Furniture trends have to take reality into account

By CHERYL SCHWEIZER

Staff Writer

EPHRATA — While there are design trends in furniture just like there are in clothing, the key factor in selecting furniture is what fits in the house.

Matt Moore, one of the owners of Moore Furniture in Ephrata, cited bedroom furniture as an example. Right now king-size beds are trendy, but that trend runs right into a reality about Ephrata. A lot of Ephrata houses were built in the 1950s, with smaller bedrooms, and that king size bed won’t fit.

The crew at Moore Furniture knows home furnishings — the company has been around for five generations.

Grant County isn’t on the cutting edge when it comes to home furniture design. “We aren’t the trend-setters,” Moore said.

“I can watch areas like Seattle” and see what trends are going to last and what won’t, he said. Some trends don’t ever make it to Grant County.

“A lot of things never really hit at all,” Moore said.

In Grant County, light-colored woods like oak remain a popular choice for furnishings, although the industry trend has been toward dark woods like cherry and walnut.

Trends in upholstered furniture, like couches and chairs, have moved more slowly. The biggest changes have been in materials, Moore said. “Fabrics have come pretty far,” he said.

The fine-spun synthetics known as microfiber can mimic most fabrics, including leather. Due to its construction, microfiber is more durable and easier to clean.

Moore said the whole concept of fitting furniture into the house also applies when buying couches and chairs. Lifestyle also plays a big role in making those choices — a family with dogs probably would think twice about buying a white couch.

The biggest discussion in the home furnishings industry in fall 2020 isn’t design or materials, it’s supply chains.

The COVID-19 outbreak affected both domestic and overseas manufacturers — and the retailers that rely on them. “Huge disruption in manufacturing,” Moore said, especially for appliances.

Manufacturers have relied on being able to order parts and materials and have them delivered as they are needed. “That doesn’t exist right now,” Moore said.

As a result there’s a time lag between ordering and when it arrives, especially in the case of appliances. Moore said appliances he ordered in April and May are just arriving now, and he’s ordering now for delivery in January and February.

Moore said one trend he’s interested in going forward is home office furniture. Home offices have been going out of style as people migrated to electronic devices — after all, with a laptop people could sit on the couch to work from home. But the coronavirus outbreak closed offices and forced people to spend a lot more time working from home.

And with a push from the pandemic, more people may opt to work from home. Moore said he’s interested to see where the home office trend goes, and if desks and home office furniture make a comeback.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached at [email protected].