The Ultimate (Updated!) Guide to High Point Market

by ErickaSaurit | Mar 20, 2024

My day-by-day playbook for the best events and showrooms at HPMKT ✨💕

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Heading to High Point Market? Whether it’s your first trip or 10th, there’s always something new to discover. Consider this updated guide your resource for my favorite brands and experiences to check out while you’re in town!

Can’t make it? Follow along on my Story Highlights on Insta for a glimpse into recaps from shows past like Salone, Maison&Objet, and HPMKT ✨.

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Here’s what my week looks like…

WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY | April 10-12 @VRDSummit

We’re back for a second installation of the popular Vacation Rental Design Summit, and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of this inspiring team of designers, hosts, investors, realtors, and VRD Preferred brands working to help you UPLEVEL EVERYTHING about your business.

Registration closes April 5, learn more about the event and get your tickets while they last >>

This year, I’ll be hosting 1:1 mentoring sessions, leading a panel discussion on how to collaborate with brands, offering a breakout session on what it takes to build a SCROLL-STOPPING brand for your new VRD/ STR business, and as a market tour guide to our VRD Preferred showrooms on Friday!

…also on THURSDAY

If I weren’t attending the VRDSummit, the first stop on my HP journey before the big buildings open up for the weekend is always Verellen. It’s a brand that’s near and dear to my heart, and Tom and Sabine never disappoint with their warm hospitality, generous conversation, and luxurious designs. Their Hamilton address is more than just a showroom, it’s a literal compound of tastemaking brands that I recommend everyone to visit at least once a year for style inspiration and general feel-good vibes. Plan a good few hours here at the beginning or end of your day.

Note: while visiting their Friendors in their gorg courtyard is open anytime, to tour the showroom you must book an appointment.

Verellen showroom at HPMKT

In addition to their bench-made furniture crafted just down the street, there’s an entire lifestyle of products to be discovered in their courtyard of Friendors, from extraordinary handcrafted rugs by LA-based Amadi Carpets, the truly sublime outdoor collections by Sublime Original, ceramic planters by JoinUs, super gorgeous work by studio artists Sabine Maes and Dawn Sweitzer, sumptuous throws and pillows from Uniq’uity Linens, candles and fragrance by 1889, and the most divine fringey tassletastic pendants, chandeliers, and sconces you’ve ever seen by M2C Studio. There’s always something tasty to nosh on here and if you’re lucky, Tom might share his vibey showroom playlist. IYKYK. ✨

While you’re in the area, walk next next door to Texture and browse their unique, globally-sourced everythings (they’ve got lighting and storage and outdoor and accessories and more), and then hop on their shuttle carts to visit Schwung Home for stunning European antiques and cool little etceteras. When your mind is full of ideas and your account sufficiently drained from writing orders, you’ll know it’s time to head home for the day. Pace yourself, the market hasn’t even officially started yet……

FRIDAY

Shuttle or drive yourself out to Cisco Home and spend your morning with the lovely lovely Cisco family in their V cool former-cotton-mill-turned-showplace and mini-restaurant. I can’t get enough of the huge windows, original floors, and salvaged signage they use to effortlessly style every vignette.

If the upholstery and case goods peppered in with antiques and gorgeous rugs alone weren’t enough to draw you there, this market they’re collaborating with Adelene Simple Cloth on a line of upholstery for their Essentials Collection. You’ll want to definitely check out the new bedding line Adelene is launching this market while you’re there too—it’s a magical collection of pillows, throws, and coverlets crafted in the US with fabrics from around the world. Gorgeous gorgeous.

Adelene Simple Cloth at Cisco Home

Head back into “town” on the Go Anywhere Shuttle and have them drop you at COHAB Space to see the offerings from Blaksand and ClubCu. I’m so excited year after year to see the market expand throughout the city with year-round creative spaces and endeavors like HPxD (especially having returned from Salone which has seen so much success and growth with this same model—and yes, I am well aware that HP is not Milan, but a girl has dreams ok?).

With outposts like COHAB space and the new Congdon Yards project complete, I hope brands will see the value of investing more and more into the unique and irreplaceable experience of the showroom, especially in High Point. We are moving into (correction: we are already in it) a new era where hybridized merchandising and sales are absolute imperatives; brands must invest in BOTH a physical and virtual presence to connect in a more meaningful way with their customers.

Live events and shows like HPMKT are the yin to a brand’s digital yang. What the last few years have proven is that a hybrid or fully remote work environment and sales teams can be deployed to make a business more efficient, accessible to a larger audience, and more profitable, but we need physical interaction at events and shows to build and sustain essential industry relationships, network and engage casually with people we wouldn’t have an opportunity otherwise encounter, and to contribute to conversations about our industry through inspiring programming and presentations.

This cannot be built, maintained, or sustained only online. It’s a whole new world, and I’m excited to see how brands will evolve and transform within this hybrid context over the next few years.

Time your trip to stick around for a while in these outlier showrooms, as they usually end the day with live music and food trucks, so relax a bit and rest your feet because Saturday starts early!

SATURDAY

The music lineup is getting better and better at HPMKT

The music lineup for S24 HPMKT’s Center Stage

It’s opening day and I recommend getting started early. Grab a coffee from the 83 Custom Coffee Truck and lace up your sneakers, you’re going to want to see as many showrooms as you can. If you haven’t downloaded the HPMKT app and bookmarked brands and showrooms to visit, now’s the time. They actually have a gps feature that helps you navigate IN THE BUILDING to your next appointment which is pretty rad, and here’s a PDF map to download and keep handy on your phone.

💡 If you’re new to High Point Market (first things first, welcome!), the Insiders Tour will get you started in style. Designed by industry insiders to show you the inspirations, connections and business opportunities available here, this half-day or full-day journey will take you through some of their favorite showrooms.

You’ll meet and greet makers and influencers who move our industry forward, and learn how to use High Point as a business-building, connection-making, inspirational encounter that will boost your professional brand.

You can apply for the Insider’s Tour here (these book out fast so get in there now if you’re a NEWBIE to HPMKT 🩷) >>

Make appointments in advance, but also leave time for a few drive-bys. I always discover new brands while wandering the halls of IHFC, Showplace, C&D, Market Square, and the Suites at Market Square. And I always save time for Universal Furniture—highly highly recommend visiting their beautiful showroom early in your trip, not only do they have gorgeous collections but they are one of my favorite collaborators with Crypton Home performance fabrics.

They are also deeply committed to industry education, and their market program roster is an incredibly well considered and invaluable resource for our industry. Here’s a link to sign up for their events throughout market.

Leave it to the Cool Girls, Style Spotters, and Design Influencers to create great industry resources to help you plan ahead for showroom visits and new product launches.

For events, I recommend crafting your itinerary with this, this, or this list of events throughout the week!

💡 I’m hosting a Meetup @Market at High Point’s newest and coolest new wine bar, Nomad Wine Works, right in the heart of it all on Saturday. Stop by and enjoy a delicious glass of rose with me and Marketing School for Creatives alumni.

RSVP here >>

SUNDAY

This year, Sunday is all about education! I won’t list them all here, but BOH has created a great roundup of tours you can peruse and sign up for if you’d like a more personal, guided exploration of new-to-you showrooms.

👉 Here are three exciting panel discussions to add to your schedule…

Sunday 11am | From the Ground Up! How to build the business of your dreams at the Unique Loom Showroom (RSVP here >>)

Sunday 2pm | The Role of Media in Shaping Client Expectations at Universal Furniture’s Learning Center (RSVP here >>)

Monday 9am | Mastering Brand Collaborations that Pay Off at Hooker Furniture’s Designer Theater (RSVP here >>)

MONDAY

What’s my name? Where am I?

This is typically how I feel on Monday mornings after the already long week in High Point, so I tend to take it easy, reserving Monday for educational and networking events to recharge or to explore showrooms I haven’t had a chance yet to see.

My standing room only Social Storytelling panel discussion at Spring HPMKT 2021

Later in the day, I’ll make my way east past Market Square to see what’s new at EJ Viktor, Eliko, and Lee Industries, finishing the day with a visit to the Market Square Textile Tower to see what gorgeousness Libeco is launching this season, and then walk down the creaky but Instagrammable bridge to Market Square to visit the Antique and Design Center.

New to HPMKT and not to miss while you’re in the area is the buzzy Shoppe Object, located on the third floor of High Point’s Historic Market Square, the show focuses on home décor and furnishings and features more than 100 curated brands, with Shoppe Object’s reverence for the innovative, the beautiful, and the well-made front and center.

Shoppe Object returns to HPMKT

To wrap the day, I’ll text a few friends and see if they are nearby and ready for a cocktail, always hoping and wishing that someone will restore the old Boiler Room so I have a place to reminisce about my days as an extra in the movie Hellraiser 3 that was shot in that very bar years and years ago…

Market Square in High Point

TUESDAY

We’re nearing the finish line, and by Tuesday I’m usually completely exhausted, so it’s a day I usually plan to circle back to showrooms I didn’t get to see or discover if time ran out earlier in the week, chat a bit longer with sales reps now that the crowds are leaving, or to shop for accessories from the cash and carry vendors at the Suites at Market Square.

AND THAT’S A WRAP.

See you in High Point!

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