Join Waynette Goodson on a special tour of Culp Home Fashions in this episode of Beds by Design! Christina Pennant, Director of Design and Merchandising, walks us through their inspiring workspace and introduces us to the talented designers behind their beautiful fabrics.
Transcript
Waynette Goodson
Welcome to this edition of Beds by Design, sponsored by Kingsdown. We’re at Culp Home Fashions today with Christina Pennant, the director of design and merchandising for CHF. Christina, thank you so much for being here today. This is a big day for Beds by Design. We are going to get a private tour from Christina and meet some of the designers.
So you all come on, just follow me. Show us this beautiful space that you have here. I mean, talk about inspiring good design. This is it.
Christina Pennant
Welcome to the Congdon Yards. This is the home of our upholstery fabric. And also the home of our mattress fabric. And I would love you to meet the team today. Yes, speaking of the team.
Waynette Goodson
Yeah, we.
Christina Pennant
Have, Philip and also Greta.
Waynette Goodson
Yes. Hi. Nice to meet you. Yes. So? So, Greta, let’s focus on this particular fabric because I understand you played a large part in creating this particular frost design. Yeah.
Greta Speer
This is a concept piece to show off our Frost collection. Philip actually did the artwork to get the logo in there. When making performance fabrics, I use small mesh textures and grungy gradients. We can also use fun colors on more performance things.
Waynette Goodson
Yeah, yeah. And what I love is it just conveys that cooling and cooling is so important now for the industry when it comes to selling mattresses. Now, Philip, talk to us about your role here with Frost and how curiosity plays into innovation — and just coming up with something like this?
Philip Burger
Sure. Curiosity is the foundation for how you create and creatively solve problems. Right. So, curiosity is the foundation for looking at things in a different way. In this case, I’m trying to do artwork that is a bit conversational, with what are those words at the top, you know, and just kind of understanding and adding a bit of dynamism to it.
Waynette Goodson
Well, it is dynamic. It has that rhythm. It has that sort of digital effect. Now that’s so hot. I mean, winning combination. Okay, Christina, we’ve got more vignettes. What’s next?
Christina Pennant
And as we come into this area, this is our third space at Congdon Yards.
Waynette Goodson
Oh, Tanya. Hi. Yeah. Hey. How are you? Yes. Well, it will show us what you’ve got. Where are you drawing inspiration from for the fabrics you’re doing now?
Tanja Tusa
Well, I draw inspiration from different aspects of art. It’s not always fashion, but sometimes movies, music, or videos. Lately, I have been really inspired by some richer colors, some more home fashion colors, and some rich browns and earthy tones. So what I appreciate about this design is that it has a home fashion colorway and uses a palette that you don’t often see, right?
Waynette Goodson
Right. And it has a little bit of a botanical theme.
Tanja Tusa
Yeah, yeah. I love botanicals. That’s something that I am waiting for to have a resurgence in ticking because I love florals.
Waynette Goodson
It is. I just kind of
Tanja Tusa
And you know, it wouldn’t be your old-fashioned florals; it would be kind of like these new painterly florals that I’m gravitating towards. And that’s a gorgeous color. Look at that. And then this one kind of has that painterly, artistic approach with watercolor in and out fading of that turquoise, which I think maybe blues are moving more towards, like a watery feel.
Sure.
Waynette Goodson
And this makes me want to go to the beach. Yeah, I love this kind of coastal town. This time, for the beach. Yeah. Well, this is also very exciting. Thank you for lending us some of your design process—how you get to the fabulous fabrics that you get to. Thank you. So, Christina, I understand we have one more stop.
Waynette Goodson
Yes. Oh, yeah. What do we have going on here? This is gorgeous. Yeah.
Christina Pennant
So, firstly, I would like to introduce you to Hunter.
Waynette Goodson
Hunter, a pleasure to meet you. We understand that you’re a merchandising guru. How does this figure into your merchandise sizing approach with borders?
Hunter Morton
Absolutely. Right now, we’re working on matching up some borders to one of our newer lines, Frost and Frosted. Heather. What we have laid out here is a little bit of a better-best matchup. A lot of our customers will come to us, and they’re building out a line. So they want a good, a better and a best.
Hunter Morton
typically that falls into different price cadences. So at the lower end, we’ll have some of our T-Five and T-Twos, lighter graham weight fabrics and then we’ll work our way up to doing a little bit more color, a little bit more design, and then even putting in some of our PE or cooling fabric. From there, we can discuss a plethora of options.
Hunter Morton
We can go to borders; we can change PE colors, and you can change tack colors—so many options when it comes to merchandising a product.
Waynette Goodson
Right. And all of this looks best, best, best. I mean, you know, you know what I mean. It really, really does. And from just more traditional to the more dynamic and more of the energy. What a great show. Thank you. Thank you so much, Christina, for letting us get behind the scenes and see what you all are busy with.
Waynette Goodson
Thank you, Hunter, and thank all of you for tuning in for this edition of Beds by Design. And, as always, get a great night’s sleep.
Want more Beds by Design? Visit Culp’s Design Team & Innovation: Inside the Fabric Powerhouse. Meet the Culp designers at Culp’s Design Team & Innovation: Meet the Clup Designers (In Their Own Words).
