Two Interactive Design-Oriented Exhibits Debut at American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame® Building

Furniture World News Desk on 4/13/2024

The American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame is opening two new interactive, design-oriented exhibits during the April 13-17 High Point Market that will be permanent features of the new building, which opened its doors for the first time in April 2023.

Located at 311 S. Hamilton St., in the heart of the market district, the Hall of Fame building serves both the home furnishings industry as well as the public with a host of educational, social and networking events and experiences. The building also features a range of permanent learning spaces designed to expand awareness of the home furnishings industry and its multi-dimensional contribution to the U.S. economy and the quality of American lives.

The first new learning resource being added to the building is The Design Lab. Part of the Children’s Discovery Center on the first floor, The Design Lab is a hands-on, fun-filled exhibit featuring a wealth of creative, interactive tools and materials. While grade school and high school students are the primary focus, The Design Lab will be a place that all visitors will want to explore.

A centerpiece of The Design Lab is the Roger and Martha Bland Immersive Pattern Maker. The Pattern Maker enables visitors to use the latest interactive technology to design and create forms and patterns. The patterns are created in real time and then projected onto the Lab’s walls at a bigger-than-life scale. The tool is designed to enable anyone to see what it’s like to conceive and design a product.

“The Pattern Maker is devised to bring out the designer that is hidden in each one of us,” says Karen McNeill, chairman and CEO of the Hall of Fame Board of Directors. “This simple-to-use but highly sophisticated tool even offers visitors the chance to print out their work, so that children can go home and say, ‘Look, Mom — I’m a designer!’”

In addition, The Design Lab teaches kids and other visitors about the basics of five core home design styles:

• Eclectic: An unexpected mix of design elements and periods can create unique looks that reflect an individual’s unique personality. Motifs, colors, patterns and textures peacefully coexist as a collection of favorite pieces, each with their own special story.

• Traditional – Rooted in the homes and lifestyles of former centuries, the classic look of Traditional stems from the beauty of handcrafted art and furnishings. Often more intricate in its features, today’s Traditional designs are generally fresh interpretations of times gone by.

• Modern – Sleek and uncluttered with a touch of drama, Modern in its purest form is minimalistic.  It is never afraid to make a statement using exaggerated profiles, shiny surfaces, bold colors and contemporary art.

• Casual – Comfort and unpretentious living take a front seat with Casual design.  Ever functional, it is relaxed and welcoming in softened shapes, welcoming fabrics, and soothing colors and patterns.

• Transitional — The bridge between Traditional and Modern, Transitional focuses on a streamlined approach to life.  Transitional presents a crisp point of view that is more dressed up than Casual, like wearing a navy-blue blazer with an open white shirt and a favorite pair of jeans.

The Design Lab also will include other hands-on activities for children and young people, including an area for creating mood boards just like the professionals do and another activity that enables visitors to design their own chairs.

The second major new learning exhibit opening at the Hall of Fame building this market is Design Your Room. In this space, located on the second floor, visitors will be able to try their hand at creating a room that reflects their own personal design styles.

Using a kiosk connected to a seven-foot-wide screen, visitors to the Design Your Room space can try their hand at design to see what their ideal room might look like. The kiosk deploys custom software created as a collaboration between Intiaro and Floorplanner, two Polish home furnishings software companies, to give users an engaging, interactive introduction to how to choose their own unique style. Whatever a person can imagine, the software powering the Design Your Room experience can bring to life.

“This interactive tool gives you the power of a professional to create your dream room using a digital 3-D floor planner and a library of hundreds of products,” McNeill says. “You can change room sizes and shapes on the fly, move windows and doors, and experiment with colors and patterns.  Then, when the room is ready, you can drop in a range of furnishings to unleash the design hidden in your mind’s eye!”

Included in the Design Your Room space are other resources and tips to help visitors make the most of their room design experience. For example, when creating a floorplan, visitors are encouraged to think about their lifestyle and the “circulation,” or flow, of people within their spaces. The exhibit also recommends focusing on timeless looks for big decisions such as sofas and beds, choosing styles that will remain livable for a long time, while sprinkling in a few trendy accessories and a statement piece or two to add a touch of spice.

Each of these two new exhibits was designed by Dublin, Ohio-based The Roto Group, an interdisciplinary design agency specializing in immersive media, experience design and custom fabrication for museums and other public spaces.

About The American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc.®
The American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc., is an industry-wide organization founded to preserve its history, to celebrate exceptional individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the U.S. home furnishings industry, to inspire the next generation of innovative leaders and to engage the community with the world of home furnishings. Our new home, which opened in April 2023, is a symbol of the Home Furnishings Capital of the World™ where the industry gathers, where we honor our leaders and tell our stories, and where we learn through exhibits, seminars and speakers. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, funds support our history and leadership programming. The organization is based in High Point, North Carolina, at 311 S. Hamilton St., and can be reached at 336.882.5900 or by visiting www.homefurnishingshalloffame.com.