We’re always on the lookout for great appliances, home tech, and furnishings—and sometimes we have to travel to find them. Here’s a look at our recent travels, and all the things we’ve been learning that will inform how we design for you:
October: Our kinda currency—learning what’s hot for 2018
High Point Market in South Carolina is the go-to show to discover upcoming trends, expand our vendor network, and see new products. It’s the size of a small city (no exaggeration) and we spent four full days meeting with designers from around the world, and looking for new lines to bring home to Haliburton.
January: Discovering Canadian designers & leading the Canadian Universal Design movement
We never miss this show—it’s import to stay abreast of Canadian suppliers, and it has great international vendors too. This year, in addition to walking the floor, we were on stage at IDS as part of a panel-talk educating people about universal design. (In fact, we’re hosting a universal design training session in Haliburton in March.)
January: Rubbing elbows with design companies from around the globe
Another “it” show is the Las Vegas Furniture Market. For this show, we teamed up with celebrity designer Glen Peloso (photo above) who introduced us to some fantastic international labels. We also attended a training session he ran that has polished how we import specialty products for you.
March: Getting serious about Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove
We use many appliance brands in our designs, but our absolute favourites—and the one we chose for our Haliburton studio—are Sub-Zero and Wolf. (If you haven’t visited our new studio, please drop by one day!) In March, we’re traveling to Madison, Wisconsin for in-depth product training so we can spec Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove appliances better than any other team.
May: Pursuing our ‘Ph.D.’ in fabric
When people think of decorating, they usually think about furniture and lighting, but fabrics are actually central to making a room look pulled together. If you’ve been to our new studio, you’ll know we have a gorgeous space dedicated to perusing fabric books. We’re big fans of Kravet and often use their fabrics (indoor and outdoor) in our work, which is why we were thrilled to be one of a handful of design firms from Canada/the US invited to join Kravet in South Carolina this spring for product training. The more we know about fabric construction and performance, the happier our clients will be—so this is a big deal!