . I loved this pink one from Cisco Brothers. They had some pretty awesome textiles in the softest linens in a variety of muted shades.

Kate Spade has a new collaboration with Jaipur which is pretty awesome. I particularly like the fringed and oversized floor pillows.

You probably know that my friend Justina Blakeney has a pillow and rug collection with Loloi which is wonderful and very bohemian. Here I am modeling my favorite pillow:

I loved this pretty nightstand (below) . . . I still have fantasies of redoing my bedroom, and making it really portfolio worthy. Nightstands like this, with the new bed I’m getting (that’s right, I’m custom making a bed for our master) would look very pretty. Now to get that wallpaper off my stupid wall . . .

Pretty leather desk accessories never hurt anyone . . .

Is color coordinating books still a thing?

How do you feel about this dresser above? I loved the finish, and I like the shape, but is it try-hard or BEAUTIFUL? We were all super intrigued by it, but we all wondered if it was a good thing, or if the shape was weird. I think in the right space it could be beautiful – picture a seascape above it with a bust . . .

A danish company, Bloomingville (below), just came to the US and they have crazy affordable and cute pieces that I’m sure will be popping up all over local design stores and boutiques.

Pretty darn good stuff, no? And very affordable even with a markup.

All in all, the market was so much fun and very useful design-wise. We came back with a ton of new sources, made a lot of new connections, and felt generally inspired to bring that to our clients. I had been MIA since early October with the baby and then traveling all of December and our visit to the market was a good immersion to get my creative juices flowing again. The good news is, that despite having two tiny children, I’m feeling extremely motivated design and business-wise. Even though I know that LA is full of amazing design, sometimes you need to be sent out of town to help find some inspiration.

Here are all of our favorite vendors from the Vegas market. Most of these are wholesale (so you can’t order from them directly), but I still wanted to give them shout-outs and let them know I think they are doing good things.

Our Favorites:

Jaipur: Rugs, Pillows | Global Views: Furniture, Accessories | Safavieh: Lighting, Furniture, Rugs | Blue Ocean Traders: Accessories and Furniture | Chandra: Rugs | Loloi: Rugs and the Justina Blakeney Collaboration | Kravet: beautiful fabrics as always | MadeGoods: Dressers, Mirrors | GoHome: Furniture, Small Accessories | Noir: Everything | HomArt: Small Accessories | PomPom at Home: Linens and Textiles | Renwil: Mirrors. Lighting, Accessories | Selamat: Furniture | Palecek: Furniture and Lighting | Moes: Lighting, Furniture | Ave: Furniture | FourHands: Everything | Natural Curiosities: Large Scale Art | Cisco Brothers: Pillows, Textiles, Furniture | Bloomingville: Everything

Thanks for having us, Vegas. It’s not someplace I could go every weekend, but twice a year it’s absolutely worth the trip and the kidney damage. Until next year Sin City.