HIGH POINT — Firm in its belief that less can be much more, HL Home Furnishings is here at market with what it describes as Phase Two of fashion-forward furniture designed to provide big solutions for smaller living spaces.
As HL Home’s Tom Erdman points out, the trend toward building smaller homes and the growing incidence of consumers opting or forced to rent as opposed to buying a home are just two powerful drivers creating a booming demand for small-space furniture.
“There are 127 million households in the U.S. Just for fun, let’s say 20% are small living spaces. That’s 25 or 30 million small households not being serviced,” Erdman said.
A host of other statistics back his premise up. According to Realtor.com data, homes are rising in price while shrinking in square footage. The median-sized U.S. home has shrunk from 1,996 square feet to 1,868 square feet in the past five years, the company says.
And, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 34% of occupied housing units are occupied by renters, which accounts for 45,221,844 total units.
With that target audience in mind, HL Home Furnishings has brought some 10 different styles of sofas and chairs offered in a variety of colorful, premium fabrics and thanks to innovative KD construction, hard-to-beat cost to ship.
Sofas, Erdman said, are “properly scaled at 77 1/2 inches yet we can fit 120 of them in a container. This means they can ship either UPS or FedEx as a small parcel,” he said. “With containers currently costing about $4,000, that equates to only $33.33 per sofa,” he said.
Sofas can retail for $399 when ordered in containers and $499 from the warehouse. Chairs as part of this program can retail from $199 to $299.
One of the sofas is being offered in a very durable microhyde. “This material is amazingly resilient and outperforms leather. It is used in the automotive and airline industries. It is fade, mold and mildew resistant and stood a run test of 300,00 double rubs,” Erdman said.
The microhyde sofa will retail for about $100 more than its fabric counterparts and can retail for $499 as a container order and $599 to $699 from the warehouse.
“Homes are changing and getting smaller,” Erdman said, “so we are suggesting a sofa and two chairs or a sofa and chair instead of a traditional sofa, loveseat and chair.”
But homes are not the only things changing. So are consumer preferences, especially for younger consumers who don’t often want the same furniture their parents have. “They don’t want forever furniture, but they do want colorful and exciting furniture,” Erdman said.
Older consumers, many of whom are downsizing, are also interested in smaller furniture, according to Erdman.
The company also is debuting three small dining sets with unique and highly impervious tops. “The tops of the table are basically indestructible,” Erdman said, admitting that he lit one of the tabletops on fire, to test the surfaces. “After we put the fire out and wiped the tabletop, there was not a mark or a blemish on it,” Erdman said.
The surface of the table is a hybrid MDF that is sealed under tremendous pressure. “I saw a video of the table being run over by a steam roller with no damage,” Erdman said, adding, “Since small homes typically don’t have lots of counter space, these tables can do double-duty as a counter top and can handle having a boiling pot sit on the surface with no damage.”
The table and four chairs retail for $699. “The set is not cheap, but for what it does and for being indestructible, it is a great deal,” Erdman said.
The dining sets come with four chairs and are available with either a square, round or rectangular top.
Buyers can see all the new products at the company’s showroom on the third floor of the Radio Building on Main Street.