How is a Furniture Line reborn?
It simply takes a brush with the creative mastermind, Ron Fiore.
I had the great privilege of meeting Ron Fiore during my last trip to High Point Market. Ron is the Vice President and Creative Director at Century Furniture.
Much of the beauty at High Point Market can be traced to the creative brilliance of Ron Fiore. When Ron works his magic in a furniture showroom, there is no doubt that he was the driving force behind the transformation. Ron Fiore has been responsible for refreshing and elevating some of the furniture industry’s top brands, including Baker, Hickory Chair, Bernhardt and now Century Furniture.
I have always been a huge fan of Century Furniture and enjoy seeing their showroom each market. However, my tour through the showroom this past April as a High Point Market Style Spotter was part dream/part fantasy.
I toured the showroom with Ron and he shared with me his vision and inspiration behind each vignette. First and foremost, Ron believes that furniture is ART. He stressed to me that it is not a machine making beautiful furniture, but that each piece of furniture at Century is made by a skilled craftsman with their own hands.
Ron likes to work with a narrative for each vignette. He thinks of a furniture showroom as a Grand Tour, like a gallery. He likes to use a base of cream and black with pops of color when laying out and designing a showroom’s galleries. He doesn’t believe in color in your face – he likes to use it in ways to draw focus and in ways that allow you, as the viewer, to pause, reflect and take a deep breath. He uses color intentionally to create the narrative.
As Ron explained to me while we were walking through the new spaces he created for Century Furniture, he envisioned, before creating them, a woman who loves to wear Kate Spade and Diane Von Furstenberg. She doesn’t always plan things and likes to live in the moment. When she dresses, she grabs this and that and confidently walks out the door. She wears a yellow skirt, white blouse, throws a leopard scarf over her shoulder and carries a pink handbag.
This girl is well taken care of. She works at home and her dining room table became her desk. Ron likes a room where you walk into the bed – it is sexier and he walked his talk, making this bed you see above the first thing you saw when you walked into the gallery spaces he designed for Century.
This same confident woman gives her “man” a room his viewing room. She also gives him a place to paint and draw and she knows how to make multi-functional spaces work.
Ron believes that you should be able to accessorize in seconds. You should not have to work at it – it should seem effortless. Planning a room can take days, but accessorizing should be easy.
The young girl who lives in this *apartment* above is right out of college. She grew up in a traditional home and this is a vernacular she understands. She wants traditional that is fresh and forward – and not her mother’s house. She wears a lot of black and white and she can wear any color with that. For her apartment, she chose pink.
This girl knows how to work it. She might wear a white chiffon dress with her black leather jacket and black shoes. Like the black leather chair pictured above – the chair has feminine lines but is made current with black leather upholstery and studs. The white base and legs balance the femininity of the piece.
As you can see, Ron Fiore is a true creative genius. He has truly mastered the art of narrative.
I hope you are as inspired by Ron as I am and I hope you will read my next post where I will share with you some of the many qualities that have endeared me to Ron. He is such a kind, unassuming man with a big heart. I was a fan of his work before I met him, but I now have been able to see how his gentle spirit shines through in his creative work.
Leslie Hendrix Wood
Editor In Chief, Founder
Hadley Court Blog
Interior Designer
Leslie Hendrix Wood Interiors
Midland, Texas
Gracious Living. Timeless Design. Family Traditions.
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