Hoping for sumptuous color at High Point Market

The editors of BedTimes and Sleep Savvy magazines look forward to our coming tour of mattress industry showrooms at High Point Market, which runs Oct. 13-18 in High Point, N.C.

A good part of our enthusiasm is due to the return of vibrant color in many mattress showrooms at the summer Las Vegas Market. There, we saw some truly stunning mattress sets—the kind of beds you don’t want to cover with linens—the kind you want to show off to friends, as you would a spectacular new sofa.

It’s a fact: Consumers are increasingly comfortable with color—some even crave it (including me). Have you wandered through the kitchenware section of any home goods retailer lately? Like mattresses, spatulas used to come only in white. Ditto with blenders and coffee makers.

I’m sure you can still find plain ol’ vanilla utensils and appliances, but you’ll have to look beyond the toasters in gleaming shades of orange, fuchsia, lime green, teal and purple.

At my local Target, the KitchenAid stand mixers are arrayed like a rainbow—“raspberry ice” to “majestic yellow” to “electric blue.” It’s the same thing with Kindle covers, smartphone cases, athletic footwear—vibrant colors abound.

According to the Sherwin-Williams 2013 color forecast, “opposites attract us like never before” so the use of bolder pastels and even “high-voltage, look-at-me colors” paired with “chalky” or organic neutrals is the next big thing. That sounds like a combination for next year’s stylish retail mattress floor.

We look forward to saying “hi” to you in High Point—and saying a final goodbye to the sea of white.