Will Martha’s Furniture Sit Well With Consumers?

It was supposed to be such a Good Thing.

Martha Stewart, domestic powerhouse, hooked up with Bernhardt Furniture, a respected, family-owned manufacturer, to create a line of mid- to upper-end furniture to be introduced at next week’s International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, N.C.

Then this summer, Stewart, the celebrity CEO, became tangled in a high-profile insider-trading scandal. As investigations into Stewart’s sale of ImClone stock deepened, the furniture world swirled with speculation on how this might affect her latest venture. Stewart has denied any wrongdoing.

“It’s a public relations nightmare,” says Warren Shoulberg, editor of HFN, the newsweekly of the home furnishings industry. “It’s the talk of the market.”

The 200-piece Martha Stewart Signature Furniture collection is the latest in a series of coordinated home products--including fabric, carpeting and paint--that are part of Stewart’s evolving Signature brand. This is not to be confused with her lower-priced Kmart collection or her high-end catalog and online store Martha Stewart: The Catalog for Living (formerly Martha by Mail. It was relaunched under a new name this week).

Plans were already afoot to trot out the slipcovered sofas and painted furniture next week at a launch party at a bucolic North Carolina horse farm. But after the scandal broke, the media event was scaled down to “afternoon tea” with no guarantee the domestic diva herself would appear. “It is not confirmed that Martha will be in attendance at this point,” says a spokeswoman for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

The invitation to the Bernhardt High Point press opening next Wednesday--a series of cards in Stewart’s signature colors of tea green, sage and chocolate brown--mentions two collections: Lily Pond, “painted woods, easy slipcovers and light colors” based on the look of Stewart’s cottage in the Hamptons. And Skylands, “softly polished woods, rich fabrics and nature-inspired details” reflective of her stone retreat in Maine.

Stewart did journey to High Point in August to sneak-preview her collection with 100 top Bernhardt retailers. Initial reports were very positive, says a spokeswoman for Bernhardt, and orders have already been placed.

The future of the collection could depend on the latest developments in the trading scandal. “Until now, the customer has been able to separate Martha the individual from Martha the product,” says Shoulberg.

Alex Bernhardt, chief executive of Bernhardt Furniture, agrees. “We’re convinced that consumers clearly differentiate between the personal issues in Martha Stewart’s life and the products created by her company,” he said in a statement. “Consumers are interested in decorating their homes in the style inspired by Martha Stewart, and that hasn’t changed because of the current situation.”

According to Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard’s Retailing Consulting Group, the outlook is not so bad. “I don’t think the situation is going to have a detrimental effect unless she should be charged and convicted of something. People will judge the furniture on its own merits.”

The new Stewart collection will not hit stores until next spring. “Whatever happens, Martha Stewart’s brand name is very solid,” Barnard says. “The furniture will have to stand on its own two legs.”