Lauren Heist
At first glance, it might seem like High Point Market and the CA Boom Design Show would go together like oil and water.

High Point Market is a bastion of the furniture industry — a stable, well-respected institution where the biggest companies in the furniture industry show off their newest products and shake hands with the largest furniture retailers from around the country.

CA Boom, on the other hand, is a bit like High Point’s spikey-haired younger brother — a newly established, non-traditional show where visitors walk around a huge warehouse in Los Angeles looking at everything from high-end, contemporary home furnishings to building materials like flooring, countertops and even entire prefab houses.

But those perceived differences didn’t stop Charles Trotter, the founder of the CA Boom Design Show, from bringing his edgy, modern market to the East Coast.

At this fall’s High Point Market, taking place Oct. 20-26, attendees can get a taste of CA Boom’s contemporary aesthetic at CA Boom EAST, a new showroom space in Mills Village.

Located at 1014 Mills Ave. in High Point, the CA Boom EAST showroom will take up the second floor of a building that used to be a hosiery mill, above a new, 30,000-square foot flagship showroom for contemporary furniture manufacturer Cisco Brothers.

Unlike its California counterpart, CA Boom EAST will only focus on home furnishings, featuring exhibits from new, independent contemporary home furnishing designers and manufacturers that haven’t been discovered by most traditional furniture buyers. CA Boom EAST has also committed to showing only products that are designed and manufactured in the designer’s country of origin — you won’t find any mass-produced, imported goods here.

Already, a number of high-design companies have signed on to CA Boom’s philosophy, including Animavi, a contemporary, eco-friendly design company based in Venice, CA; Ku Ambiance, a West Hollywood, CA, company that specializes in modern Japanese-styled furniture; and davistudio, a company based in Chatham, NY, that makes porcelain tabletop items.

Although it might seem that these kind of products aren’t a good fit for the High Point crowd, Brian D. Casey, President and Chief Executive of the High Point Market Authority, said CA Boom will be able to service a side of the home furnishings industry that High Point hasn’t catered to in the past: high-end interior designers looking for cutting edge contemporary pieces.

“CA Boom will be complimentary to where High Point is already positioned with high-end designer community,” Casey said. “The CA Boom Design Show represents the next generation of contemporary designers and manufacturers, and we are thrilled to have CA Boom East involved with High Point Market.”

To establish itself as a friend of high-end interior designers, CA Boom EAST is also developing a contemporary design guide that will be distributed throughout High Point during the show. The guide will highlight all of the showrooms and events at High Point that cater to non-traditional and contemporary retailers.

Trotter, in turn, sees High Point as the perfect venue to provide prestige to the CA Boom name.

“The High Point Marketplace continues to have the track record of consistently attracting the most important furniture buyers,” Trotter said. “We see the High Point Market as the center and the future of where real furniture is made and sold and we are very excited to be associated with such a prestigious event.”

And Trotter must see good things ahead for CA Boom’s East Coast version. He’s already committed to participate in both the Fall and Spring markets at High Point through 2013.

Taken from www.furniturestyle.com