Ty-ed & TRUE

When the manufacturer is Howard Miller and the home décor expert is Ty Pennington, you get a winning combination.

The host of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” has partnered with the Zeeland, Mich.-based manufacturer to launch a new line of casual and eclectic furniture that can be mixed and matched. Instead of featuring a group of collections, the line, Howard Miller Home Furnishings by Ty Pennington, features casual traditional and casual contemporary styling. Nine wood finishes coordinate across all the living room, dining room and bedroom offerings and finishes are color-matched to 170 fabric choices.

Living room furnishings include sofas, chairs and ottomans, pillows and occasional furniture such as end tables, sofa tables, cocktail tables, entry tables, bookcases and media units. Dining room pieces include sideboards, tables, chairs and benches, while bedrooms have beds, dressers, chests, nightstands, storage pieces, mirrors and benches.

In upholstery, Ty’s Basics include simple microfiber, woven fabrics or denim in neutral colors such as khaki, tan, ivory, gold and brown and were recommended by Pennington as base fabrics for sofas and sectionals. Extreme TexTyles were inspired by his original designs and patterns and created by Pennington for pillows, accents and chairs and dye-matched to furniture finishes.

Also available for pillows, accents and chairs are animal skins, smooth silks and Ty’s Accents.

For Pennington, creating the line of furniture gave him the opportunity to expand on what he has been doing for most of his life as well as for the TV show.

“I actually have been designing and making my own furniture since I was a kid, but back then it was more like experiments with my mom’s tables and chairs. She wasn’t all that thrilled with the result, but I loved taking things apart and then building new things. I’ve always had a love and appreciation for great design in something functional like a chair or a table. So in many ways my line of furniture started when I was in elementary school.”

Mark Siciliano, director of marketing for Howard Miller, said the company was very comfortable working with Pennington. For the past eight years, they have been donating clocks to “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

“We always felt Ty was perfect for the show. He brings a lot of expertise,” Siciliano said.

So when it came time to launch a licensed collection, Pennington was the perfect partner. “We wanted more than just a name on our product. We wanted to partner with a true expert and make sure there was a true relevance to our consumers.

“He is in lot of homes every week and brought first-hand experience of what works in homes,” Siciliano said.

Pennington said many of the designs in the new line are based on those he created for families featured on the show.

“For example, for one episode of ‘Extreme Makeover’ I designed a beautiful black four-poster bed with exaggerated tall posts that had a turned leg detail, kind of a modern take on British Colonial design. It is dramatic yet elegant at the same time. The viewer response was amazing. I received more letters and e-mails about that bed than I can tell you; everyone loved that bed. So I thought, I already know people like this design, let’s put it in the Howard Miller collection.”

Pennington said a great deal of thought went into the design of each piece so it could stand alone or mix and match with other pieces in the line or a person’s existing furniture. “That way the customer can design their own room setting and not go wrong, which is fun and brings them more into the interior design process for their own home.”

“If you really study all the elements, there are end tables that are working as night tables, night tables working as end tables and coffee tables that are working as end of bed benches,” Siciliano said.

To help people envision how the pieces work together, furniture retailers will have full room displays along with posters of complete rooms.

“Look, even in my job on ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ I can tell you that until a room is pulled together it’s hard to know what it’s going to look like,” Pennington said. “We have volunteers that work all week on a single space and it’s not until that last piece of furniture is put into place that they go, ‘Wow, I get it!’ People respond to complete rooms. … You see what you like and you can order the whole room, or take a piece from one room setting and put it with another room setting to create your own personal combination.

“All of the rooms have my stamp of approval so it’s sort of like having me be your interior designer without having to chase me down while I’m building a house for someone.”

In addition to the versatility of the pieces themselves, they have functional features such as hidden storage for jewelry, wire management, under-cabinet lighting and built-in plugs and chargers.

“So much of what I hear from people is related to storage, so several of the pieces have hidden and unique storage areas built right in. The idea that storage doesn’t have to look like storage is important when that piece of furniture is displayed in your living room or bedroom,” Pennington said.

The line is expected to be on retailers’ sales floors this fall.