INTERIORS : Mingling Makes the Exotic Feel at Home

One of the notable trends in new furniture shown at the recent wholesale market in High Point, N.C., is the inclusion of exotic details and materials in otherwise straightforward pieces of fairly standard design. Look for these pieces in stores in the fall.

“Pulling things from different parts of the world adds excitement,” says furniture designer Raymond Waites. “Mixing the rough and smooth, primitive and sophisticated, expensive and inexpensive livens things up because of the contrasts.”

Employees of Masco Home Furnishings, based in High Point, traveled to Egypt, Kenya, Cameroon, Indonesia, Ecuador and Peru. In collaboration with CARE, an international relief organization, Masco’s associated companies each created a different collection, drawing on motifs and materials associated with a particular country in which CARE is active. A portion of the profits on the furniture will be donated to CARE programs in that country.

Masco’s Lineage Home Furnishings chose Kenya for its 15-item group of seating, cabinetry and bedroom pieces and employed leather, raw cotton, woven rawhide, rattan, bamboo, faux animal horns and woods in exotic finishes.

Another Masco subsidiary, Drexel Heritage Furnishings, worked with motifs from Peru, and its 30-piece furniture collection includes a table shaped like an Inca ceremonial cooking vessel and textiles based on Inca design motifs. Henredon Furniture selected motifs from Cameroon; LaBarge Mirrors and Marbro Lamp Co. worked within an Egyptian, stylistic language.

Masco was not the only company to exploit the appeal of the exotic. Touches of Asia and of the East and West Indies were everywhere, sometimes in unexpected ways.

A hexagonal ottoman by the Clyde Pearson Co. is a direct copy of a wooden jewelry box from India, says Ruth Clark, design director. Its fabric cover, inspired by Indian designs, furthers the effect. The same company also drew on low benches found in rural Indian homes in its design of occasional tables.

The motifs of Africa are recalled in the heavily carved “South Beach” collection of seating and cabinets by Jeffco Industries of White Plains, N.Y. The carving on legs and aprons of sofas and chairs and all over tables and chests recalls African totems.

Exotic doesn’t necessarily mean from a distant continent. Thomasville’s “Trail of Nations” tables and cabinets are decorated with colorful silk-screened designs derived from American Indian motifs as interpreted by designer Kate Dietrich.

The decorations on an armoire, for example, are based on Zuni corn dance motifs. She ornamented cocktail and end tables with an interpretation of an Apache war shield. Hopi and Sioux motifs are also employed on furniture that will range from $650 for a lamp table to $2,200 for an armoire.

The ethnic influence was also rampant on upholstery fabrics. Along with greens of every description, Century Furniture’s red-to-brown upholstery palette (what designer Joann Crews, who selected the fabrics, calls the spice colors) dominated in many showroom displays of upholstery.

Yet another example of exotic influences on fabric design is the widespread use of fabrics that have the look of animal hides. Faux snakeskin, leopard skin, tiger, elephant hide and goatskin were some of the more popular “skin” prints covering sofas and chairs.

Accessories offer the most adaptable--and often most economical--way to add an exotic element to a room, and furniture showrooms were chock-full of imported accessories to accentuate an exotic theme suggested by larger items.