Dan Lackner, Sr VP of ComScore, shared helpful online insights at the Furniture/Today Leadership Conference this week.  Just a few highlights:

* For Q3, most frequently visited ‘furniture’ web sites were (1) IKEA, (2) Pottery Barn, (3) Crate & Barrel, (4) Pier 1, and (5) Ashley.

* For the first 11 months of 2007, online furniture sales are up about 33%  over last year, as compared to average (multi-industry) online sales growth of about 25%.

* over 21% of all internet users visited a  home furnishing site this year.

* multi-channel retail is growing the fastest - more than both brick-and-mortar alone, or internet alone. Many consumers are using the internet to research for products, then buying at retail stores.

* catalogs are an effective driver of online sales. More consumers are using them to browse, then buying online.

* online buying statistics illustrate the importance of a selling strategy that incorporates both brick-and-mortar and online consumer options, vs. an either/or approach

Source: Dan Lackner, ComScore, speaking at the Furniture/Today Leadership Conference, Palm Beach, FL. Nov 29, 2007

Slipcovers make a lot of sense, and most consumers like them for their style versatility and practicality. Lots of problems with them, though…  (1)  they’re hard to find, (2) they don’t always fit the chair you’ve got, (3) they’re hard to take on and off (ironically, since the point is to be able to wash them), (4) they’re not cheap if you order them with your chair (and that’s assuming you can find a chair that offers them).

So the latest ‘mini’ slipcover makes a lot of sense. We saw a lot of them in the media this year (though irnoically not in furniture stores). My personal favorite from IKEA (top right photo) sells for about $12 and fits over just about any seat. What’s great about the mini is that they’re easy to take on and off, easy to fit over any chair (you don’t have to worry about the chair’s height), they’re less expensive, great for bar stools, and you can easily sweep and see under them. Also note the 2-piece slipcover featured in Country Living magazine (Row 2) - a separate seat and back, flexible for different chair back heights and easy to remove one or both parts.

Photos: Top row, left to right - IKEA catalog  / Ralph Lauren ad 2007 / Country Living magazine, May 2007. Bottom row:  Country Living magazine, Sept 2007.

A few reliable furniture favorites were featured in a recent Town and Country magazine article.  According to the antique dealers who sell them, there are some highly reproduced choice antiques that can be relied on to go out the door time and time again. Among them, shown above -

* Louis XV-style lacquered chair

* 1940s-style French X base stool with calfskin upholstery 

* Chinese Chippendale style chair with chinoiserie upholstery

* English 19th C-style  Constellation mirror

Source: Town and Country magazine, Sept, 2007, Design Trends 

Consumers saw more substantial entertainment furniture from top ready-to-assemble retailers in the first six months of this year, according to HomeWorld Business Magazine.

While $99.99 remained the most frequently advertised price point, $149.99 and $249.99 emerged in second and third position, as compared to $59.99 and $129.99 in 2006.

And while advertisements of RTA home office were down 15%, and RTA bedroom down 32.8% for the first six months of 2007, RTA entertainment ad frequency was down only 7.8%

Leading advertisers of RTA entertainment furniture during this period were ShopKo, Best Buy, Fred Meyer, Meijer and Circuit City.

Source: Market Track. For more detailed data on RTA office, entertainment and bedroom retail advertising, see HomeWorld Business Magazine (Sept 10, 2007)

 With studio apartments the hottest real estate trend in New York (see NY Times, Oct 21, 2007, Studio$ ), creativity is needed to make 300- 450 sq ft apartments into livable, personalized homes.

Time Out New York magazine seems to agree. In their Oct 18th issue - a feature story was about making the most out of not much space. Even without much space, personality and personalization isn’t sacrificed by a young generation of studio dwellers. Note the stylistic choices of the 5 studios featured:

* Multi-cultural - flea market finds  with modern art for an antique-textile dealer’s home. “I picked up almost everything in Morocco, or in Turkey, or at the flea market… I like things that remind me of  a certain time and place.”

* Futuristic - wall-less space with cube shelving and marke-shift desks for two artchitects. “When we moved in, a place to work was our first priority.”

* Modern - panels of mirrors, a modern Saarinen table, two Eames chairs and a storage bed that doubles as a bureau, for a real estate agent. ”I wanted to live life as simply as a child.”

* Traditional - overlapping Oriental rugs, ornate mirrors, rich fabrics and heavy wooden furniture for an aspiring Broadway actor from Charleston. “It’s like living in an old world hotel room.” 

* Retro -   An affinity for minimalism and a love for ’60s-era accents for an art buyer and photographer from Minneapolis. “A cohesive color scheme really pulls it together.”

It looks a little bit traditional? But it’s really country? Though the color makes it modern? And the pattern is traditional? Or is it contemporary?

Today’s design styles are merging like never before. Anything goes, and anything goes on anything. The trick is knowing how to merge it all successfully.  Many consumers weren’t that confident pulling a room together with matched sets in a style they understood. This could get interesting.

Photo: Country Living Magazine, Oct 2007

 ”Men today are far more involved with their families than they have been at virtually any other time in the last century,” says Michael Kimmel, author of Manhood in America: A Cultural History, in a Time Magazine article, Fatherhood 2.0.

A few interesting highlights from the article:

* In the 1970s, the average dad spent 1/3 as much time with his kids as the average mom did. By 2000, that statistic was up to 3/4. 

* The number of stay-at-home fathers has tripled in the past 10 years. The Census Bureau counts less than 200,000 but specialists in the phenomenon believe it’s probably 10 times that number.

* During the entire past century in America, every successive generation of men could expect to earn more than their dads - until Generation X. According to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the median income for a man in his 30s in 2004 was 12% lower than it was in 1974, once adjusted for inflation. According to the article, with more mothers joining the workforce in the past 30 years, “men were forced to relinquish sole breadwinner status for their households to stay afloat”. 

* Men’s labor-force participation rate has dropped form just above 90% in 1970 to just above 80% in 2005.

*  32% of young fathers say they dedicate more time to their children,  while 28% say the devote more time to their jobs.

* Parents ranks their relationship with their kids as more important than their relationship wtih their spouse. They also rank their job dead last.

Are there implications for home furnishings and home design? It’s worth thinking about. But there’s no doubt more men are having more input in how the household operates.

Source: Time Magazine, Oct 15, 2007

It may sound like the opposite of green living, but when it comes to accessorizing the home, it was the styling advice of Decorating Magazine (Winter 2007) to outfit our homes with items culled from the far corners of the world. Merging rustic colors and exotic textures evokes other times and places, and best of all, the article said, you can get the goods without the airfare by “letting the Internet be your agent”.  

Morrocan-inspired hand-painted leather urns, Venetian-style lanterns, a Chippendale-and-Asian-inspired china cabinet were among the items featured. Note how many items were ‘inspired’ by or ‘in the style of’ a place, rather than actually being ‘from’ the place. It’s another angle on globalization… for many consumers, it doesn’t matter where something is made as much as where it looks like it was made.

It’s a staggering statistic, and it’s only 10 years away. By 2017, 1 out of every 2 people will be entering or living out their senior years. And being baby boomers, they’ll won’t grow old quietly… or in a nursing home. Boomers are expected to stay living in their homes longer, and to expect their homes to be comfortable, accessible, and attractive, despite modifications made necessary by aging.

The growing attention on ‘universal design’ - the term being used to describe homes and products built with aging and disability in mind - is already getting serious consideration in bathrooms. Stay tuned for more information on how universal design can be applied to home furnishings.

Incidently, the early good news about universal design is that, done right, it usually improves usability for all users, disabled or not.

After tracking consumers in their own kitchen over a 5-day period, the Research Institute for Cooking & Kitchen Intelligence found common consumer needs and ‘pain points’, including:

* Organization - better methods needed to relieve clutter and improve accessibility

* Cleanliness - easier-to-keep-clean products and appliances

* Space - more space needed, or ways to maximize existing space

* Noise - ways to minimize noise

We place high demands on our kitchens… and on our homes. Our challenge is to design and sell products that make performance as important as style. And performance today includes everything from better organizational and space-enhancing qualities to cleanability and even acoustic considerations.

The need for better storage and organization remains a top priority for many consumers - products that not only store stuff, but help organize it.

For more information on helping consumers store and organization more, see Room Planner’s “The Organized Home: how planned storage is revolutionizing home furnishings.” Click on www.roomplanners.com/newscurrent.html