Textiles Inform Lifestyle at Ethan Allen

Danbury, Conn. — Total home with a lifestyle flavor is the centerpiece of the approach to the home furnishings future at Ethan Allen, the vertically integrated manufacturer and retailer.

And with this approach, explained Farooq Kathwari, chairman and ceo, home textiles products — both stocked and custom order — play a growing role. In the newest prototype, a Design Center on Manhattan's East Side, across the street from Bloomingdale's flagship store, readymade window top treatments, an array of "take-with" pillows, and decorative throws are featured along with in-stock and custom decorative bedding, area rugs and carpeting.

The $1.3 billion company is No.7 on Furniture/Today's Top 100 US furniture store rankings.

In providing solutions, the Design Centers' design teams utilize custom programs for window treatments and decorative bedding that include the company's extensive fabric selection as well as details from trims to embellishments to hardware, and specific dimensions. "We work these based on a customer's specific needs," explained Nora Murphy, evp, style and advertising. Vendor workrooms create the finished products "that are exclusive to us," she added. COM treatments are not encouraged, she added, "because we have a good range of fabrics and can't guarantee the results of fabric from other sources."

There is a full range of bedding from European imported luxury sheets to comforters, coverlets, duvets, shams and decorative pillows. Decorative pillows also are offered on a custom basis using any fabric in the store's assortment.

"We show coverlets and duvets as well as a full range of pillows and shams — more rather than less — to let customers make their selections," Murphy explained. The in-stock bedding is supplied by various vendors and shipped directly to customers.

The in-stock bedding "is very flexible" in terms of styles and patterns and can change. "We see the beds as a working tool," Murphy said. The selection is added to and freshened twice a year.

A full range of window coverings is offered in linens and cottons, as well as the Silk Expressions collection featuring a variety of silks available in five to seven days in lengths of 100 inches and 110 inches.

The textiles piece of the assortment is a growing part of the company's catalog that focuses on its lifestyles. A linen pleated duvet cover, as an example, is $399 queen, a paisley throw is $99, and a taffeta embroidered pillow is $109.

A silk bed in the store has throw pillows from $69 to $79, a queen comforter at $700, a queen coverlet at $299 and a European imported 600 count luxury sheet set is $249.