Furniture like no ‘other’
When it comes to decorating your home, how often have you considered the master suite and a young child’s room before becoming frustrated with trying to figure out what to do with the other bedrooms?
That frustration is now a thing of the past. Aspenhome recently debuted a new bedroom category appropriately named “the Other bedrooms.”
The category, which launched at the recent home-furnishings trade show at World Market Center Las Vegas, features scaled-down versions of the Phoenix-based manufacturer’s most popular collections, complete with the styling and features of their larger counterparts.
“The thought occurred to me one day when I was visiting one of the retail stores that carries our aspenhome master bedroom furniture products. One of our collections was being shown in the kids department because it was somewhat smaller in scale than the majority of our master bedroom furniture. I asked why it was placed there and the store owner replied that they often get requests for furniture that was not kids nor master bedroom-sized for those ‘other bedrooms’ but no one really makes the ‘perfect’ other bedroom size furniture that fits the needs of smaller rooms,” said Jena Hall, executive vice president of bedroom and merchandising for aspenhome. “That started me thinking that there was only one master bedroom in a home, even if it is a one-bedroom apartment or a five-bedroom home; often the other bedrooms are smaller and require smaller-scaled furniture. Yet furniture companies make either master bedroom furniture or kids furniture — no one offers furniture specifically targeting the many other types of furniture people need to furnish those other bedrooms.”
Hall said the company’s research shows that as consumers change their lifestyles and move into smaller residences, they want smaller-scaled furniture but still with all the styling and features of master bedroom suites.
“We see this new ‘the Other bedrooms’ concept as an evolution to the master bedroom category,” added Dave Heard, aspenhome’s executive vice president of sales.
They said the furniture is ideal for a home’s other bedrooms, which retain typical bedroom features including one or two windows, a closet and a doorway, but in less square footage.
“All of that eats up valuable space for furniture placement and master bedroom furniture typically is larger than the wall space provided in another bedroom,” Hall said.
Starting with scaled-down versions of four of the company’s popular collections, the Other bedroom’s pieces retain the same “ah-factors” that the company is known for, such as integrated outlets to plug in chargers for hand-held personal electronics, built-in night-lights in night stands and adjustable railings on twin beds that allow for the addition of a trundle. This makes the furniture ideal for smaller secondary bedrooms, as well as starter homes, apartments, second homes and retirement lifestyle homes, Hall said.
The collections also added twin and full-sized beds with optional storage drawers in the footboards, as well as small-scaled versatile storage and accent pieces along with an updated desk to accommodate today’s technology.
These additions make the collections especially appealing for parents to use for their tweenagers, as changes in bedding allow the furniture pieces to grow with the children through their college years.
In addition to reducing the scale of the furniture, lighter-colored finishes were added to the collections. The Pinnacle Award-winning Young Classics collection, for example, now offers an eggshell finish.
“The eggshell finish is perfect for a small vacation cottage by a lake or seaside as well as the young teenage girl who is ready for more adult-looking furniture but still needs to fit it within her small bedroom at home,” Hall said.
In addition to scaling down the actual size of the furniture, aspenhome is striving to keep the price scaled down in its newly created “sweet spot,” a research-driven range based on prices consumers are willing to spend for a particular piece. The Other bedroom’s twin-sized beds or dressers have a suggested retail price of $499 or less.
