The East Coast Launch of Juan Montoya for Century Icons

We celebrated the East coast launch of Century Icons: Juan Montoya in Atlanta last week. Juan had been invited by ADAC management to be a key note speaker for their month long series entitled "Design Defined".

So we packed up the truck which included several, never seen before pieces from Juan's collection and set about creating some magic. And of course Juan did not disappoint - the room is amazing!

Thought I would share some photographs (and remember I promised a pic of Juan making the bed) ....

My newest, favorite piece (so hard to choose, I'd be lying if I didn't admit to having multiple favorites) is the "Strap Dining Table" #I19-301. I especially loved how Juan staged the table for how "he sees it being used .... beyond a formal dinner party" with a cozy setting for two at the opposite end of a table that also provides space for reading and displaying one's library.

The Juan Montoya collection is available to-the-trade through Century Designer Showrooms, please visit our website for more information.

Juan graced us with a wonderful presentation in Atlanta, showing an inside look at some of the spectacular homes he has designed. Afterwards, we hosted a reception in the Century showroom which included a meet & greet with Juan as well as a book signing.

We could not have asked for a better nor more lovely turnout of designers! A very special thanks to Juan Montoya as well as the entire ADAC team including Susan Zinger, General Manager of ADAC, and our local Century team Mary Ellen Taylor, showroom manager, and Dale Story, showroom sales for making this event such an amazing success!

DC Dream Home 2011: Designer Rooms Inspired by Jewelry

As we all know, inspiration takes many forms. And I loved how the Washington Design Center used jewelry as the theme for their Dream Home 2011.

We were thrilled to be included in the room designed by Willard and Palmer Interior Design's Charlotte Palmer Lekakos. Inspired by jeweler Ann Hand's American Collection's "Great Seal Pin" made of 18k gold, diamonds, sapphires and rubies (photographed above); Charlotte designed a wonderful sitting room.

The room is rich with details of the American spirit with an updated look of today's casual lifestyles. Charlotte's tasteful interpretation created an inviting space for visitors of the Dream House. I love her quote describing the room in the opening night journal, "The patriotic palette is sophisticated and, most of all, optimistic!"

Charlotte selected our #22-271G sofa from Century's Signature Collection, a wonderful #779-707 3-drawer chest from the New Traditional Collection and an SF3024 Accent Tortoise Chair from our Grand Tour collection.





I cannot decide what's more dazzling - the jewels or the rooms? You?

The Washington Design Center's Dream Home is open until December 9th 2011, Monday thru Friday 9am - 5pm. It is free and open to the public.

Thanks Lonny Mag!

I spent some time perusing Lonny's May/June issue this weekend (a perfect past-time for a rainy Sunday morning, I highly recommend it) and was so excited to find our Faux Painted Console #SF5024 made the cut as one of Michelle's pic's "WE WENT MAD FOR"! What an honor, thank you Michelle and Lonny for showcasing one of our products.

If you haven't seen the latest issue of Lonny - its a don't miss! Featuring a look inside the Lonny offices (I die over the "Princess Pyne Chintz"), a tour of New Orleans and Todd Alexander Romano's home in West Hollywood are among some of my favorite features. I especially love the new technology that allows more video (see Michelle's "letter" from the editor) features.

What an inspiration!

For more pieces like our console above visit our website and check our Grand Tour collection available at retailers and trade showrooms across the country.

TradHome

Don't miss the inaugural issue of TradHome, the newest digital magazine brought to life by the editors of Traditional Home and Lonny Magazine. Its spectacular - what an exciting assortment of homes, products and super talented individuals!!

I was so happy to see one of my all time favs - Nick Olsen featured in the "In Love with Louis" story and even more thrilled to see he used our Oscar de la Renta Tiered Chairside Table #609-639 in his look.

I do love the technology that allows you to click on items of interest and be brought to the vendor or retailer's website for more information or even to purchase. How much easier can it be?!

For more on Century's Oscar de la Renta collection or any of our collections please visit our website CenturyFurniture.com. For more on Nick Olsen please visit his blog NickOlsenStyle.blogspot.com.

J'Adore!

Century Icons: Juan Montoya

We recently celebrated the US launch of 'Century Icons: Juan Monotya' in Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center's West Week . Juan was on hand for the unveiling and graciously presented a slide show of recent projects as well as signed copies of his newest self-titled book, "Juan Montoya".

What a tremendous turnout - thank you to Brian Millard our showroom manager and all of the PDC staff for their efforts in making this a successful launch.

We were so blessed to have Juan's creativity and input in creating the display of the furniture. It is amazing to watch such an incredible talent at work, at every level - from the combination of textures on the sofa (velvet, grosgrain ribbon and a backed sheer), accessorizing the etageres to actually making the bed (if only I had a picture of that). Just magnificent! Thought you all would love to see some photographs from the big day!

Century Icons furniture is available exclusively through Century Showroom across the US. Our next event with Juan will be in Atlanta's ADAC on May 19th. Hope to see you there!

A Market Highlights-Part 1

Every High Point market my intention is to show the transformation of our showroom start to finish, but somewhere in the craziness of the preparations I get to the opening day and say the same thing again, "I should have taken photos of this place before!"

This time, in part thanks to Mr. Bob Timberlake, a true creative spirit, incredible artist, and part marketing genius, I finally did it. Bob kept saying to us as we were in product development meetings how he wished we had captured the entire creative process of bringing product to market. He wished we could show our customers how much goes into the design process and showroom creation so that they could understand better how things come to life and appreciate how much work goes into one piece of furniture.

I have watched this showroom transform every year since I can remember. When I was little my Mom used to load us up in the Suburban and drive us down to High Point twice a year to come see my Dad during furniture market as for the week or so of market this is where he lived. I remember the crowds, how important it all felt and the amazement of it all. As a kid it was kind of like Hollywood, lots of lights, flowers and important people in suits. It all seemed very glamorous.

Of course my perspective now working for Century is very different. Lugging a 40 lb chair or hanging point of sale material just doesn't make a girl feel very glamorous. However, from time to time I do stop myself and think about what goes into pulling together our showroom from product development all the way through to the finished rooms. Truth be told it is more like Hollywood than I ever realized at age six. What they are able to create and the feelings that they evoke through their films--pure magic. We too through our 80,000 square feet of showroom space are creating and trying to inspire our customers to see what a home can be and when it all comes together it is pretty magical.

The behind the scenes of anything is never very glamorous, but it is fascinating and as Bob Timberlake wished, I too wish it gives you a sense of how much goes into each piece of furniture we make. What follows are photos from the start almost a year and a half ago of our Timberlake product development all the way through to High Point market.

More highlights to come from High Point market.